There is a distinctly anti German feeling to this morning's papers.

Germans turn the screw on Brown is the lead in the Independent

Gordon Brown has been thrown on to the defensive over his economic strategy as his political opponents exploit a blistering German attack on his borrowing spree.
A furious Prime Minister hit back at Peer Steinbrück, Germany's Finance Minister, who accused him of making a spectacular U-turn since his years as a prudent chancellor by adopting a "crass" and "breathtaking" policy of "tossing around billions".

EU giant isolated as Merkel puts Germany first says the Guardian

The pastor's daughter from east Germany suddenly finds herself isolated on the biggest issues of the times - economic gloom and global warming. She is out of step with her partners on Nato expansion and Afghanistan. She disagrees with Gordon Brown over how to rescue economies facing recession. She is at odds with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy on everything from the EU's relations with non-Mediterranean countries to the single currency and the independence of the European Central Bank.

Don't mention the economy says the Mail

A blistering German attack on Gordon Brown plunged London and Berlin into a bitter diplomatic row last night.
The Prime Minister was publicly slated for his handling of the recession in an extraordinary outburst by a senior aide to chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was the second time in two days that a member of Germany's ruling coalition has broken with diplomatic convention to deliver a highly personal attack on Mr Brown's economic record.

The Times leads with the news that there are to be spending cuts in the armed servives

The Armed Forces yesterday became the first significant victims of government attempts to reduce spending in the face of the advancing recession.
Two programmes worth £20 billion will be cut and delayed after defence chiefs were told that there was not enough money to go ahead as planned.
The announcement throws into disarray the Army’s £16 billion update to armoured vehicles, while the Royal Navy’s £3.9 billion project for two new 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers is postponed for two years.

Cameron pledges support for elderly savers reports the Telegraph

Backing The Daily Telegraph's Justice for Pensioners campaign, the Conservative leader says elderly people who have saved for their retirement should be "rewarded", not "punished".
The campaign calls on the Treasury to suspend all taxes on the interest pensioners earn on their savings and on the cash dividends they are paid on their shares.

Many of the papers report the comments of Robert Mugabe who

has said the cholera crisis ravaging Zimbabwe has been stopped, even as the disease prompted South Africa to declare a disaster area on its northern border and the UN revealed that the death toll from the disease had risen again. In a televised address yesterday that showed the 83-year-old President to be in a complete state of denial over the epidemic, he said there was now "no cholera".

reports the Independent

The Guardian meanwhile reports that UK blocking European Congo force

Britain is refusing to take part in a proposed European armed intervention in eastern Congo despite a growing clamour for an EU force to help avoid a bigger humanitarian disaster.
At a summit of European leaders in Brussels last night, foreign ministers from the 27 countries discussed proposals to dispatch a force of up to 1,500 to North Kivu in eastern Congo.

The Telegraph reports that

Belgian police 'thwart imminent al-Qaeda attack'

The arrival of EU leaders and intelligence that a terror attack was on the way triggered a massive police operation, involving 242 officers, in overnight house raids in Brussels and Liege.
Police have arrested 14 suspects, three of whom, including the suspected suicide bomber, had just returned from Afghanistan, where it is thought they had received orders from al-Qaeda commanders.

There is much coverage of the economy,the Times reports that

Thousands of Britons face the unpalatable choice next year of taking a pay cut or losing their job.
Unions representing 25,000 steel-workers at the steelmaker Corus have offered, on their behalf, that they all take a 10 per cent pay cut. The move has been proposed as an alternative to the closure of the Llanwern steelworks at Newport, Gwent, where more than 1,000 people work.

50% off Bargain Britain reports the Express

Britain went bargain crazy yesterday as some of the High Street’s biggest names slashed 50 per cent off prices in a desperate attempt to boost trade.
Tesco sparked the unprecedented sales bonanza by announcing it was halving the price of 1,000 items, including food, drink, gifts and toys, until Christmas.

The Guardian maenwhile reports that

Hard-pressed staff behind the counters at Woolworths - had they a moment to spare from the lengthening queues - might have reflected that if their employer had generated such customer interest at any time over the last few years, the company might not have had to close down.
Yesterday, they served grimly on, well aware of their impending unemployment and under instructions not to share their views with the press.

The Sun leads with Mob kill Paedo

MURDERED pervert Andrew Cunningham was targeted by hate mobs who yelled “Die, paedo, die” at him.
And a police source said: “He was loathed by a large number of people so we have a lot of potential suspects.”
Cunningham, 52, died from multiple stab wounds to the head, neck and chest. And the source revealed: “Damage was caused to his genitals.”

Sark feels wrath of the Barclay brothers reports the Independent

Dismayed Sark islanders expressed their outrage last night after it emerged that the billionaire Barclay brothers had closed down all their business interests on the island, resulting in the loss of more than 100 jobs out of a total population of 600
Yesterday was supposed to have been a day of celebration as the islanders counted the results of their first fully democratic election. On Wednesday they went to the polls to turn Europe's last feudal state into a democracy.
Instead, more than 100 islanders face unemployment as a bitter feud between the billionaire newspaper magnates and the island's political establishment continued.

According to the Guardian

The global economic downturn has wiped at least £250m from the leading British universities' endowment funds, a Guardian survey has revealed.
The universities of Cambridge and Oxford, whose endowments were valued at £907m and £680m respectively in July, are understood to be the biggest losers

The Mail reports that

Thousands of air passengers faced chaos yesterday after airport operator BAA failed to anticipate cold weather in December.
More than a hundred planes were grounded and up to 2,000 passengers were left stranded after ice and light snow closed Gatwick's single runway for four hours in the morning.

Many of the papers report the case of

A mother of five died after drinking too much water three weeks after she had begun a water-based diet in an attempt to lose weight, an inquest was told.
Jacqueline Henson, 40, was determined to slim down from 14st (89kg) and was “over the moon” after losing nearly 12lb (5.4kg) in one week after starting the LighterLife diet plan, Huddersfield Coroner’s Court was told yesterday

reports the Times

Finally the face of Kate Winslett stares out from many of the papers,the Telegraph reports that she has been nominated for two golden globes

Winslet has two shots at glory: a best actress nomination for Revolutionary Road, the adaptation of Richard Yates' cult novel about a disaffected housewife in 1950s America, and a best supporting actress nomination for The Reader, in which she plays a Nazi concentration camp guard who embarks upon an affair with a teenage boy. She has been nominated for a Globe five times but never won.