Don't let them kill Democracy says the front of the Mirror

The day democracy died says the Sun

Thirty seconds from death says the Mail with a final picture of the former Pakistani Prime Minister.

All the papers carry the same front page news as Benazir Bhutto is assassinated

The assassination of the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last night triggered violent convulsions across the country, casting grave doubts on elections scheduled for January 8 as well as marking a dark finale to a tragedy-strewn life.
Angry scenes erupted in cities across the country, where enraged supporters torched businesses and trains, attacked police and blocked roads with burning tyres. Gunfire rang out on the streets of Karachi, the port city where Bhutto spent much of her life. reports the Guardian

The Telegraph reports that

Miss Bhutto, 54, an iconic politician who had twice served as prime minister, was killed as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
Witnesses described how a man opened fire on Miss Bhutto as she stood through the sunroof of a car, hitting her in the throat and chest.
Seconds later, he detonated a bomb, leaving Miss Bhutto critically injured and dozens of her followers killed or wounded. Police said that 16 others died in the blast

The Independent says

Pakistan is not new to political assassinations, a red vein of violence runs through its brief history. Yet, there was a cruel symmetry about Ms Bhutto's death coming in the same garrison town where her father was executed nearly three decades ago.

Benazir Bhutto: Oxford party girl cursed by blood-soaked family dynasty says the Mail

She was glamorous, clever and undeniably brave, though to her many critics she was also "the diva of corruption".
As a jet- setting, western- educated woman and a democrat, Benazir Bhutto was certainly an affront to the radical Islamists who prefer bombs to ballot boxes. But there were other, powerful enemies too.

World mourns Mum and Martyr says the Sun

GORDON Brown yesterday led a horrified world in condemning the bloody murder of charismatic Benazir Bhutto.
The PM was echoed by US President George W Bush as he saluted the bravery of the charismatic lipstick-wearing Muslim mum.
Both slammed the terrorists behind the assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister as “cowards”.

List of suspects but few clues says the Guardian

The most obvious suspects must be religious militants. The very nature of the attack, death by shooting and a suicide bombing in a public place with many casualties, seems to point the finger. There were death threats before Bhutto touched down in Pakistan in mid-October. One Taliban commander threatened to send a squad of suicide bombers to kill her. Other militants made similar threats, saying she was a target because of her perceived close relationship with the west and with the US in particular.

The Independent in its leading article says

There was an appalling sense of inevitability about the death of Benazir Bhutto at an election rally in Rawalpindi. The risk she had taken in returning to Pakistan was brutally apparent from the moment her plane touched down. The failed attempt on her life during the interminable procession that day showed how inadequate her protection would be if she continued her campaign. That she did so nonetheless showed admirable, if perhaps foolhardy, courage. An accursed symmetry had it that she died yesterday in the same garrison city where her deposed father was executed. Her quest to avenge his death and return elected government to Pakistan came to naught.

Elsewhere in the papers dominated by the news,the Telegraph reports that

Credit crunch set to push up bankruptcies

With banks increasingly unwilling to lend to any consumer with a poor credit history, 10,000 people every month will find themselves unable to make ends meet.The prediction comes from the accountancy firm KPMG, which forecasts that 130,000 people will next year either be declared bankrupt or take out an individual voluntary arrangement - a less stringent form of bankruptcy.

According to the Times

Teachers 'quitting profession in droves'

Teachers are leaving the profession in increasing numbers, with a quarter of a million no longer working in schools, according to figures published by the Conservatives yesterday.
More than twice as many teachers aged under 60 quit their jobs between 2000 and 2005 than in the previous five years.

Double-death couple let down by system, say their children reports the Guardian

The family of a woman who was stabbed to death by her mentally ill husband, who then killed himself by driving his car into a tree, said yesterday that their parents had been let down by the system.

Wife killed by mentally ill husband told police days earlier she feared for her life reports the Mail

A pensioner who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death by her mentally ill husband told police she feared for her safety days before the attack.
Susan Goswell, 63, told officers of her grave concerns after her husband Roger was released from the private Priory Hospital on December 17th.

The cancer life saver reports the Express

BRITISH scientists have discovered how to stop cancer cells spreading around the body.
The breakthrough could lead to new drugs which will prevent secondary tumours developing.
Cancer is responsible for a quarter of all deaths in the UK – more than 150,000 a year.
For the first time researchers have identified a protein which can keep cancer cells anchored in one place.


Many of the papers report on the latest Footy scandal.

The Sun reports

NEWCASTLE star Joey Barton was in custody early this morning after being charged over a Boxing Day booze session which ended in an alleged assault.
The England midfielder had been quizzed with another man and a woman after two men were left injured following a 5am attack.
One alleged victim, a 20-year-old, was initially said to be unconscious and not breathing as he lay slumped in Liverpool city centre. But his condition improved before paramedics arrived and took him to hospital.

Christmas quad bike girl, 7, killed in head-on crash with Range Rover reports the Mail

A girl of seven died after being allowed on to the road driving a quad bike her parents gave her for Christmas.
Elizabeth Cooke was following behind her father's Range Rover in the dark when she lost control and swerved into the path of another Range Rover.

Paris Hilton's inheritance goes to charity reports the Telegraph

The future fortune of Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress, has taken a hit after her grandfather said that he would give 97 per cent of his $2.3 billion (£1.15 billion) wealth to charity.Barron Hilton, 80, whose father Conrad founded the Hilton Hotel chain in 1919, will donate most of his fortune to the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. Only three per cent - $69 million - will be left to his heirs.

Other news from abroad and the Indy reports

Kenyans vote amid fears of rigging

Chaos at polling stations and small pockets of violence failed to dampen enthusiasm across Kenya yesterday as the country went to the polls in one of the closest elections Africa has ever witnessed.
Opinion polls have put the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and his challenger, the former political prisoner, Raila Odinga neck and neck – with most just giving Mr Odinga the edge and predicting that Mr Kibaki will be the first president to be ousted at the ballot box in the east African country.

Daughter held over Christmas murders of six of her family reports the Times

A woman and her boyfriend have been arrested in the American Pacific Northwest after the Christmas Eve killings of three generations of her family.
Six people were shot in an apparent row over money at a single-storey wooden house at the end of an untarred road in Carnation, a rural town of 2,000 about 20 miles from Seattle.



National Archives release secret files of 1977 reports the Telegraph

The Queen's private secretary intervened in the publication of a minister's diaries, fearing his disclosures could embarrass the monarch.The diaries of Richard Crossman, covering his time in Harold Wilson's first government, were a recurring headache for officialdom in the 1970s. His exposure of Whitehall incompetence inspired fear and loathing, not to mention the BBC series Yes Minister

Finally from the same files,the Mirror reports on

Thatcher's hell in 'Fawlty Towers'

Margaret Thatcher kept getting locked in a US hotel room loo.
Husband Denis also suffered the indignity of being trapped by a door handle that did not work.
She had no hairdresser or dress presser. And poor laundry facilities saw her secretary doing her washing at the home of British Consul General Roy Fox.
But Maggie, then the leader of the opposition, treated her Fawlty Towers-style stay in Houston, Texas, in October 1977 "as a joke", says Mr Fox in National Archives papers made public for the first time yesterday under the 30-year rule.