A vriety of headlines in the papers this morning

Brown will now go to Lisbon and sign EU treaty - but by himself says the Guardian

Gordon Brown provoked ridicule among EU supporters and critics alike yesterday as he bowed to pressure from European leaders and agreed to attend the signing of the controversial Lisbon treaty, but arrive late and miss the main ceremony.
The prime minister was pressed by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, to join the other EU heads of government. But he will miss the official signing ceremony and family photograph, leaving the foreign secretary, David Miliband, to face the cameras. Instead he is expected to arrive during the lunch.



The Prime minister also features on the front of the Independent

Brown: 'It's time to talk to the Taliban'


As the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 comes to a close, Gordon Brown is ready to talk to the Taliban in a major shift in strategy that is likely to cause consternation among hardliners in the White House.
Six years after British troops were first deployed to oust the Taliban regime, the Prime Minister believes the time has come to open a dialogue in the hope of moving from military action to consensus-building among the tribal leaders. Since 1 January, more than 6,200 people have been killed in violence related to the insurgency, including 40 British soldiers. In total, 86 British troops have died. The latest casualty was Sergeant Lee Johnson, whose vehicle hit a mine before the fall of Taliban-held town of Musa Qala.


Iraq is the main story in the Times

Breach of honour says the paper

More than half the Iraqi interpreters who applied to come to live in Britain have had their applications rejected, drawing accusations that the Government is “wriggling out” of its promise to help former Iraqi employees.
The Times has learnt that 125 of the 200 interpreters who took up the offer to resettle in Britain have failed to meet the strict criteria laid down for eligibility.
The revelation challenges Gordon Brown’s pledge in August that the Government would fulfil its “duty of care” to those who had served with British troops.

Most report on the bombing in Algeria

Spectre of civil war returns as al-Qaeda suicide bombings kill 67 says the same paper

Two car bombs struck central Algiers yesterday, killing up to 67 people, destroying United Nations offices and targeting a bus full of law students outside the Supreme Court in a coordinated strike blamed on al-Qaeda.
The destruction raised the spectre of a return to the civil war that ravaged the North African country in the 1990s. At least two of the dead were foreigners — a Senegalese and a Dane working for the UN.

The Guardian reports that

The targets were Algeria's constitutional court in the Ben Aknoun district of the capital, and the office of the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in the Hydra area, home to western companies, government buildings and embassies.
"There was a massive blast," a UN worker wrote in an anonymous item for a BBC website. "Everything shattered. Everything fell. I hid under a piece of furniture so I wouldn't be hit by the debris ... One of my colleagues had a big wound in her neck, she was bleeding severely."

Vladimir Putin will retain power as Russia’s PM reports the Telegraph

The bizarre if unsurprising edict, announced by president-designate Dmitry Medvedev, lays to rest years of speculation as to how Mr Putin would overcome a constitutional provision requiring him to retire in the spring of 2008 after completing two successive four-year terms.
“I consider it to be of the utmost importance for our country to keep Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in the highest post of executive power, the post of head of government of the Russian Federation,” said Mr Medvedev, who was anointed as Mr Putin’s heir yesterday in a television broadcast to the nation.

The paper leads with the story that

One in five babies born to migrants in UK

Immigrant mothers are having far more children than their British counterparts - fuelling the biggest rise in population since the 1960s baby boom.The proportion of births to foreign mothers is up by a third since 2001 and by almost half since Labour came to power.
Fertility rates are at levels not seen for 25 years, with the highest found among Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi-born mothers. Those nationalities alone accounted for five per cent of all British babies last year.

'No ball games’ culture dropped in favour of playing outdoors reports the Times

Millions of pounds will be spent on new play and leisure facilities as part of a government plan to reverse the decline of childhood and make sure that children in England are both seen and heard.
Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said yesterday that he wanted to move away from the “no ball games” culture of the past, which curtailed the freedom of children and young people to learn and develop by playing independently outside the home.

'Nanny knows best'says the Mail

Education Secretary Ed Balls unveiled an extraordinarily-detailed ten-year blueprint spelling out policies affecting virtually every single area of children's lives including sexual health and youth justice.
He vowed to widen the free nursery places scheme to thousands of two-year-olds, and pledged to "make this country the best place in the world for our young people to grow up".
But he was instantly accused of hijacking the traditional responsibilities of parents and intensifying Labour's "nanny knows best" approach.

