The front page of the Independent this morning carries a proposal by a police chief that Heroin should be made available on the NHS.

Heroin should be prescribed to long-term addicts to prevent them from committing crimes to feed their habits, the head of Britain's police chiefs has suggested.
Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, also admitted that current policing tactics are failing to combat a "hardcore minority" of heroin addicts.
He called for a political consensus on the issue of heroin prescription on the NHS, and a more "realistic" approach to tackling long-term drug abuse. Mr Jones argued that by prescribing heroin the police would be able significantly to reduce overall crime and prevent deaths from overdoses.

The police also feature on the front of the Guardian,though the subject is somewhat different

Met chief kept in dark over De Menezes

An official report into Scotland Yard's killing of Jean Charles de Menezes will strongly criticise the force, branding as "incomprehensible" the 24-hour delay in telling Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police's chief commissioner, that the wrong man had been shot.
The Guardian has learned that the still-secret report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission finds that senior Scotland Yard staff feared within hours that an innocent man had been shot but did not tell their boss, Britain's most senior police officer. Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian, was shot dead at 10am July 22 2005 after officers mistook him for a terrorist.

According to the Times

Churches back plan to unite under Pope

Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.
The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.
In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.
The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.

The Independent accuses the Prime Minister

of 'knee-jerk' response to gun deaths

Tony Blair has promised to tighten the law aimed at punishing teenagers who carry guns , despite the fact that similar legislation already exists.
The Prime Minister said a review of firearms law would look at whether 17-year-olds should face the same minimum sentence as older offenders.
After four fatal shootings in London this month, the Metropolitan Police had asked the Home Office to extend the law so that 17-year-olds who carry guns would face a minimum sentence of five years.
"There is a particular problem, which is that the minimum five-year sentence that we have introduced for illegal possession of a firearm does not apply to those under the age of 21," Mr Blair said, in an interview on BBC1's Sunday AM programme yesterday.

But the paper points out,

What the Prime Minister apparently did not know was that there has been a law in force since 2004 that sets a minimum five-year jail sentence for anyone aged 18 or over caught with an illegal gun.
The law was explained in a Home Office circular to all chief police officers, judges in January 2004. It said that for unauthorised possession of prohibited firearms "the minimum sentence is five years imprisonment for adult offenders (those aged 18 or over in England and Wales, and 21 or over in Scotland) and three years detention for juveniles".

The Times reveals that

Gun crime moves out of cities

Gun crime is being exported from the inner cities to the shires, the senior officer in charge of the national firearms policing strategy has told The Times.
Keith Bristow, lead officer on firearms crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, was speaking as Scotland Yard battled to contain the violence in London, where one man was shot dead and another injured over the weekend.
A man in his twenties was admitted to hospital yesterday with a leg wound after a shooting on Harrow Road in the west of the capital. It followed the fatal shooting on Saturday of a 28-year-old man in Homerton, East London. Three others were wounded in shootings in Manchester.

The proportion of gun crime occurring outside the hotspots of London, Birmingham and Manchester has risen sharply from 36 per cent in 2002-03 to 45 per cent in 2004-05.
The spread of gangs and guns to smaller cities and provincial towns went “hand in hand” with the expanding market for crack cocaine, said Mr Bristow, who attributed the displacement in part to a tough police response in the big cities.

The Telegraph continues its attacks on road pricing on the morning that the London congestion charge is extended

In-car black box for road pricing could cost every driver £600

Every motorist could end up paying nearly £300 just to cover the expense of collecting the charge, according to the department's feasibility study. Details of the study emerged as the Prime Minister signalled his intention to press ahead with road pricing in the teeth of fierce opposition.

The Mail though features another attack on Middle England on its front page

Tax on peace and quiet

Homeowners face a massive increase in council tax if their houses simply enjoy 'peace and quiet', government documents have revealed.
Houses in sought-after areas with a ' pleasant view' or 'good security' will be targeted by the army of valuation inspectors.
An official handbook released yesterday shows what assessors are likely to look for when a new system is introduced.

The Telegraph amongst many papers reports

Pardoned shot-at-dawn soldiers are honoured

Two soldiers who were executed for military misconduct during the First World War yesterday became the first to be officially remembered after receiving a posthumous pardon.
Private Harry Farr and Private James Swaine were among more than 300 executed soldiers to be pardoned after Defence Secretary John Reid amended the Armed Forces Bill last year.

