Interest rates,another revelation for Labour and the continuing story of the mising canoeist.

Pressure on Bank as house prices fall says the Times

House prices have tumbled for a third month in a row, with the average home now worth £5,000 less since August after the property market’s worst run of losses for more than a decade. The figures increased pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates today.

Bank under pressure to cut interest rates today says the Guardian

The Bank of England is under significant pressure to cut interest rates for the first time in two years today amid evidence of a sharp slowdown in the economy. House prices fell by just over 1% in November and activity in the service sector dropped to a four and a half year low.
Share prices rose yesterday on hopes of a rate cut, which would bring relief to homeowners who have seen interest rates raised five times in the past year.

And the Express leads with House prices plunge for a third month

But it is the missing canoeist that takes up the most column inches

The Mirror under the headline the game is up shows a picture of his wife

This is the dramatic moment stunned canoe wife Anne Darwin realised the Mirror had rumbled her.
Seeing our exclusive picture of her and "dead" husband John in Panama last July, Anne, 55, said: "Yes, that's him. My sons will never forgive me." John, 57, was being quizzed by police last night over a £1million fraud.
Staring in shock at the picture of her smiling with "dead" husband John, Anne Darwin knew yesterday that her desperate deceit had come home to roost.

Up the creek without a paddle says the Sun

SOBBING Anne Darwin last night admitted: “My sons are never going to forgive me - they are going to hate me.”
The wife of “back from the dead” canoeist John Darwin broke down at her lawyer’s office in Panama City following news of his arrest in Hampshire on suspicion of fraud and deception.
Anne, 55, now also faces being quizzed by British cops over life insurance, pension payouts and money transfers totalling more than £650,000.

The moment the lies had to stop says the front page of the Mail

For Anne Darwin, it was the moment she had dreaded.
When her fantasy life came crashing down yesterday, she realised the lies had to stop.
First came disbelief when she was confronted by irrefutable photographic proof.


My sons will never forgive me says the Telegraph

Anne Darwin said her life had become "a nightmare" since she was forced to admit she knew all along that her husband John Darwin was alive and well.

The Guardian leads with the story that

Labour helped Abrahams set up secret cash transfers

Labour officials helped lawyers acting for David Abrahams to draw up complex covenants that allowed the millionaire businessman to pay up to £650,000 indirectly to the party, the Guardian has learned.
The arrangement, which was set up four years ago, was regarded as a "loophole" that allowed Abrahams to lawfully pay the money and remain unidentified.
The Guardian understands it was drawn up in 2003 through John McCarthy, the Newcastle solicitor acting for Abrahams, and put to two middle-ranking Labour officials at the party's London headquarters.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

Brown leadership campaign donor is given government job

Gordon Brown is facing new sleaze allegations, over the appointment to a government post of a businessman who gave £12,700 to his leadership campaign.
The Opposition called for the sacking of Paul Myners, who is heading the Government's drive to encourage people to save for their retirement, after he attacked the Tories during a television programme.
Mr Brown was accused of misleading the public because the Government said Mr Myners had made no donations to a political party when he was appointed as chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority in July. He is paid £150,000 a year for a two-day week.

It leads though with

The real prison numbers scandal

The Government was accused yesterday of trying to build its way out of the prisons overcrowding crisis as it outlined its vision for the construction of three supersize jails which would bring the number of offenders behind bars to almost 100,000.
Despite stark reminders from penal reform experts that more people are already locked up in England and Wales than anywhere else in western Europe, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said he was pressing ahead. adding that

The £1.2bn programme brought widespread condemnation from liberal campaigners through to seasoned prison officials, with penal reformers protesting that "cavernous warehouses on green-belt land" would do nothing to rehabilitate prisoners or to enhance security in the surrounding communities. Prison governors warned that the "super-jails", which would hold 2,500 offenders each, could be vulnerable to explosive riots.

Never mind justice, now judges are told not to lock up criminals if the nation's prisons are full is the Mail's interpretation

Ten of thousands of criminals will be spared jail after the Government yesterday fought shy of building enough prisons to meet demand.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw promised to build 15,000 extra prison places by 2014, taking the total to 96,000.
The plans include up to three giant 'Titan' prisons, each holding 2,500 inmates, and the conversion of a former MoD military base in Norfolk.

At last it's time to cell-ebrate says the Sun.Meanwhile the paper reports on another government measure

UNSKILLED workers from outside the European Union will be banned from taking jobs in Britain.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled the clamp-down yesterday amid growing fears over the influx of foreigners.
And in a bid to strengthen British values among newcomers there will be CURBS on forced marriages and ENGLISH tests for foreign spouses wanting to settle here.
CRIMINALS will be banned from getting British citizenship.

Retreat on 56-day terror detentions reports the Telegraph

Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will concede that they do not have the necessary support to increase the present limit of 28 days after a public outcry over the planned rise.A "compromise arrangement" is to be proposed which would require the Home Secretary to seek the approval of Parliament if police wish to hold someone for more than 28 days

The Guardian reports that

Childcare locks women into lower-paid jobs

British women are working in lower paid and lower status jobs than their male counterparts because they still shoulder the responsibility for housework and childcare, a Cambridge University study reveals today.
A "lifestyle divide", in which women take on the burden of domestic duties, creates a vicious circle as they are then less able to work the long hours needed to win top jobs. They then earn less and are reinforced as responsible for household tasks, says the Europe-wide research.

