Headlines the Sun this morning,refering to the release of a tape which shows the incident when American planes straffed British vehicles during the invasion of Iraq which led to the death of a British soldier.
THE Sun today publishes the full, disturbing truth about how the US pilot of an A-10 tankbuster jet broke all the rules to shoot up a British convoy in the Iraq war.
We obtained the cockpit videotape at the centre of a diplomatic row between the two Allies.
It shows how the pilots — reservists who had never been in action before — made SIX crucial errors.
They left 25-year-old Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull dead and four comrades from the Household Cavalry Regiment seriously injured.
Iraq returns to the front pages in both the Independent and the Guardian,the latter leads with the headline
Children of war: the generation traumatised by violence in Iraq.
Amid the statistical haze that enshrouds civilian casualties, no one is sure how many children have been killed or maimed in Iraq. But psychologists and aid organisations warn that while the physical scars of the conflict are all too visible - in hospitals and mortuaries and on television screens - the mental and emotional turmoil experienced by Iraq's young is going largely unmonitored and untreated.
In a rare study published last week, the Association of Iraqi Psychologists (API) said the violence had affected millions of children, raising serious concerns for future generations. It urged the international community to help establish child psychology units and mental health programmes. "Children in Iraq are seriously suffering psychologically with all the insecurity, especially with the fear of kidnapping and explosions," the API's Marwan Abdullah told IRIN, the UN-funded news agency. "In some cases, they're found to be suffering extreme stress," he said.
The Independent reports
The death toll of 31 days in Iraq
From north to south, from east to west, violence and insecurity have gripped the entirety of Iraq. In January alone, at least 2,000 civilians, Iraqi security forces and US and British troops were killed in violence across the nation.
As President George Bush dispatches an additional 21,500 combat troops and at least as many again in a supporting role to try to bring calm to Baghdad, new figures suggest that violent death is becoming an everyday occurrence across all of Iraq and in cities that rarely make the headlines. In recent weeks places such as Kut and Mosul have reported civilian deaths as a result of gunfire or explosions.
While the Telegraph reports
'Take back Baghdad' surge begins
American and Iraqi military commanders launched the first stage of the new security strategy in Baghdad today, hours after President George W Bush won a temporary victory in the Senate against opposition to his "surge" of 21,500 soldiers.
Hours after a joint command centre was inaugurated in the Iraqi capital to direct operations ahead of the crackdown, opponents of Mr Bush failed to advance a resolution in the Senate repudiating his plan.
Back to the Guardian which tells us
Bush slashes aid to poor to boost Iraq war chest
President George Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war.
Mr Bush's $2.9 trillion (£1.5 trillion) budget, sent to Congress yesterday, includes $100bn extra for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for this year, on top of $70bn already allocated by Congress and $141.7bn next year. He is planning an 11.3% increase for the Pentagon. Spending on the Iraq war is destined to top the total cost of the 13-year war in Vietnam.
Britain's place in the crime league is well reported this morning ,the Mail haedlines,
Britain: Europe's burglary capital
Britain is the most burgled country in Europe, a disturbing crime survey reveals.
Levels of assault are also the highest across the EU, while car theft, robbery and sex offences are well above average.
In the overall crime league, the UK comes second only to Ireland, with more than a fifth of the population in both countries exposed to crime in the past year.
The findings are a blow to ministers who claim crime is falling, and to campaigners who claim the UK locks up too many offenders compared with other European countries.
The Times reports that
Britain near the top of European crime league, says UN study
Britain was labelled one of Europe’s crime hotspots and London its most dangerous capital yesterday in a survey for the United Nations which found that it had the highest burglary rates of the 21 countries studied.
Despite repeated government initiatives, British levels of common crime — which includes car theft, assault and robbery — were said to be the second highest in Europe, behind Ireland.
London was singled out as the Europe’s most dangerous city with one in three residents experiencing a crime in 2004, the year analysed in the European Crime and Safety Survey by Gallup for the UN Criminal Justice Research Institute.