It leads with the story that

A man murdered his girlfriend after he was released early from prison to ease overcrowding.
Andrew Mournian had already served five jail terms when he was jailed for 20 weeks for attacking Amanda Murphy.
But eight weeks into that sentence, he joined the roll-call of 11,000 other inmates given their freedom early.
And five days later he beat Miss Murphy so badly that the mother-of-two died in hospital of her injuries.

Maddy fever returns to the tabloids

Resort stripped of Madeleine McCann posters says the Mirror

The town where Madeleine McCann vanished seven months ago has been stripped of any sign of her.
Appeal posters have been taken down from every shop window and removed from the church in Praia da Luz where Kate and Gerry prayed daily for their daughter's return.
It is as if locals are desperate to wipe out all trace of the four-year-old who disappeared from their midst. Canadian Meri Hanli, who runs a health food shop in the Portuguese town, said: "It's not that people don't care, they just want to get back to how it was. It is so many months on now. It's all been too much."

The Express also leads with Maddy

PRIEST 'BANS' MADELEINE

THE priest who once gave comfort to Kate and Gerry McCann has had his church stripped of all memories of their missing daughter.
Father Jose Manuel Pacheco ordered the removal of scores of green and yellow ribbons which were put up as a symbol of hope in the days after Madeleine vanished.

But the canoe story is not far behind

Anne Darwin sobs to cops reports the Sun

Many of the tears shed during her account of the £162,000 fake death scam were over the “upset” she had caused her sons.
She told cops she fears never seeing Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, again.
They disowned their parents after realising they’d been lied to for years over the fate of dad .

John Darwin 'stole dead baby's ID' reports the Mirror

The tot's family was appalled by the claim. His sister said: "This is terrible. How low can you get? It makes me shake to think of it."
Darwin, 57, is believed to have scoured graveyards and records in local papers searching for a name he could use after he vanished in an apparent kayak tragedy in 2002.

The Times reports that

Police chiefs and MPs join revolt as Smith digs in over pay rise cut

The Home Secretary is facing a growing revolt among chief constables and from within the Government’s own ranks over her decision to renege on an agreed police pay deal.
Mike Fuller, the Chief Constable of Kent, told The Times that he was among a number of senior officers who have written to Jacqui Smith expressing deep concern at the damage to officers’ trust, morale and goodwill.

Strike ballot on the cards as Labour unrest grows says the Guardian

A senior Labour backbencher said yesterday that he knew of 10 ministers who had privately protested to the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, over the announcement last Thursday delaying the implementation of the 2.5% police pay award.

Which also reports that

Smith rounds on Tories over terror laws

Jacqui Smith delivered a withering assault on Tory opportunism on terror laws yesterday, describing the shadow home secretary, David Davis, as "a man that has shown no interest in seeking a political agreement", and accusing him of ignoring personal assurances by senior police officers that they supported the reforms being proposed by the government.

Tories criticise teen justice proposals reports the Telegraph

Teenage offenders will avoid court if they say "sorry" to their victims under a major reform of youth justice.Ministers hope that the so-called "restorative justice" approach will drastically cut the number of young offenders by 2020.

COUNCILS 'SHOULD HAVE FIRING POWER' reports the Express

Council leaders should be given the power to fire under-performing police chiefs and NHS bosses, the chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) will demand.
Sir Simon Milton believes chief constables and health trust chief executives need to be made more accountable to local people for the services they provide.


Bali conference close to deal on saving forests reports the Indpendent

A breakthrough on deforestation is set to be the first success of the UN climate talks in Bali. Diplomats were confident last night that the "road map" to a new climate-change treaty would contain a crucial reference to forests.
That would be an important first for a sector omitted from the Kyoto treaty – the world's only previous attempt to deal with the build-up of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Deforestation is recognised as the second leading cause of climate change and is responsible for a third of carbon emissions from the developing world.


'Caravaggio worth £50m' discovered says the Telegraph

The work - thought to be an earlier version of Caravaggio's The Card Sharps - will go on display in Trapani, Sicily, on Saturday.
Sir Denis Mahon, 97, a member of the Guinness Mahon banking dynasty, bought the painting for £50,400 at an auction at Sotheby's last December. At the time, it was described as the work of an anonymous "follower of Caravaggio".




Finally to the front page of the Sun which tells us that

ROSE WEST'S GUINEA PIG MURDERED

SOBBING Rose West was last night insisting a post mortem is held on her guinea pig — after accusing fellow jail inmates of poisoning it. Mass murderer West, 53, also demanded prison chiefs launch a full-scale investigation to nail the killers of her beloved pet Marley.