The Guardian leads with

Banks act on meltdown fear as economics dominates the papers

The Bank of England joined four other big central banks around the world yesterday in emergency action that will see £50bn injected in to the world money markets in a move designed to prevent the worsening credit crunch derailing the world economy.
In an unprecedented move, which the City said revealed how serious the problems in financial markets had become, central banks offered huge sums of money to commercial banks in an attempt to get them to start lending to each other again.


Banks offer billions to fend off recession says the Times

In a move praised by Gordon Brown in an exclusive interview with The Times, the Bank joined a group led by the US Federal Reserve in plans to dampen pressures on markets that threaten to drive up interest rates for households and companies around the world.

Police call for Jacqui Smith to resign says the Telegraph as the police pay crisis continues

Gordon Brown has been dragged into a damaging confrontation with rank-and-file police officers over pay as they called for the Home Secretary to resign.
Jan Berry, the federation chairman, said: "I don't remember such a call by the Police Federation being made previously but I also don't remember a Home Secretary who has betrayed the police service in the way that this Home Secretary has

The Independent says that

Jacqui Smith has provoked mutiny within the police service, and dismay among her Labour colleagues, by phasing in their promised 2.5 per cent pay increase, effectively cutting it to 1.9 per cent.
The Police Federation passed a vote of no confidence in Ms Smith and will ballot members on whether rules banning them from taking industrial action should be scrapped.

And more problems for the Home Office as the Guardian reports on

Reprimand for Met's former terror chief

The former head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit will be reprimanded for his role in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said last night.
Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, who resigned last week from the Metropolitan police's specialist operations directorate, will receive a verbal warning for his actions after the shooting of the Brazilian electrician who was mistaken for a suicide bomber

And in the Times which asks

Why is Home Office trying to stage murder trial in secret?

The Home Secretary is seeking to have the trial of a man accused of murdering a prize-winning author held in secret because the defendant may have links with British Intelligence, The Times has learnt.
Jacqui Smith has signed a “public interest immunity” certificate to have some or all of the trial for the murder of Allan Chappelow, the author of several books on the playwright George Bernard Shaw, held in camera. The highly unusual move is thought to be the first where such a “gagging order” has been sought in a murder trial.

Brown signs EU Treaty as experts warn Britain will surrender control of immigration says the Mail

Gordon Brown will later today put pen to paper on the EU Treaty, despite new evidence which shows the controversial document will surrender almost all control of Britain's immigration.
Buried in the Treaty's small print is a ruling that gives new rights to EU leaders to overturn decisions made by Britain's Immigration and Asylum Tribunal.
Thousands of failed asylum seekers will now be able to take their cases to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg where the final say will be handed to unselected bureaucrats in Brussels.

Gordon Gives up migrant control says the Sun

GORDON Brown signs the hated EU treaty TODAY — despite an eleventh-hour bombshell that it means surrendering control of Britain’s immigration policy.
The warning was issued to the PM last night as he prepared to wave the white flag over our right to make our own laws.

But the Mirror reports

Record employment figures

Gordon Brown yesterday hailed the UK's employment record after figures showed people claiming job-related benefits had fallen to a 32-year low.
The Prime Minister told the Commons last month's unemployment figures were the "best in history".
Those claiming jobseeker's allowance fell by 11,100 in November to 813,000, the lowest since 1975.


Aghanistan makes many of the news pages

Army recruitment stepped up in Afghanistan reports the Telegraph

Senior military figures believe that British troops could be in Afghanistan in large numbers for up to a decade, raising worries about the pressure on the over-stretched Army. It is also believed that the force in Iraq is being rapidly reduced in order to maintain a steady supply of troops for Afghanistan, where almost 8,000 are deployed.

‘SPIN’ CLAIM OVER BROWN’S BID TO BEAT THE TALIBAN says the Express

Gordon Brown yesterday unveiled his plan to divide and conquer the Taliban.


He paved the way for British troops one day taking a back seat in war- torn Afghanistan and leaving the bulk of the fighting to the Afghan army.
The Prime Minister un-veiled a strategy designed to split hardline Taliban leaders from the bulk of their fighters, locals who fight as much for money as ideology.



Karzai 'already in talks with allies of former Taliban leader' reports the Independent

The Taliban's former chief spokesman has revealed that top-level talks are being held between the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and key lieutenants of the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
His disclosure that the Taliban "cabinet in exile" is engaged in negotiations appeared to contradict the statement to Parliament yesterday by Gordon Brown that hardline Taliban leaders would be isolated from talks over the future of Afghanistan.

The paper turns its attention to Russia where

Russian ban on British Council strains relations

The strained relations between Britain and Russia took another turn for the worse yesterday when the Russian authorities ordered the British Council to curtail its activities.
The council, which promotes English language teaching and cultural exchanges in Russia, vowed to ignore the order and continue working.
Relations between the two countries have been icy ever since the former Soviet state refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, wanted for the radioactive assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in November 2006. Mr Lugovoy was last week elected a member of parliament and is now immune from extradition.

Blow for Clinton as Obama takes lead in key state reports the Guardian

Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House suffered a serious setback yesterday when her main Democratic rival, Barack Obama, took a poll lead for the first time in New Hampshire, a key early state.
The latest ratings, part of a trend that has seen him narrow the gap over the last month, has rattled the Clinton team.