But reveals
Last night both the British and Irish governments questioned the quality of the figures reported in the survey, insisting that they were inaccurate and out of date.
Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, said: “The survey is three years out of date and we have concerns about its quality and the comparisons.”
The outbreak of bird flu is still topical,the Times leading speculation of how the disease arrived in Britian
Vets investigate link to virus in Hungary
The poultry company at the centre of the avian flu outbreak admitted yesterday that lorries from Hungary had made regular visits to its Holton plant, where almost 160,000 chicks have been culled.
Government vets are investigating urgently possible links between the Bernard Matthews firm and the outbreak of the H5N1 virus on a goose farm in Hungary ten days ago. Experts have confirmed that the strain of the virus in Britain is almost identical to that in Hungary.
Until yesterday, spokesmen for Bernard Matthews had consistently denied to The Times any possibility of vehicles or staff moving between its plant at Holton and Hungary.
Transmission of the disease via the droppings of a wild bird
The Independent reports that
Ministers forced to defend handling of flu outbreak
Ben Bradshaw, the Environment minister, denied there had been a delay in testing for the virus or establishing an exclusion zone around the affected farm after the birds started to die on Tuesday last week. Culling of the turkeys at the farm was due to be completed last night.
Many of the papers report on the next installment of the cash for honours inquiry
Blair’s closest aide faces ‘loans conspiracy’ probe says the Times
The Prime Minister’s chief of staff is expected to be interviewed under caution for a second time by police investigating the cash-for-honours affair. The Times has learnt that Jonathan Powell is likely to be questioned about an alleged cover-up which appears to have hidden evidence from the ten-month inquiry.
The disclosure will mean that Tony Blair’s most senior aide will be asked if he knows of an alleged plan to hide from detectives the nomination of Labour’s lenders for honours. It will also increase pressure on Mr Blair, who is facing calls from his backbenchers to step down.
The Independent publishes another poll which shows how this is effecting the Labour party
Unpopular Blair drags party to its worst poll rating since election
Tony Blair's unpopularity has dragged Labour down to its lowest rating since the last general election, according to the results of the latest monthly "poll of polls" for The Independent.
The Conservatives averaged 37 per cent in the opinion polls taken in January, the same as in December, but Labour dropped two points to 32 per cent while the Liberal Democrats were up three points to 20 per cent. If the figures were repeated at the next election on the new constituency boundaries, Labour would lose its majority and the Tories would be the largest party in a hung parliament.
Labour MPs said the figures would add to the pressure on Mr Blair. Some backbenchers want him to quit sooner rather than later because of the damage being caused by the "cash-for-honours" affair.
The Mail reports on troubles for the Tory Leader
Cameron's own party draws blood from their leader
Senior MP Edward Leigh told the Daily Mail Mr Cameron was "turning down the volume" on the party's core beliefs to point that they were "inaudible".
Mr Leigh, chairman of the right-wing Cornerstone Group of 40 MPs, said the party appeared to have been "terrified into silence" on fundamental reform of schools and hospitals, where it had now accepted to dominant New Labour orthodoxy.
He warned core Tory voters could not be "taken for granted" and were increasingly in danger of defecting to single-issue parties such as the UK Independence Party.
The Express also has some news for the Tory leader
TORIES TOLD: AXE INHERITANCE TAX IF YOU WANT TO WIN THE ELECTION
Senior Tory MPs want their leader to make abolishing the hated stealth tax a central plank of their party’s manifesto at the next general election.They have seized on the soaring support for the Daily Express internet petition as evidence voters want an end to Chancellor Gordon Brown’s fleecing of working families.Thousands more readers yesterday added their names to our petition – demanding the abolition of inheritance tax – on the Number 10 website.By last night more than 22,000 had signed up, making it by far the fastest-growing petition on the internet.
