More bad news on the economy and the jailing of Conrad Black in the papers this morning

Consumer pain looms with banks to hike credit cost says the Times

Millions of people are set for their biggest ever financial hangover in the new year as the squeeze on money markets hits households across Brtitain.
City analysts gave warning that the last three weeks of November were the worst on record in the credit market as banks refused to lend each other money. Experts predict that this anxiety will be passed on to consumers next month in the form of steep rises in borrowing charges.

Food prices rising at highest rate for 14 years says the Telegraph

Increasing wheat and dairy prices mean food factories are having to pay 6.6 per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the highest annual rise since 1993, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).These increases will inevitably be passed to consumers, and economists warned that families would have to face even higher prices next year while having to cope with other rising living costs as the credit crisis starts to bite.

The Independent reporting that

Charities feel the pinch as donations drop.

Chastened by an impending economic downturn and with their consciences unpricked by major disasters, Britons this year gave £200m less to good causes than in 2006, sparking concern that charities will have to cut their budgets in the face of decreasing donations from a falling number of donors.
An annual report on how much people in Britain give to charity has revealed for the first time a significant drop in the numbers prepared to put their hands in their pockets, causing a 3 per cent fall in donations to £9.5bn. The largest drops in giving came from people aged between 25 and 44.


But it is the jailing of Conrad Black which dominates the front pages

The final humiliation says the same paper

Conrad Black, the newspaper tycoon whose ownership of The Daily Telegraph won him the keys to the British establishment and a seat in the House of Lords, was handed a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence yesterday while still protesting he is innocent of the fraud and obstruction of justice charges against him.

'No one is above the law' says the Guardian

Conrad Black was sentenced yesterday to six and a half years in an American prison for abusing shareholders' trust through a sophisticated plot to embezzle $6.1m from his Hollinger media empire.
At Chicago's federal court, Judge Amy St Eve told the former owner of the Daily Telegraph: "No one is immune from the proper application of law in the United States and that, Mr Black, includes you."
As a pale-faced Black stood ramrod straight in front of the bench, the judge said it was essential to the functioning financial markets that directors put their companies first.

Whilst his former paper reports

Judge St Eve told Black: "No one is above the law in the United States. I frankly cannot understand how someone of your stature ... could engage in the conduct you engaged in."

Six years for Con says the Sun

The front page of the Mail claims

Four in five new jobs go to migrants since Labour came to power

Migrants have taken four out of five jobs created since Labour came to power, Whitehall analysts have said.
Their verdict was a huge embarrassment to Cabinet ministers, who have claimed most jobs went to Britons.
It brought new criticism for Gordon Brown and his promise of "British jobs for British workers".

Brown: UK troops in Afghanistan for decade says the Telegraph

Mr Brown arrived as almost 3,000 Britons helped drive the Taliban from the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province in the biggest UK operation in Afghanistan since the invasion of 2001.
"This is a very important mission and we will continue to give it support," Mr Brown said in Kabul after talks with President Hamid Karzai. "We must continue not only giving support in terms of our forces here but in terms of economic development."

Brown signals strategic shift as Taliban stronghold falls says the Independent

The Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala fell to Afghan forces last night, heralding a change of British strategy and an attempt to win the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan people in the fight against insurgents.
After four days of fierce clashes that left one British soldier dead, Taliban fighters in Musa Qala were said to have "melted away" into the mountains of northern Helmand, allowing Afghan army troops to re-enter the town without meeting resistance.


The Guardian reports that

EU still divided as crisis looms over Kosovo independence

European governments struggled to find agreement yesterday on how to respond to the looming crisis over Kosovo independence on the day that almost two years of negotiations between Kosovo Albanian leaders and the Serbian government were declared dead.
As thousands of ethnic Albanians rallied in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, to demand prompt support for Kosovo statehood, Wolfgang Ischinger, the German diplomat who chaired futile negotiations between the two sides over the past four months, briefed EU foreign ministers in Brussels and sought to marshal a consensus behind European recognition of Kosovo over the next couple of months.

The latest John Darwin developments and Jose turning down England dominate the tabloid

Let me see her says the Mirror as it shows the new picture releasedby the police

This is the incredible disguise John Darwin used to pass himself off as another person after allegedly faking his death in a canoe tragedy.
The 57-year-old wore a big bushy beard in a 2003 passport picture which it is claimed he used to travel the world under the false name John Jones.
Darwin's Reggie-Perrin-style life unfolded as he appeared in court yesterday charged with deception.
And after police issued the amazing snap, the former prison officer begged to be reunited with his wife Anne, 55, who was last night charged with deception over her husband's disappearance.

Canoeist’s wife is charged with deception says the Times

Anne Darwin was last night charged with frauds totalling £162,000 as her husband John, the canoeist who reappeared after being presumed dead, begged to be reunited with her for their wedding anniversary.
As detectives charged Mrs Darwin, 55, with two counts of deception at Hartlepool police station, they made a fresh public appeal for sightings of them at home in Cleveland or in Europe or America.

Meanwhile the Sun tells us

Jose,the dream is over

JOSE Mourinho last night revealed he had ruled out the England job after “deep and serious thought”.
The former Chelsea supremo took himself out of the running for the vacant post in a dramatic phone call to FA chief executive Brian Barwick.
He admitted he had been hugely tempted by the role and described it as “a fantastic position”.

