We knew that dog could kill is the headline in the Sun this morning ,and the Mirror has the same theme,

OWNER KNEW PITBULL WAS A DANGER

as all the papers report on a New Year's day tragedy.

THIS is the little angel horrifically mauled to death by a crazed pit bull terrier yesterday.
Ellie Lawrenson, five, was savaged by her uncle’s pet Reuben as her granny battled to save her.
Only six months ago council officials warned the owner about his pet’s behaviour.

says the Sun

The Times reports that

Ellie Lawrenson suffered horrific injuries after being attacked at her grandmother’s home in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Her grandmother, Jackie Simpson, 46, had serious bite .
wounds to her arms and legs after fighting in vain to get the pitbull, called Reuben, away from Ellie.

A spokeswoman for St Helens council said a council dog warden had written to the dog's owner, named locally as Ellie's uncle, Keele Simpson, last May after a complaint by a neighbour about an attack on another dog.
Last night a 69-year-old man claimed he was attacked by the dog, Reuben, in September last year but managed to hold it at bay with his walking stick. The neighbour, who did not want to be named, told the Press Association he had reported the attack to the police and dog wardens, who later visited the owner's home.

Is the report in the Guardian.

The papers have a number of differing headlines on this first working day of the New Year.

Overvalued house prices threaten crash

The Telegraph reports that

House prices are at their most overvalued for 15 years, new figures showed yesterday, as hard-pressed home-owners struggle to pay their mortgages.
And with the gloomy prospect of a record tax burden and unprecedented rises in household bills comes a warning that interest rates could rise by far more than expected.

A study commissioned by The Daily Telegraph shows that house prices are moving well beyond the reach of many families as the rapid growth in property values outpaces increases in incomes.

Both the Guardian and the Indy lead on medical stories,the latter headlining

Rise in fake drugs trade puts NHS patients at risk

Britain is facing a growing threat from fake medicines as counterfeiters have begun targeting the UK's pharmaceutical supply chain, according to the Government's drug safety watchdog.
The illegal trade carries lower risks and higher profits than smuggling hard drugs and is putting NHS patients at risk, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says.

The Guardian leads with

Scientists find way to slash cost of drugs

Two UK-based academics have devised a way to invent new medicines and get them to market at a fraction of the cost charged by big drug companies, enabling millions in poor countries to be cured of infectious diseases and potentially slashing the NHS drugs bill.

And on the same theme,the Mail reports

Health Service wastes £25 billion every year

A devastating report into waste in the NHS has warned that the Health Service will cost every household in Britain an average of £4,500 a year by 2010.
Experts said more than £25billion a year is being squandered, leaving the Health Service in danger of meltdown.

The ramifications of Saddam's execution continue,The Times reporting that

The Iraqi Government ordered an investigation last night into how guards taunted and filmed Saddam Hussein in the final moments before he was hanged, as Shia officials gave warning that the leaked video could fuel even greater violence

Whereas the Telegraph reports

Outrage mounts over 'lynch mob' hanging

The execution of Saddam Hussein – widely condemned yesterday as more an exercise in lynch law than judicial punishment – was rushed through by the Iraqi government despite American requests for a delay.

A senior Iraqi source said the US ambassador in Baghdad wanted the hanging to be postponed for two weeks but relented when the Shia dominated government rushed through documents approving it. It appeared that the United States was anxious the execution should not be carried out with unseemly haste.

The Indy reports on the possible outcome

Sunnis fear Saddam's execution will provoke sectarian violence

Sunni Muslim Iraqis in Mecca spoke of their fear of returning home, as a hardline, Saudi-based, Wahhabist Sunni group, the so-called World Association of Muslim Youth, sent out a stern statement to Shias that they were "a minority in the Arab world".

The onset of the New Year seems to have brought out many gloom and doom stories.Its start is reported in the Independent,

New Year revellers defy storms and icy weather

The Mail picks up on the tragedies

Stormy weather blamed for freak deaths

Two people have died in separate freak accidents yesterday caused by the New Year storms. A 55-year-old woman was killed by a landslide when a cliff collapsed on top of her as she walked along a beach with her partner.
Police said the cliff at Whitehaven in Cumbria, which was known to be in danger of subsiding and had been fenced off at the top, gave way when she leant against it.

The storms were also blamed for a second tragedy in which a 62-year-old man was electrocuted as he walked his dog at a beauty spot near his home in Wembury, Plymouth, Devon. A 30ft high wooden electricity pylon was brought down in a sudden storm and a high voltage power cable fell on the man as he walked along a footpath below.

