Northern Rock: Branson takes pole position is the lead in the Guardain this morning

Northern Rock will name Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group as the most suitable bidder to assume control of the stricken bank, it emerged last night.
Virgin, which heads a consortium of financial institutions, will have a clear run to buy the bank after bosses at Northern Rock and the government agreed its bid should be preferred over rival offers.
An announcement is expected as early as today. Treasury plans to nationalise the bank are believed to be held in reserve should the deal break down.

But the papers this morning have a variety of headlines.The Times follows up yesterday's Mail on Sunday exposure claiming

Labour admits secret cash may be illegal

Labour is facing questions on whether a series of donations amounting to more than £380,000 breached the law by using intermediaries to shield the identity of a major donor.
David Abrahams, a wealthy property developer, yesterday admitted he used “friends and colleagues” to give substantial sums to Labour over four years in order to avoid publicity.
The episode threatens to reignite the controversy over donations to Labour after the year-long police inquiry into whether the party sold peerages to wealthy supporters, which ended with no charges being brought but cost millions of pounds.

The Mirror exposes another government blunder on its front page

Benefits blunder No2

A dad got a letter of apology from civil servants over the lost data fiasco - filled with private information about another parent.
Stuart Gray, 35, stared in disbelief at the name, national insurance number and child benefit code of a mum who lived at his house five years ago.
He said: "It's outrageous. How can we have faith in these people?" Stuart, of Southampton, now fears HM Revenue and Customs staff have sent countless other letters to the wrong addresses.

The Times reports that

Judges’ details ‘posted on unencrypted discs’

The Times has been told that at least ten discs holding personal information about millions of people — not two discs as originally suggested — have yet to be accounted for after they had been sent from Revenue and Customs’ offices.
The Government was forced to begin a separate investigation last night after a businessman claimed that he was posted two discs containing highly sensitive information about judges, barristers and solicitors.


The Mail is concerned about the rising Polish birthrate

The Polish baby boom: Fears for NHS and schools as 1,000 Polish children are born EVERY month

Hospitals and schools are struggling to cope with a huge influx of Eastern European children, new figures show.
The number of Polish babies born in UK hospitals has almost quadrupled since the 2004 EU expansion.
On current trends, there will be more than 13,000 such births this year, costing the NHS more than £20million.
In addition, more than 240,000 Eastern European children have arrived in Britain's schools - with head teachers warning that some are now close to breaking point.

And the Express reports on

OUTRAGE OVER CANCER CHAOS

CANCER patients may be dying because of a huge variation in spending across primary care trusts.
Some areas spend three times as much as others on each sufferer, with differences of up to £12,000 per head across the country, it emerged yesterday.
The Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said patients in some areas are not being given the quality and quantity of treatment available to others elsewhere – and they could die as a result.

The Independent previews the peace talks in Maryland titling them

Mission impossible?

This week will see George Bush make his first, and almost certainly his only, major attempt to bring an end to the world's most intractable conflict. As participants gather for tomorrow's Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, the spotlight is on the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Saudis – but the most important consideration lies closer to home: how will President Bush fare in a belated attempt to play peacemaker

Syria agrees to attend Middle East talks reports the Telegraph

Ending weeks of uncertainty, Syria's official news service said that Faysal Mekdad would attend the talks after receiving confirmation that there would be an opportunity to discuss the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Syria claims, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

It though returns to the economy for its lead

Average Briton is now £33,000 in debt

Families are stretched to the limit of their borrowing capacity, with personal debt having almost doubled since the turn of the century, an independent report warns today.As borrowers default on their debts in growing numbers and banks and building societies try to recoup their losses, annual fees on credit cards will become standard, the report says. These would equate to up to £30 a year.

Many of the papers report on the decison of the Oxford Union to invite David Irving to talk

'Awful, abhorrent' - but Oxford insists the debate must go on says the Guardian

Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather outside the Oxford Union today to demand that the convicted Holocaust denier David Irving and BNP leader Nick Griffin are excluded from a debate on free speech.
Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, yesterday branded the invitation a disgrace, and anti-fascism campaigners, who fear members of the far right will also come to the city, claimed the safety of students could be at risk.

Critics line up to attack Oxford Union over 'free speech' debate says the Indy whilst the Telegraph reports

MP quits Oxford Union in BNP row

Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, turned in the membership he has held for 37 years following the Union's controversial invitation. He said he was "ashamed" of the students' decision. Others attacked the invitation as "juvenile provocation" and a "festival of anti-Semitism".