FA eye Fabio Capello as Mourinho pulls out

Fabio Capello, the man who describes the Impossible Job of managing England as a "beautiful challenge", will meet the Football Association in the next 48 hours as clear favourite to succeed Steve McClaren after Jose Mourinho predictably withdrew from contention last night.

Back to domestic news and the Mail reports that

Wife 'cured' by prayer can't get benefits stopped because government computer doesn't recognise miracles

When June Clarke walked again after six years in a wheelchair, the committed Christian put it down to the power of prayer.
But when she shared the good news with benefits officials, they refused to stop her incapacity allowance - telling her their computer "didn't have a button for miracles".
With the Government pledging to crack down on "sicknote Britain", it seems remarkable the 56-year-old received more than £3,500 she did not even want.

The Sun reports on the fight over an xmas tree

NURSERY children watched a teacher allegedly hit another tutor after a row over a Christmas tree.
A woman teacher at Busby Primary School’s nursery in East Renfrewshire was sent home after the dispute over where the festive decoration was placed.
She allegedly struck another female teacher in front of some of the three and four-year-old children and their parents at the school in Clarkston.

All school pupils to get a behaviour mentor says the Guardian

The government will today promise every pupil a dedicated tutor to support them through their secondary schooling and act as a personal contact point for parents who are worried about their child's progress.
Pupils will be assigned one member of the school staff to act as behaviour mentor and to meet their parents, to allow swift action should their grades begin to slide.

Balls puts parent power at heart of schools blueprint says the Independent

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, will make a new "partnership with parents" a central plank of his Children's Plan. He will concede that secondary schools in particular need to do much more to keep mothers and fathers informed about their children's progress and to involve them in their schools.


The Telegraph reports that

Cost of policing the Olympics soars to £1.2bn

Revealing the most detailed financial breakdown for the project to date, Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, claimed that the total bill remained in line with the budget she published in March.
However, the new figures showed that since that announcement nine months ago the cost of policing London and securing Britain against terrorism during the month-long period of the Olympics had soared to £838 million - a rise of £238 million.

and staying with the paper it reports that

Penguins now threatened by global warming

Four species of penguin are facing a dual threat from loss of nesting sites and a shortage of food.The environmental conservation group WWF is warning that rising temperatures and the resulting loss of sea ice is robbing the emblematic birds of the nesting grounds they need to breed successfully.

Meanwhile the Guardian tells us that

US resists setting target on cutting carbon pollution

The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, will today begin attempts to persuade the US administration to agree firm targets on carbon pollution as part of a new deal on global warming. Benn arrived at UN climate talks in Bali last night, as the US said it was unwilling to approve a draft agreement which called on developed countries to reduce emissions by between 25% and 40% by 2020.
The US said the proposal, which is backed by Britain and the EU, was "totally unrealistic" and "unhelpful". Other countries, including Japan and Canada, are also believed to be against the idea.

The Express reports on

BREAKTHROUGH ON ALZHEIMER’S

BRITISH scientists have made a breakthrough which could help bring an end to the suffering of Alzheimer’s patients.
A simple camera constantly taking snap shots of daily life could unlock the misery of memory loss brought on by illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

'Tapas 9' meet over McCann police interviews reports the Mirror

Kate and Gerry McCann held a secret meeting with the rest of the "Tapas Nine" amid reports that Portuguese police are coming to Britain to re-interview them, it was revealed yesterday.
The friends met last month for the first time since the McCanns' four-year-old daughter Madeleine vanished in Portugal seven months ago.

1.09pm: the moment when online shopping found Christmas spirit reports the Times

The most lucrative moment in British online shopping history began at 1.09pm yesterday when more than £750,000 was spent in a single minute, according to an internet monitoring company.
Nine minutes after their lunch break began, office workers joined other online shoppers to create the “Mega Minute” – the peak shopping moment of the year.
Experts predicted that online sales would reach £370 million yesterday, the peak for the year. It surpassed the £291 million record set on the so-called “Mega Monday” last week, and is expected to remain unbroken until Christmas next year


Many of the papers report on Led Zepplin's renunion last night

Led Zep: the mothership of all reunions says the Times

The Telegraph reports that

I must be one of the happiest 18,000 people in the world today," said a middle-aged man on the London Underground yesterday afternoon. And with good reason: he had a ticket to the big one. Twenty-seven years after they disbanded, Led Zeppelin were back together, for one night in London, in what was surely the most feverishly anticipated reunion gig of all time - a concert for which millions around the world applied for tickets.

Meanwhile another renunion is reported in the Mail

Girl power failure: Spice Girls play to an half-empty crowd

Promoters boasted of a sell-out tour, but it appears a number ticket holders had second thoughts about seeing the Spice Girls perform in concert last night.
Almost half of the seats in the Mandalay Arena auditorium were empty as the group took to the stage for their second show in Las Vegas

Finally most of the papers report on the

Man trapped in bowling club toilet for four days

There was nobody to wonder what the matter could be when David Leggat got stuck in the lavatory - for four days.The 55-year-old bachelor was trapped in the freezing cold "gents" at his bowling club with nothing but tap water to survive on after a door jammed behind him.He spent most of the time in the dark, managed no more than three hours' sleep a night, and was so cold that he had to put his feet in a hand basin of hot water in an attempt to stay warm.