Family members were among those who gathered at the service yesterday for the two local soldiers at Wealdstone's war memorial in north-west London.
Pte Farr's 94-year-old daughter Gertrude Harris said: "I have always argued that my father's refusal to rejoin the frontline was the result of shell shock. I believe many other soldiers also suffered from its effects."

According to the Times

Blair wants to be the man who saves world

Tony Blair has said that he wants to continue leading the global battle against climate change after he steps down as Prime Minister.
Mr Blair said that he hopes to secure a global deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions at a G8 summit in June, which would be one of his last acts as Prime Minister and help to launch a new, post Downing Street career.
In his first explicit declaration of what he wants to do after he leaves No 10, Mr Blair said: “I’d certainly like to carry on working on it [climate change] after I leave office.”
His comments raise the prospect that he might carve out a role as a global campaigner against climate change similar, but with a higher profile, to Al Gore, the former US Vice President and presidential candidate.

The Sun continues to report the strange goings on in the life of Britney Spears

HELP ME says its front page reporting that the singer ran into a hospital after shaving her head.

TORMENTED BRITNEY SPEARS has been driven to the brink amid fears she could lose her kids, it was claimed last night.
Sources close to the singer — who bizarrely shaved her head BALD at the weekend — say she is struggling following the breakdown of her marriage to KEVIN FEDERLINE.
And she is terrified her estranged hubby will take sons Sean Preston, one, and five-month-old Jayden James from her.

BRITNEY'S LOST IT

WE CAN'T HELP BRITNEY ANY MORE SAYS PAL OF 10 YEARS

Says the Mirror

BRITNEY Spears is about to "crash and burn", a close former aide to the fallen star has warned.
And Felicia Culotta says neither she nor friends and family can do anything to pull her out of her downward spiral.
The singer's personal assistant for 10 years - a pal of her mother Lynne - put a letter of despair on a US blog site after seeing photos of 25-year-old Britney's newly shaved head.
Culotta, "crushed and saddened" by her increasingly bizarre life, wrote: "There is just so much you can do to help a person

The Express reports that

Chocolate can save your life

CHOCOLATE, supercharged with plant compounds, can boost brain power while fighting heart disease and cancer.Scientists have discovered that substances in certain cocoa beans can dramatically improve learning and memory.They boost blood flow to the brain and in turn reduce the risk of dementia. Natural substances, or flavanols as they are named, have been linked to low rates of heart disease and cancer as they relax the blood vessels. They also help prevent blood clotting and stave off heart attacks. Far from being a vice, chocolate could become a modern day life-saver according to the results from two separate studies by scientists in Britain and the US, revealed yesterday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in San Francisco.

The Guardian warns that

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps

critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging" efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable areas. The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low".

The Mirror reports that

3 MILLION COUNCIL TENANTS FACE BOOT

THREE million council house tenants face losing the right to stay in their homes for life.
A Government report out tomorrow is expected to say the current system of social housing is out of date.
And it looks likely to pave the way for major reforms including time limits on how long someone can remain in their council home.
Economist Will Hutton, who advises Tony Blair, said: "Council housing is a living tomb.
"You dare not give the house up because you may never get another. But staying is to be trapped in a ghetto."
But Adam Sampson, of Shelter, said the plans were "terrifying".

And more bad news from the Mail which tells us that

Millions may have to travel up to 60 miles to get passports

Millions will face lengthy journeys to be interviewed for new passports, it has emerged.
They will have to travel up to 60 miles to special Home Office screening centres.
Details were announced as it emerged that hundreds more civil servants are being taken on and dozens of new offices opened.

Finally the Telegraph reports from the Pacific island where the inhabitants worship Prince Philip

South Sea tribe prepares birthday feast for their favourite god, Prince Philip

At the base of a banyan tree, an elderly village chief held his most prized possession between bony fingers. "Philip sent this to us," he said. "Now we have three of them."
A signed portrait of Prince Philip is an incongruous sight in a South Pacific jungle, but for the people of this remote village, in the island state of Vanuatu, the picture is an integral part of their lives.As unlikely as it sounds, the people of Yaohnanen and surrounding villages worship 85-year-old Prince Philip as a god. They believe him to be the son of an ancient spirit who inhabits a nearby mountain, on the island of Tanna. Despite worshipping the prince for half a century, the villagers — all of whom are illiterate — only learnt recently that his birthday falls on June 10.