Attorney-General set to scupper plans to make gay hate a crime reports the Times

Government plans to criminalise the stirring up of hatred against gays and lesbians are in disarray because of a Cabinet split over the need for such a law.
The split – between Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Attorney-General, and Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary – are likely to scupper plans for a new offence

Brown to endorse new generation of nuclear power claims the Guardian

Gordon Brown will call for an acceleration of nuclear power today in a speech to business leaders designed to show he is focused on the long term and will not buckle in the face of negative headlines.
During his annual address to the Confederation of British Industry, the prime minister will also give his personal endorsement of the third runway project at Heathrow.

Battered Brown battles back says the Sun

GORDON Brown will today try to kickstart his battered Premiership with a revolution in transport and nuclear power.
The PM will hint at a 2010 election, insisting he is focused on Britain’s long term future.
He wants to send a clear signal he will not be blown off course by the mounting problems he faces. And he will make it clear the Blair years are finally behind him.

The papers have time to reflect on the Labor victory in Australia

Howard era comes to a close as Rudd sets Australia on new path says the Independent

Mr Rudd,a former diplomat, was already setting Australia on a new course. He said he had reassured George Bush that the Australia-US military alliance would remain a centrepiece of the country's foreign policy. But it seems likely that he also discussed with Mr Bush his intention to stage a gradual withdrawal of Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq.
Mr Rudd spoke to Gordon Brown and the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, about his plans to ratify the Kyoto protocol and attend a key UN climate change conference in Bali next month. Mr Howard had refused to sign up to the agreement on capping carbon emissions.

The Times reports that

Australia may say farewell to Queen

Australia will hold a referendum on removing the Queen as head of state after Kevin Rudd, the Labor leader and a staunch republican, swept to power at the weekend, bringing an end to 11 years of Conservative rule.

The Guardian reports from Pakistan where

Musharraf's troubles deepen as Sharif makes triumphant return

The return of another political heavyweight on the heels of Benazir Bhutto last month spells fresh trouble for Musharraf, who appears increasingly unpopular and isolated since declaring emergency rule three weeks ago. The two men have been bitter rivals since 1999, when Musharraf ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup, and the general apparently allowed him home yesterday with great reluctance.


The Telegraph reports from France where

Boys' moped deaths ignite riot in Paris suburb

Molotov cocktails were thrown, and cars and plastic bins set on fire following the tragedy in Tolinette, a notoriously crime-ridden district of Villiers-le-Bel, some 20 miles north of the centre of the French capital.
One police station was set alight and another, in a neighbouring suburb, was ransacked after youths threw cocktails, and set bins alight and upturned cars.

Back to the Uk and football returns to the front page of the Sun

Oh no its Cro says the paper

ENGLAND will have to avoid humiliation against Borat’s Kazakhstan to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
And amazingly they were made favourites last night to top their group despite our duds having to face Croatia all over again.
Steven Gerrard’s men were also drawn against minnows Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus and Andorra in Group Six.

Revenge mission for England says the Telegraph

7,000-MILE EURO QUALIFYING TREK Revenge and the land of Borat await manager chosen to lead us out of the wilderness says the Mirror

Staying with the paper it reports

Maddy's in perfect hiding place..alive

Madeleine McCann was snatched to order and is alive in the "perfect" hideout of Morocco, private detectives said yesterday.
The disclosure came as two new witnesses said they saw a man and woman resembling suspect Robert Murat and girlfriend Michaela Walczuch acting suspiciously at the complex where Madeleine vanished.

And today's crop of headlines on Maddy include

the Express

MCCANNS ‘SPOILED CRUCIAL EVIDENCE’

KATE and Gerry McCann wrecked the chances of solving the mystery of their daughter’s disappearance by destroying evidence at their holiday apartment, a senior policeman has claimed.

And the Mail

Portuguese police 'believed Kate and Gerry sold Madeleine to paedophiles'

Police investigated whether Kate and Gerry McCann could have sold their daughter to paedophiles, it has been claimed.
Portuguese detectives thought the couple might have sold Madeleine to a criminal network to ease money worries, according to sources.
They spent "several days" investigating but the wild theory fell apart when they realised the couple were wealthy.

The Guardian reports that

MI6 seeks budding Bonds through Radio 1

The Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, is mounting a recruitment drive this week to attract budding James Bonds, though without the licence to kill.
Like its sister agency, the domestic Security Service, MI5, it wants, in the words of an official, to "broaden its staff base" to "better reflect the ethnicity of the community we serve".
To get its message across, MI6 has chosen Radio 1's Newsbeat programme. This week listeners will hear young MI6 staff, including a female Muslim officer, talk about the lives of those responsible for gathering secret intelligence "relating to the actions and intentions of persons overseas".

Finally to the Mail which reports

'Smoking turns men bald', new research claims

The habit is already linked to more than 50 different diseases including lung cancer, heart disease and impotence.
Now, research has shown that puffing on cigarettes may worsen age-related hair loss in men.
Male pattern baldness, which affects two-thirds of men as they grow older, is known to be partly caused by male sex hormones.