The Telegraph leads this morning with comments from the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop praises married couples' 'heroism'
The Archbishop of Canterbury launched a stinging attack yesterday on those who fail to appreciate the benefits of marriage, and described married couples as heroes who give stability to society.
Dr Rowan Williams said the "commentating classes of north London" - whose own marriages often failed - were unable to see the wider cost to society of marriage breakdowns.
The paper suggesting
Although he did not refer directly to Tony Blair or his Cabinet, his comments will be seen as a coded swipe at New Labour. Many influential figures in New Labour lived close to Mr Blair in Islington, north London, in the early 1990s before he became Prime Minister. They argued that marriage should have the same moral status as cohabiting.
Although Mr Blair has said he supports the institution of marriage, ministers such as Margaret Hodge and Tessa Jowell, who have been divorced and remarried, have argued that favouring marriage would offend divorced or cohabiting parents.
The Independent reports from the Indonesian capital
Disastrous floods yesterday brought the gleaming, modern capital of Indonesia to a standstill. Outside the glass tower blocks of Jakarta, the streets were deep in filthy water - bringing fears of disease. Nearly 340,000 people are believed to have fled their homes before the rising waters.
A metropolis that was a source and symbol of Asian pride has been brought to its knees by days of torrential rain - and years of reckless urban planning. The storm drains that were supposed to clear the water were blocked with rubbish. The forested hillsides to the south of the city that used to prevent such floods are gone, cleared to make room for the villas of the rich.
The Mirror reports on an incident in London yesterday,
LETTER BOMB: WHO SENT IT?
TERROR police probing a bloody letter bomb attack were checking out a bewildering range of possible suspects last night.
A woman in her 20s was hurt when the potentially murderous device, packed with small nails, exploded in the London HQ of government handling agency Capita.
The bomb was addressed to Capita chief executive Paul Pindar. But it is thought the attack was on the organisation itself rather than any named individual.
Capita handles business services for dozens of government departments and private companies.
It is responsible for Child Support Agency payments as well as the payrolls of the Metropolitan Police, MI6 and MI5, the Criminal Records Bureau and TV licensing.
The £3.3billion firm also administers the London congestion charge.
The Sun reports on
Paedo gang caged for 27yrs
Greetings card salesman David Beavan and horror make-up artist Alan Hedgcock also boasted they would do their own version of the Soham murders.
Hedgcock, 41, sent out pictures of the two girls aged 13 and 14 in school uniforms and said they walked through woods near his home. Beavan, 42, said he wanted to “do the (girls) like Holly and Jess — but more brutal”.
They discussed their sick plans with a third man, jobless Robert Mayers, 42.
Ten-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were killed by school caretaker Ian Huntley, jailed for life in 2003.
The Express reports that
Hamza's lawyer is paid £506,466
Controversial Muddassar Arani’s law firm received the huge sum for representing clients who include key terrorist suspects.The latest official figures, seen by the Daily Express, reveal that her practice netted £506,466 for the first seven months of the current financial year.But the sum does not include the estimated £1million she claimed for representing Hamza.The revelation comes as ministers are trying to shave £100million from the annual £2.1billion spent on criminal and civil legal aid.
Finally the news that the Beatles will be returning to the charts is covered in most of the papers,the Indy headlining
Beatles and Apple settle legal fight over logo
A 25-year dispute between the Beatles and Apple computer company over the use of the apple logo was settled yesterday at the doors of the Court of Appeal in London.
The agreement between the makers of the iPod and the two surviving Beatles, as well as John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison, could pave the way for the Beatles' back catalogue to be released on the internet.
BEATLEMANIA FOR iPOD GENERATION
Says the Mirror
It means massive hits such as Hey Jude and Yesterday may soon be legally downloadable - sparking a wave of Beatlemania worth £500million a year.
And bookies last night predicted Beatles hits will occupy EVERY space in the Top 40 once they can be downloaded legally.
They reckon fans both new and old will be desperate to have the Fab Four's songs on their iPods.
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