PARDON HER says the front of the Mirror

Jailed teacher Gillian Gibbons could be freed today by presidential pardon.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will have talks this morning with British Muslim peers Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed.
An aide said in Khartoum last night: "He'll discuss the case and a possible pardon."

The Telegraph reports that

Two senior Muslim peers, Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed, spent the weekend in negotiations with Sudanese officials as they tried to free Gillian Gibbons.After a day of "difficult" meetings, the two peers cancelled a flight home and said they would stay in the country for a third day amid signs that a deal may be reached.

Elsewhere the papers have a variety of front pages,the Mail leads with the story that

Chemists giving girls as young as 12 the morning-after pill - without parents' knowledge

A report shows the powerful contraceptive is available to young girls at High Street pharmacies in almost every area.
It reveals the growing ease with which they can get hold of a pill that has barely been tested on girls under 15 and was previously available only on prescription.
Under a controversial Government scheme to cut teenage pregnancies, youngsters are asked only basic questions in a brief consultation with a pharmacist.

CRISIS AS NEW BUG SWEEPS BRITAIN says the Express.

Amongst the broadsheets,the Guardian reports on a

Oxbridge snub to government on academies

Oxford and Cambridge universities have turned down ministerial attempts to persuade them to adopt a city academy, the Guardian has learned. Their decisions deliver a fresh blow to the government, which is trying to raise the academic profile of the schools by wooing top universities to sponsor one.
Confidential documents, seen by the Guardian, reveal that Cambridge has vetoed the idea to avoid any negative fallout should the school fail or receive bad press. Sponsoring a school could also present a "conflict of interest" over admissions for pupils at the school, it says

Websites sell secret bank data and PINs says the Times

Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country’s information watchdog.
Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.

Ahead of the climate change conference in Bali,the front page of the Indpendent warns

Expanding tropics 'a threat to millions'

The tropical belt that girdles the Earth is expanding north and south, which could have dire consequences for large regions of the world where the climate is likely to become more arid or more stormy, scientists have warned in a seminal study published today.
Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the tropics by pushing their boundaries towards the poles at an unprecedented rate not foreseen by computer models, which had predicted this sort of poleward movement only by the end of the century.

Meanwhile the Telegraph leads with

Study finds acrylamide link to cancer in women

Fresh fears have been raised over the safety of cooked foods as a wide-ranging study found for the first time that a common chemical caused by frying, roasting or grilling can double the risk of cancer in women.

The same paper reports on the continuing donor scandal

Wendy Alexander accused in donations row

Wendy Alexander, the leader of Scottish Labour, is fighting accusations that she was aware that an offshore benefactor made a donation to her leadership campaign.As Strathclyde Police confirmed that they had received a complaint about the donation, which came from a Jersey-based businessman, Ms Alexander was forced to issue a statement protesting her innocence

Don't quit, Brown begs Scot's Labour leader as she faces criminal investigation into sleaze row says the Mail

Gordon Brown has begged one of his key allies not to quit as she faces a criminal investigation into an illegal donation from a millionaire tax exile.

I’ll put my cards on the table and name names, says David Abrahams reports the Times


David Cameron turned up the heat on Gordon Brown yesterday by saying that his claim to have known nothing about unlawful cash gifts “beggars belief”.
The Tory leader’s attack came as the businessman at the centre of Labour’s donations scandal, David Abrahams, hinted that he is preparing to name ministers when he is asked by police to say who knew that he had given cash through third parties.

Meanwhile the Indy reports on the

'Bogus wife' reveals strange world of David Abrahams

The woman who acted as the "bogus wife" of millionaire property developer David Abrahams has revealed some of the details of his eccentric lifestyle.
Yesterday she said that the couple planned to marry in the week before his selection for the North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond in 1990, but said Mr Abrahams called it off the night before the wedding.

The Guardian reports that

Iraqi insurgents regrouping, says Sunni resistance leader

Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian.

Vladimir Putin storms to victory amid loud claims of foul play and vote-rigging says the Times

President Putin secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last night, amid opposition complaints of extensive vote-rigging. The result could pave the way for him to retain power in Russia.
Mr Putin’s United Russia party won 63.2 per cent, with half of votes counted, while its nearest rival, the Communist Party, secured only 11.5 per cent.
Two pro-Kremlin parties – the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and Fair Russia – were the only others expected to win seats in a Duma that will lack a liberal, pro-Western voice for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Opposition dispute exit polls hinting at Chavez victory claims the Indy

The populist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, was last night on the brink of claiming a narrow victory after Sunday's national referendum on a raft of constitutional amendments to propel forward his socialist vision for the country, at least according to anonymous government sources citing exit polls.
Officials results were not expected for several more hours, however, and opposition leaders who had spearheaded the campaign to block the proposed constitutional changes were insisting their own exit data suggested a different outcome – that Mr Chavez would be defeated.