The Sun headlines

Bloody New Year of chaos

BRITAIN suffered one its bloodiest New Years ever as midnight ushered in a murder and a spate of stabbings, shootings and beatings.
Ambulance crews dealt with the highest number of casualties since the Millennium celebration.
The deadliest violence was in BATH, when a man was beaten to death. Four men were arrested on suspicion of murder.
In LONDON the ambulance service was four times busier than usual — answering 1,562 emergency calls between midnight and 4am.
A total of 148 people were treated for minor injuries and another 45 taken to hospital. Four people were fighting for their lives last night. Two men suffered life-threatening stab wounds just after midnight at the New Connaught Rooms club in Covent Garden, Central London.
Meanwhile a gunman opened fire inside the Elbow Rooms club in Islington, North London, leaving a 21-year-old in critical condition. A woman, 23, and a man of 22 were also shot.

According to the Telegraph

Experts on stand-by for Black Tuesday

New Year hangovers have faded and the last of the Christmas turkey has been dispatched. But the true cost of this year's festive battle has yet to be counted. And the reckoning begins today — "Black Tuesday".
As Britain returns to work after a fortnight of excess and enforced intimacy, armies of bank managers, divorce lawyers, debt counsellors, addiction experts, life coaches and car mechanics are braced to deal with the fall-out.

The entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the EC is also widely reported.

Bulgarian rush begins

According to the Telegraph,

Kalina Nikoleva, a 22-year-old Bulgarian, wore a broad New Year smile yesterday as she arrived at Heathrow among the first workers from the two new European Union members, Bulgaria and Romania.
She said that despite coming into Britain in the middle of winter she was here to pick flowers and did not seem concerned that nationals from the two former Eastern bloc countries will be subject to extra work restrictions compared with other EU citizens. And she was cheered by the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's prediction that Britain stands to benefit from Romania and Bulgaria's membership.

The front page of the Express screams out

Britain pays £2.5bn benefits to foreigners

TAXPAYERS in Britain have been saddled with a £2.5billion bill to pay benefits to Romanians and Bulgarians who do not migrate to the UK.The massive tax burden was revealed as Britain braces itself for a wave of up to 600,000 migrants from the two East European countries.

The Mirror is amongst many papers who report on the Pm's new year message.

BLAIR: THIS WILL BE OUR TOUGHEST YEAR

In his last New Year's message before he steps down, he declared: "This is the most difficult time for any government. Nine years into power, mid-term in a third term. Labour has never been here before."
The Premier said the party must stick to the path of New Labour if it wants to avoid being dumped. In a veiled warning to Gordon Brown, he said it was only keeping together the coalition of the powerful and the poor that would keep the Tories out.

Blair's message from Florida urges Brown to back New Labour ideas

In a veiled warning to Gordon Brown, who is expected to take over the premiership, the Prime Minister said: "This is the most difficult time for any government. Nine years into power, mid-term in a third term, Labour has never been in this position before. But the Labour Party should take heart. It is dominating the battle of ideas. It will continue to do so provided it continues to be New Labour.

is the story in the Indy.

The Sun reports on

Boozed Britney's club collapse

BRITNEY SPEARS collapsed on New Year's Eve just 50 minutes after celebrating midnight by popping open a supersized bottle of champagne.
The singer, who is divorcing hubby KEVIN FEDERLINE, was being paid 200,000 pounds to host an evening at the Pure nightclub in Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

There is also much newspaper speculation about another celebrity

EXCLUSIVE: THAI DO - KATE AND PETE HITCHED

KATE Moss and Pete Doherty were reunited for New Year - amid claims they had wed in a spiritual ceremony on a beach in Thailand.

According to the Mirror.

The New Year also brought tragedy to other parts of the globe.The Times reports on the New Year's eve bombings in Thailand.

A spate of bombings in Bangkok has raised fears of a violent campaign against the military Government.
Worried about the damage that the New Year’s Eve explosions in the Thai capital will cause the tourist trade and business confidence, politicians and army chiefs went on television to deny that al-Qaeda sympathisers were behind the attacks that killed three and wounded thirty-eight, including two Britons.


The Indy reports that

Indonesian plane crash kills 90 people

Rescuers found the smoldering wreckage today of an Indonesian jetliner that crashed into mountains during a storm, and officials said 90 people were killed.
The airline said the other 12 people on board the Boeing 737 survived, but the national aviation chief said that reports of survivors in the country's second major transportation disaster in recent days could not be confirmed.

The Telegraph reports that

Mob fury as bodies of murdered children found

An angry mob clashed with police near New Delhi yesterday over the grisly discovery of the remains of 17 people, including a dozen children, who had been missing for years.
Police used baton charges to break up the crowd of angry relatives who threw stones and plastic chairs at them in anger over police failure to respond to their reports that up to 40 people in the area had disappeared over the past two years.
The serial murders came to light only last week when skulls and other bones were found buried in the back yard of a house in the industrial town of Noida.