Overhaul of primary schools as progress in 3Rs grinds to a halt reports the Times

The Government is expected to order a formal review of the primary school curriculum next week amid growing concern that progress toward national targets in the three Rs has ground to a virtual standstill.
The review, the first big overhaul of primary teaching and learning since 2000, comes as this year’s Key Stage 2 test results show that nearly three in ten 11-year-olds failed to meet expected standards for their age in English, maths and science by the time they left for secondary school this summer.

The massace of 8 people in a shoppoing mall in America was too late for the early editions but is well covered.

Omaha mall gunman: Now I’ll be famous says the Telegraph

A teenager who opened fire on a bustling Nebraska shopping mall with an assault rifle, killing eight and wounding five, left a suicide note predicting: “now I’ll be famous”. Robert Hawkins, a high school drop out who friends described as depressed, also wrote that he was "sorry for everything" and would no longer be a burden to his family.

Gunman kills eight as Christmas shopping is turned into bloodbath says the Times

Christmas shoppers at a department store in Omaha, Nebraska, fled in terror yesterday as a young man opened fire from a balcony, killing eight people and wounding five before turning the gun on himself. Two of the injured were in a critical condition last night.

GUN NUT KILLS EIGHT AFTER BUSH SPEECH says the Mirror

A crazed gunman shot eight people dead before killing himself in a crowded shopping mall last night - an hour after President Bush gave a speech nearby.

EU leaders say Mugabe's presence will not derail talks reports the Independent

European leaders have vowed to prevent Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, from overshadowing the first EU-Africa summit in seven years when leaders from the two continents meet in Lisbon tomorrow.
Gordon Brown is boycotting the two-day summit after calling for Mr Mugabe to be turned away because of human rights abuses and economic collapse in the southern African state.

The Guardian reports that

British GCHQ eavesdropping played role in US intelligence U-turn on Iran

The US intelligence U-turn on Iran was partly based on telephone conversations in Iran intercepted by the British intelligence listening station GCHQ, according to a source in Washington speaking on a basis of anonymity.
In an updated assessment of Iran published on Monday, the US intelligence agencies concluded that the country had ceased work on a nuclear weapons programme four years ago, in contrast with its assessment in 2005 that the country was pushing ahead with its weapons programme.

The Times reveals that

Illegal migrant gardeners dig big hole for Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, whose intolerance of illegal immigrants has been a central theme of his presidential campaign, was caught out for a second time employing undocumented Guatemalans to tend his lawn.
The revelation was an embarrassing setback for Mr Romney and a reflection of how the subject of illegal immigration has become one of the most perilous for Republican and Democrat candidates. The issue badly damaged John McCain's campaign and caused Hillary Clinton significant trouble last month.

and staying with the American elections the Telegraph reports

Barack Obama's wife storms US campaign trail

Michelle Obama is now drawing huge crowds in New Hampshire, the second state to have its say on who should represent the party in next year's election.
While Mr Obama has overtaken his rival Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the first state to vote, aides believe that the Illinois senator's wife has the charisma and oratory to put him in front in New Hampshire.

The Indpendent meanwhile reports that

Legal action by inmates could close Guantanamo

More than 300 terror suspects still held at Guantanamo Bay began a legal battle yesterday to have their cases heard before a civilian court, in a test case that could bring about the closure of the infamous detention camp.
Lawyers and human rights groups argue that if US judges rule in favour of the inmates, the Bush administration will be forced to end the controversial regime imposed at the American naval base in Cuba, opened in 2002 to house "enemy combatants" captured during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Back to the Uk and the Mail tells us

Why the pensioners of 1950 were better off than today's

Pensioners have less to spend today than in 1950, according to latest figures published.

They show the basic state pension is currently just 15.9 per cent of the average wage, compared to 18.4 per cent 57 years ago.
In 1980, when Mrs Thatcher was in power, the pension was worth even more 24.4 per cent of the weekly wage.

The Express reports that

HEART PATIENTS TOLD TO HAVE FLU JAB

Experts have urged people with heart disease to have the flu jab after a new study showed that recent respiratory infections increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, both of which are more common in winter.
Researchers found a doubling of risk of both heart attack and stroke in the week following respiratory infection, which reduced over time so that there was little excess risk beyond one month

The Telegraph reports on the

£250,000 wasted on M25 traffic cone trial

Motorists have complained after the Highways Agency wasted more than £250,000 on an M25 congestion experiment that created an artificial traffic jam with plastic cones.The trial was supposed to improve traffic flow but has actually resulted in longer journey times.However, since the cones were put in place major queues have built up on the slip road and some drivers have seen their journey times extended by 45 minutes. The Highways Agency has now accepted the trial was a failure and said it plans to remove the plastic cones immediately.

Finally the Sun has solved a mystery

Real Da Vinci code uncovered

ART buffs reckon they have uncovered a real-life Da Vinci Code hidden in the painter’s masterpieces.They have uncovered a series of mysterious faces and secret images which emerge when Leonardo Da Vinci’s priceless works are looked at in MIRRORS.
In Dan Brown’s multi-million selling book The Da Vinci Code, art historian Robert Langdon tackles a murder case by solving clues buried in the Italian master’s paintings.