The teenage killer of Rhys Jones was jailed for a minimum of 22 years yesterday by a judge who expressed his disgust at the murderer’s “brutality” and “cowardice”.
Sean Mercer was only 16 when, hooded and on a mountain bike, he fired three shots across a crowded pub car park in an area of north Liverpool where gang turf wars are common. Rhys, who walked into the path of the second bullet while returning home from football practice, died in his mother’s arms.
Mercer, now 18, showed no remorse, merely pursing his lips in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court at the end of a ten-week trial.

reports the Times this morning

The Telegraph says that

The father of the 11-year-old schoolboy, murdered when he got caught in the cross-fire of a warring gang, said: "Finally justice has been done for Rhys." Mr Jones, accompanied by his wife Melanie, read a statement outside court expressing thanks for all the messages of support they have received.
He said: "From the day Rhys died, the kindness shown to us by the people of Liverpool has been immeasurable. For this, we will always thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

The Independent describes it as A life claimed by nihilistic violence and malign neglect

Like the murder of Baby P and the kidnap of Shannon Matthews, the killing of Rhys Jones has shone an unforgiving spotlight on parts of modern Britain. And what it reveals is not pretty.
The shooting of 11-year-old Rhys, as he cycled home from football practice near his home in Liverpool, in 2007, seemed to come out of a clear blue sky. Like the killing of the toddler, James Bulger, in the same part of the country in 1993, the death provoked national shock, as Rhys was named the youngest victim of gang violence in Britain. But the truth was that, unlike the Bulger killing, such a tragedy was long on the cards.

Meanwhile the Sun claims that

THE mum of Rhys Jones’s murderer worked as a £50-a-time hooker during his trial, The Sun can reveal.
Janette Mercer, 49, offered services as “Danielle” while evidence piled up against son Sean, 18.

Another trial came to an end yesterday,the Guardian reports that

An NHS doctor who was convicted yesterday of plotting massive car-bomb attacks in London and Glasgow had been on an MI5 watchlist before he launched the campaign, the Guardian has learned.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, who is due to be sentenced today for a series of plots including a failed attack on Glasgow airport last June, may have been on the list for 13 months.

The Mail reports that

After Bilal Abdulla was found guilty, Scotland Yard's anti-terror chief warned that a new breed of Islamic extremist is targeting Britain while working here in respectable professional jobs.

Glasgow bomber Bilal Abdulla was in Iraq terrorist cell says the Times

Bilal Abdulla came to Britain to open a “new front” in the Islamist jihad after he had been refused permission to carry out a suicide attack in Baghdad.
The car bombs he tried to detonate outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub and at Glasgow airport were the first terrorist attacks in Britain to have been inspired – but not directed — by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Previous Islamist plots have had connections to al-Qaeda and Kashmiri extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Guardian has the latest opinion poll,Tories' poll lead cut to five points as voters turn back to Labour

Today's poll is in line with other recent surveys, making it clear that the opposition has crashed back to reality after a triumphant summer, and David Cameron is not seen as the man to revive the economy. The results will inevitably fuel talk of an early election next February or in the spring, although Labour is still well short of the sort of support needed to retain its majority.

The Independent reports that

David Cameron will join rebel Labour MPs in opposing plans which would force single mothers to prepare for work when their youngest child reaches the age of one.
The Conservative leader yesterday denounced the Government's proposal as "shameful" and accused ministers of playing "macho" politics with vulnerable lone parents.

The papers carry the news that American interest rates have been slashed

America’s central bank has taken drastic steps to resuscitate the US economy out of its year-long recession, placing interest rates as low as zero - their lowest level in history - as it announced widespread plans to inject liquidity into the ailing financial markets.

says the Telegraph

The Guardian reports that

Unemployment is likely to rise above 3 million in the current recession, the Bank of England's labour market expert, David Blanchflower, warns today.
His comments come the morning after the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to 0.25%, their lowest ever, in a bid to lift the world's largest economy out of deepening recession

The Mail reports that As jobless toll soars, investment bank's bonuses for staff are cut to a MERE £4.3bn

Despite the financial crisis and the spectre of soaring unemployment, staff at the bank will get an average of £142,600 each.
The international group, which is estimated to have 5,400 employees in London, is already nicknamed ' Goldmine Sacks' for the large extra payouts it awards to its star performers.

The Independent reports that

The Premier League will "recession proof" its most important income stream – television money – by launching its own TV channel from the summer of 2010 if the value of bids for live rights plummets when the auction for 2010-13 opens in the next few weeks.

The Guardian is followibg the last days of Dick Cheney

The outgoing US vice-president, Dick Cheney, last night gave an unapologetic assessment of his eight years in office, defending the invasion of Iraq, the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, secret wiretapping and the extreme interrogation method known as waterboarding.

reports the paper

'Assassination attempt' on Mugabe henchman reports the Independent

President Robert Mugabe is planning to declare a state of emergency in Zimbabwe, the opposition said yesterday, after what the government claims was an assassination attempt on the head of the air force.
Perence Shiri, one of Mr Mugabe's inner circle, was shot in the arm on Saturday, claim state media reports that surfaced yesterday

Saved is the lead story in the Express

THE British pint, mile and ounce were saved yesterday as Brussels finally quit trying to kill them off.
Shops and pubs can now keep to imperial measures after Eurocrats were forced to accept that the British would never “go the extra kilometre” or “pop out for a quick litre”.

Many of the papers carry the story that

A PENSIONER was executed and decapitated on his doorstep — then his severed head was dumped in a wheelie bin.
Churchgoing Paddy McGee, 63, was yards from safety when the maniac lunged at him with a kitchen knife.

reports the Sun

Finally the Mail reports that

Scientists say they have discovered why London's wobbly bridge was so wobbly.
They believe the phenomenon - which forced the Millennium Bridge to close three days after it opened in 2000 - was not the result of pedestrians marching in step, as previously thought.
Instead, it was caused by users adjusting their balance subtly from left to right as the bridge was gently rocked by the wind and movement of people.