Another Lib-Dem leadership election and fears for the mddle class drinkers are the main headlines this morning

Plotters force out Campbell says the Guardian

Sir Menzies Campbell was forced to quit as leader of the Liberal Democrats last night after losing the support of senior MPs concerned by the party's declining poll ratings.
He resigned with immediate effect and left for his home in Edinburgh without speaking to the parliamentary party - leaving its president, Simon Hughes, and deputy leader, Vince Cable, to announce his departure to the public. He is believed to have told staff that he did not think he could turn around his or the Lib Dems' standing in the polls.

Merciless: How the Lib Dems hounded out their leader (again) is front page of the Independent

Sir Menzies, a respected elder statesman of British politics, rebuilt his party's morale and its machine as it recovered from the trauma of forcing out Mr Kennedy over his drink problem. But it was eclipsed by the battle between Gordon Brown and David Cameron and slumped to 12 per cent in opinion polls, its lowest ratings for six years.

Lib Dems force out Campbell in panic over polls says the Telegraph

After a string of desperate poll showings - the worst put his party on just 10 per cent - MPs moved to oust their leader. His removal shocked Westminster for its savage and swift nature.
At a meeting of MPs Mr Campbell tried to rally support but found there were too few colleagues willing to back him. He then took the decision to stand down.

He's not Minging any more says the Sun

Both the Times and the Mail lead with the same story

Hazardous Drinking the middle class vice says the Times

Drinkers in middle-class areas are more likely routinely to consume “hazardous” amounts of alcohol than those in poorer areas, research published today shows.
Social drinkers who regularly down more than one large glass of wine a day will be told they risk damaging their health in the same way as young binge drinkers.
The figures will be used by the Government to target middle-class wine drinkers and to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking.

The Mail reporting that

A league table of local authority areas ranked by how many people consume alcohol at "hazardous" levels is dominated by leafy towns boasting the highest house prices in the country. Seven of the top ten areas are in Surrey. Also at the top of the table is the North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate.

Middle class are biggest abusers of alcohol says the Telegraph

Harrogate, North Yorks, and Runnymede, Surrey Heath, Guildford and Mole Valley, all in Surrey, are the worst culprits – with up to one in four residents consuming more than three bottles of wine a week.

Hospitals death scandal claims new victim as trust chief quits reports the Times

The departing chairman of a hospital trust at the centre of an infection scandal has called for a “root and branch” review of all aspects of nursing across the NHS, in an astonishing letter of resignation.
James Lee, the chairman of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, yesterday became the latest victim of the scandal following the damning report released last week which found that Clostridium difficile infections had caused the deaths of 90 patients at the trust over a two-year period.
Mr Lee offered his resignation by letter to the Health Secretary, which Alan Johnson, in a statement to the House of Commons, later announced had been accepted.

The Independent reports on the latest moves in the Middle East peace process

Olmert hints Israel may be willing to split up Jerusalem

Mr Olmert's tentative – and reversible – step towards a possible compromise on the future of the city, an essential requirement for any final two-state solution to the conflict, was the first he has personally made in public.
It came as the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, went out of her way to emphasise that the forthcoming Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland – which she sees as a stepping stone to full negotiations on a final deal – needed to be substantive. "Frankly, it is time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," she said after meeting the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

US presses Palestinians and Israel to find common ground reports the Guardian

Frankly it is time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Ms Rice said. "The US sees the establishment of a Palestinian state, a two-state solution, as absolutely essential to the future... We have got quite a long time to go but we are not going to tire until I have given my last ounce of energy and my last moment in office."

The same paper reports from China where

Growth is not our only goal, Hu tells Chinese

In a speech that will set China's direction for the next five years, Mr Hu spoke of the need to address the problems of environmental degradation, political corruption and income inequality between the rich cities on the eastern seaboard and villages in the poor western interior.

A speed camera on every corner to enforce new 20mph limit says the Mail

Hundreds of speed cameras should be put up to enforce a reduced urban limit of 20mph, says an influential road safety group.
It also calls for a blitz on motorists more likely to cause accidents - such as fat drivers who are prone to dozing off and elderly drivers who may no longer be safe behind the wheel.

The Telegraph says that

The news comes as the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts) published its report calling for sweeping changes to reduce the number of people killed and injured on roads.
It called for the cameras to be approved for use in speed zones under 30mph and said the cameras were seen as safer and more car-friendly than speed humps.
Pacts said humps and chicanes led to an increase in vehicle emissions and proved expensive and unpopular.