The Indpendent reports that

Parties compete over 'tough love' mantle as Hain unveils new plan

Plans to ensure 140,000 more lone parents return to work will be unveiled today as Labour and the Tories outline "tough love" welfare-to-work policies.
Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will say that 70,000 children will be lifted out of poverty by a shake-up designed to turn benefit claimants from "passive recipients into active job-seekers".
He will contrast Labour's "carrot and stick" approach with a more hardline stance being floated by the Opposition, modelled on "workfare" schemes in US states such as Wisconsin. Critics say mothers there of children as young as 13 months have been forced to work to avoid losing benefits.


Pill to be available over the counter says the Telegraph

Chemists could be given the power to hand out the Pill without prescription under plans unveiled by the Government yesterday.
Women and girls under 16 would be able to obtain the contraceptive after one interview with a qualified pharmacist. It would put the Pill on the same footing as the morning-after pill, which is already available without direct authorisation from a doctor.

The Times reports that

Contractors ‘sold top soil contaminated with foot-and-mouth virus’

The second wave of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey is likely to have been caused by contaminated soil from the Government’s Pirbright scientific research laboratory, an official inquiry has been told.
It is alleged that contractors working on the £121 million modernisation programme at the laboratory collected soil contaminated with live virus at the site and sold it as top soil.
Some of this was spread on land next to a farm where animals were later identified with the disease.


We may not get carbon deal, warns Benn claims the Guardian

A stand-off between the United States and Europe over carbon reduction targets should not overshadow the "significant" progress made on a new climate deal, Hilary Benn said yesterday. The environment secretary said the so-called Bali roadmap, which negotiators hope to produce tomorrow as the first step towards a new treaty, did not need a fixed target to be considered a success. He said: "Of course there are people who hoped it would all be sorted out this week. But the roadmap will give us the means to get where we want to go, and we haven't had that previously, and that's a significant step."

The front page of the Indy reports on

A miracle for Christmas

Born into a life of crime and poverty in a Kenyan slum, Sammy Gitau was foraging through a rubbish dump when he found a prospectus for Manchester University – and his dream was born. For years he studied hard, and fought for the right to come to Britain. Today he receives his Masters degree


The Telegraph reports on

The Christmas toys that parents cannot buy

Thousands of children could be left disappointed on Christmas morning as toy retailers admitted that they are struggling to meet demand for some of this year's must-have gifts.The shortage of Nintendo's Wii and DS sets has been a long-standing problem, but more traditional presents such as the Etch A Sketch are also becoming a victim of their own popularity.

There is much coverage in the tabloids as Steven Gerrard is burgled.The Mirror reports on

Steven Gerrard and Alex Curran's burglary hell

Alex Curran stared in horror at the four masked raiders trashing her home - and went cold with fear for her two young daughters asleep upstairs.
The 25-year-old wife of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was confronted by the intruders after they hammered down a back door at her £3million mansion.
They are believed to have escaped with jewellery worth thousands of pounds. It was the sixth raid in 18 months on the home of a Liverpool player. Police are linking the incidents.

Who'll kop it next says the Sun

COPS are stepping up security around the homes of Liverpool soccer stars after Steven Gerrard became the SIXTH Kop idol to be raided.

Whilst the Mail asks

Did Alex Curran tip off masked raiders by bragging of her £10,000 watch for husband Gerrard?

Hours after announcing that she had bought her husband a £10,000 Cartier watch for Christmas, the wife of England footballer Steven Gerrard was confronted by four masked burglars.
Alex Curran was at the couple's £3million mansion with a female friend, watching her husband play on TV, when they heard a noise.

And also more coverage of Maddy

MCCANNS 'GUILTY OF EXTREME NEGLIGENCE' says the front of the Express

Kate and Gerry McCann were blamed for daughter Madeleine’s disappearance by the mayor of Praia da Luz yesterday.
He accused them of “extreme negligence” in leaving Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie alone in a holiday flat as they dined out with friends.


Portuguese mayor condemns McCanns: 'They are guilty at least of abandoning Madeleine'

The backlash against Madeleine McCann's parents gathered pace as the mayor of the town from which she disappeared described the unresolved case as 'a stain' on his community.
Manuel Domingues Borba, a former policeman, said Kate and Gerry McCann were "guilty at least" of abandoning their daughter

And of the canoe man who according to the Sun planned to be a cowboy

CANOE man John Darwin planned a new life as a COWBOY after faking his death, The Sun can reveal.
Darwin, 57, secretly bought a rundown farm near an American ghost town three years ago.
He snapped up the isolated 20-acre plot after “meeting” a married Kansas housewife named Kelly on an internet gaming site. Darwin persuaded her to buy the farm — in HER name — after giving her £10,000 to make the purchase.

Finally more unchristmas cheer as the Mail reveals

Will your sickly foreign poinsettia leave you wilting by Christmas?

Their spectacular red leaves are a familiar sight in homes at this time of year.
But shoppers were warned yesterday that many poinsettias could already be dead when Christmas finally arrives.
Growers say cut-price imports of Britain's favourite Christmas pot plant - usually sourced from Holland and retailing for less than £2 per pot - can wilt within a week rather than last well into the New Year as British varieties will.