The Times reports that

Operations cancelled as NHS runs out of money

Patients are being denied basic operations, including treatments for varicose veins, wisdom teeth and bad backs, as hospitals try frantically to balance the books by the end of the financial year,

According to the paper

NHS trusts throughout the country are making sweeping cuts to services and delaying appointments in an attempt to address their debts before the end of March. Family doctors have been told to send fewer patients to hospital, A&E departments have been instructed to turn people away, and a wide range of routine procedures has been suspended.

The rest of the newspapers have a wide variety of headlines.

The Telegraph on the same theme is claiming

NHS will be 14,000 nurses short, says report

The document, which was written by senior civil servants in the Department of Health, also discloses that there will be an estimated 37,000 job losses this year as trusts in deficit struggle to balance their books.

Its lead story however reports

Boys and girls need separate classes to close gender gap

Boys should be taught separately to stop them falling further behind girls as part of an extensive overhaul of the education system, a powerful Government-backed review says today.

And also tells us

The report, 2020 Vision, is the culmination of an eight-month study.
It says parents should get state funding to give their children extra private tuition if they are struggling with English or maths.
It also suggests that high-flying pupils should be allowed to sit exams early and progress to the next year if they are clever enough — calling for a generation of schools focused on "stage not age".
The national testing regime should also be reviewed, with school league tables redrawn to take account of the achievements of individual pupils at 16, rather than narrowly focusing on those who gain at least five good GCSEs.

The Indy returns to one of its favourites

Saddam: From monster to martyr? Asking

How Bush and Blair's choices have led to disaster in Iraq, culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war

It takes real genius to create a martyr out of Saddam Hussein. Here is a man dyed deep with the blood of his own people who refused to fight for him during the United States-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago. His tomb in his home village of Awja is already becoming a place of pilgrimage for the five million Sunni Arabs of Iraq who are at the core of the uprising.

The Guardian meanwhile reports that

Brown camp say Iraq policy is 'in a rut'

Gordon Brown will seek to rid the government of the political stain from the war in Iraq by making free universal education and combating climate change two pillars of Labour's foreign policy if he becomes prime minister this year, it emerged today.
Amid fears in the Brown camp that his time in No 10 may be blighted by Tony Blair's support for George Bush in toppling Saddam Hussein, the chancellor is eager to broaden Labour's international focus in 2007. Mr Brown used an article in today's Guardian - his first political intervention of the new year - to call for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007 to be used to improve primary schooling in the poorest countries.

Meanwhile the Times reports that

Three prison officials have been arrested for mocking Saddam Hussein in his last minutes alive and posting a video of his execution on the internet,

The Mirror continues its investigations into Dangerous dogs.In its lead exclusive

WHO LET THE DOGS OFF?

It claims

THOUSANDS of vicious pitbull terriers are on the loose in the UK - 16 years after they were supposed to be banned.
Official figures obtained by the Mirror reveal that 1,067 of the ferocious beasts are legally owned due to a series of loopholes.
But countless more are in the hands of thugs who get a kick out of having an intimidating animal.

Across the Atlantic (and back in time for the new school term)

Reports the Indy on the youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic.

The Telegraph tells us,

The teenager from Potters Bar, Herts, ended an epic, 3,500-mile, six-week journey at Nelson's Dockyard on the Caribbean island after surviving gale-force winds, huge waves and squalls "that really do knock your teeth out".
The schoolboy, who set off from Gibraltar on Nov 18, was greeted by a steel band, a cheering crowd and official congratulations from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to "another hugely successful sailor in the great British maritime tradition".

The Mail reports that

BA profits from lost luggage debacle

As thousands of passengers continue to be affected by the great lost luggage crisis, British Airways makes money from their misery.
It is forcing them to use a premium-rate helpline to seek their missing bags, and pocketing the profits.
At the same time it is accused of doing little to tackle the luggage mountain at Heathrow, now believed to comprise 15,000 items, when simple checks would have seen them returned to their owners long ago.

The Sun slams into celebrity Big Brother with the headline

DREG'S ELEVEN

The Star reports

THIS year’s housemates are a sex-mad bunch who can’t wait to get down and dirty.The line-up includes a kinky Miss Whiplash, a nookie-obsessed film director, a skirt- chasing punk rocker and a saucy beauty queen. Last night as viewers saw the 11 enter the Big Brother house, they hinted it will be the hottest-ever reailty smash.

The Express is amongst a number of papers which report on the problems mounting for Whitney Houston,who is

being forced to sell some of her most treasured possessions to settle debts of almost £100,000.The singer will lose irreplaceable stage costumes and tour memorabilia when creditors put the items under the hammer next week.Houston, 43, who recently filed for divorce from rap star Bobby Brown, had been keeping the precious possessions safe in a New Jersey warehouse.