Inquiry ordered after taxiing planes collide at Heathrow reports the Guardian

An investigation was launched last night into how two planes collided on the runway at Heathrow airport. No one sustained serious injuries in the incident, but all passengers on the aircraft were evacuated and transported to the terminal building where they had to board alternative flights.
BAA, the Spanish-owned operator of Heathrow, confirmed that there had been an incident shortly after 10pm. "There are no reported injuries and passengers are in the process of being uplifted from the aircraft," a spokesman said.

The Independent follows up its lead from yesterday

Former prisons inspector backs call to legalise drugs

A senior police officer's call for the legalisation of all drugs, including heroin, has been backed by a former chief inspector of prisons.
Lord Ramsbotham argued that the huge number of people in jail with a drug problem proved that current policy, based on "prohibition", was not working

Adding

Lord Ramsbotham said: "The present regime has failed in every way. If you look at prohibition of alcohol in the US, it failed. The Chief Constable's suggestions must be considered seriously. We've got to stop the dealers who cause so much misery for society."

Report cards 'should replace degrees' reports the Telegraph

Traditional degree grades should be scrapped under plans to give students a detailed "report card" when they graduate, a major review has said.The 200-year-old system of first, second and third-class degrees would be replaced with a two-page sheet of paper giving a comprehensive list of students' achievements.

LET OFF FOR RAPISTS is the lead in the Sun

RAPISTS and dangerous thugs are set to get shorter jail terms under shock new plans to ease prison overcrowding.
Ministers want to restrict the future use of Labour’s flagship open-ended sentences – which were meant to protect the public from violent criminals.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw faces a backlash after leaked documents revealed the plan.


Meanwhile many of the papers report on the

Sex attacker preyed on women for four years after blunder

A serial sex attacker who remained free to terrorise women for four years because of a police DNA blunder was jailed for life yesterday. Mark Campbell, 38, from Chichester, West Sussex, was convicted of six attacks, including two rapes, which began in February 1998 and ended in August 2004.
He could have been stopped in 2002 when he was arrested over another allegation and a DNA sample was taken from him. However, police failed to send the sample to be tested until 2006, after a case review of the attacks. says the Guardian

The Mirror leads with the Diana enquiry

Diana crash witness saw 'major flash of light'

A French witness saw a blinding flash of light directed at the Mercedes carrying Princess Diana on the night she died, the inquest into her death heard today.
The motorist was in the tunnel when he saw a motorcycle overtake Diana’s car and then “a major white flash” directed back at the Mercedes driven by Henri Paul.
Francois Levistre was driving in front of the Mercedes when the fatal crash happened in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

As does the Express

I SAW ‘HITMAN CAUSE CRASH’

He told the jury the bike stopped and the pillion passenger walked over to the wrecked car, inspected it then signalled like a referee when a boxer is out for the count.
The passenger, dressed like the rider all in black, then signalled that they needed to move quickly out of the Alma tunnel in Paris, the inquest in London heard.


The Indy adds

Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed, has claimed that a blinding flash may have been used by rogue British agents in a murder plot orchestrated by Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

On theback of yesterday's reports on dentists the Sun finds a women who performed her own DIY dentistry


DESPERATE Susannah Houghton ripped out a rotten tooth with her false nails because she could not get to see a dentist.
The mum-of-four resorted to DIY this month after NHS staff told her she was not an emergency.
Susannah, 39, could not eat, sleep or even talk with the pain.
Staff at her local out-of-hours centre in Bury said she was not a priority as she had not been in pain for 48 hours.



The

Woman fends off great white shark in Australia is widely reported

Linda Whitehurst, 52, feared the 10ft shark would bite off her legs when it attacked her in the waters off the popular resort of Byron Bay in New South Wales.
"I thought, 'I'm in so much trouble.' I was sure I'd lose a foot, a leg, an arm," said Mrs Whitehurst, an American nurse living in Byron Bay.
Her husband, Glen, saw the great white lunge at the back of her 18ft-long surf ski and tip her into the sea.
"It gripped the back of the boat in its teeth and shook it until she came off," he said.
The shark then turned and came in for the attack.
But Mrs Whitehurst used her paddle to fight it off, gashing her arm on its teeth.


reports the Telegraph

Fianlly the Guardian reports that

Half of Europe's bank robberies happen in Italy

Just as robbing banks loses its appeal among Europe's criminal classes, Italy's small-time crooks have proved the exception by attempting just over 3,000 robberies last year, 57% of the European total.
New figures released by the Italian banking union FIBA showed Lombardy in northern Italy was a favourite haunt of masked bandits, with 640 successful robberies compared to 274 in Sicily.