Two feared dead as storms batter UK reports the Telegraph

The worst spell of weather so far this winter battered the country and left a trail of destruction in its wake. Wind speeds of up to 70mph and heavy rainfall led to treacherous conditions, especially for those on the coast.A 23-year-old man drowned after being dragged out to sea by huge waves along the Promenade in Blackpool in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Dad jumps in river to rescue son reports the Mirror

A dad leapt into a river to rescue his nine-year-old son yesterday as a raging torrent threatened to sweep the lad away.
Michael Byrne fell in as he walked with sister Stephanie, seven, and their pet dog along the bank just yards from their home.
Dad Daryl rushed out in his pyjamas and dived in - but the current in the swollen river was so strong it swept him 300 yards downstream to a boulder where Michael was stranded. They both clung to it for 90 minutes until rescuers reached them.

MURAT BACK IN THE FRAME headlines the Sun

A NANNY at the holiday complex where Madeleine McCann vanished claims she saw suspect Robert Murat there on the fateful night, it emerged yesterday.
Charlotte Pennington, 20, is one of three witnesses who could blow apart the oddball’s alibi that he was home with his mum.
They have told private detectives hired by Maddie’s parents they saw a man just like Murat walking on the road outside the McCann apartment on the night she disappeared.

The story also features in the Mirror


Witness 'saw Murat at resort'

She told the private detective agency hired by the McCanns that when she confronted he expat property developer the following day he denied having ever been there.
She said he tried to shrug it off and instead gave his mobile number to one of her colleagues in case she saw "anything suspicious".

Many of the papers carry the story of

Canoeist who vanished at sea in 2002 turns up at police station,the Guardian reporing

A canoeist who disappeared off the North Yorkshire coast more than five years ago and was presumed drowned has walked into a London police station and identified himself to officers.
John Darwin, a married father of two and former prison officer, was thought to be dead in 2002 when his shattered red canoe washed up on the beach below his clifftop home in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool.

The Mail continues

Police and coastguard officers searched some 20 miles of coastline from Hartlepool down to Staithes, North Yorkshire, but no trace was ever found of Mr Darwin.
Last night, however, Cleveland Police said the married father of two walked into the West End central police station in London at 5.30pm on Saturday.
A spokesman said: "Mr Darwin is fit and well and relatives have been informed of his whereabouts.

Millions to shop online for 'Mega Monday' says the Telegraph

Experts have predicted that today - nicknamed Mega Monday - will be the day that shoppers besiege the internet in search of their presents.More than £5 billion is expected to be spent online in the run-up to Dec 25, an increase of more than 50 per cent on last December, as shoppers ditch the long queues and crowds in store in favour of a much easier time ordering online.

Public sector blamed as 100,000 more children fall below the poverty line reports the Times

Gordon Brown’s commitment to end child poverty is challenged by two reports today that accuse the Prime Minister of quietly abandoning his eight-year pledge.
In a stinging attack, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that poverty has worsened in Britain over the past year, with the working poor faring particularly badly.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports on

Prue Leith's radical recipe: free school meals and eating with a knife and fork

Prue Leith, the grande dame of British cookery and now head of the School Food Trust, is happy to be seen as the nation's nanny.
"I've become so bossy," she says. "I always was bossy but now I really want to rule the world."
Since taking over the Government's campaign for healthy eating a year ago, the 67-year-old chef has travelled all over the country persuading schools to give up chips.

The Mirror turns its attention to the Tories

Cameron hustle 'unsung heroes' from party

They were the ambulance drivers David Cameron hailed as unsung NHS heroes for their tireless work in taking his disabled son Ivan to a day centre.
But the Tory leader gave husband and wife Jack and Doreen Ingram less than a heroes' welcome when they attended a party at his mansion to mark the unit's closure.
This time Cam the Sham dropped his man-of-the-people act and hurriedly showed the working-class couple the door after one drink - while his well-heeled guests prepared for dinner and champers.


Finally the Tabloids are concerned about Amy Winehouse

Amy's 5am cry for help says the Sun

ANGUISHED Amy Winehouse is pictured in today's Sun newspaper stumbling barefoot in the street in the middle of the night in just a bra and jeans. The troubled star, 24, had been partying with friends earlier in the evening at a pal’s house.
But after her friends left, Amy was spotted in Bow, East London, at 5.40am in chilly temperatures, mumbling to herself. Pals, already worried for her safety, were horrified.