The news that the Prime Minister is to announce a start of troop withdrawals from Iraq thuis morning is the headline in this morning's Guardian

Iraq: the British endgame

All British troops will be pulled out of Iraq by the end of 2008, starting with the withdrawal of 1,000 in the early summer, the Guardian has learned.
Tony Blair is to announce the moves - the result of months of intense debate in Whitehall - within 24 hours, possibly later today, according to officials.
The prime minister is expected to say that Britain intends to gradually reduce the number of troops in southern Iraq over the next 22 months as Iraqi forces take on more responsibility for the security of Basra and the surrounding areas.

But perhaps because of the lateness of the announcement last night does not dominate all the Front pages

The Times reports that

Mr Blair will give the go-ahead for withdrawal despite President Bush’s decision to send more than 21,000 reinforcements to Baghdad. The decision will be seen by some as a signal that the Government is prepared to demonstrate its independence from the US.
The war is seen across the parties as Mr Blair’s most unpopular policy act, and one that has probably accelerated his departure as Prime Minister. He has always been keen that the British withdrawal should start before he leaves office, and that now appears likely to happen.
Details of the announcement were scant last night. Mr Blair was criticised for not taking part in the recent Commons debate on Iraq but promised to make a statement about the future of British forces as soon as Operation Sinbad had been assessed.

The Telegraph leads with

Blair to defy 1.8m who signed road petition

According to Downing Street sources, the Prime Minister will not "capitulate" to demands for the scheme to be scrapped, a goal which attracted more than 1.8 million signatures to the No 10 website.
Mr Blair has had to tackle the issue after it was pushed to the forefront of public debate by a Daily Telegraph campaign run in the newspaper and online. Columnists highlighted the implications of the scheme and thousands of people signed the Telegraph's Stop Road Pricing petition.

The Independent continues on its theme of yesterday

Bank charges: The rebellion gathers pace

Beleaguered bank bosses are refusing to accept they have been illegally charging customers for breaching their overdraft limits, as they face an overwhelming response to The Independent's report on the issue yesterday.
Consumer groups that have been campaigning to persuade customers to reclaim thousands of pounds worth of bank charges stretching back six years reported a huge increase in the numbers of people planning to complain. Martin Lewis, the founder of Moneysavingexpert.com, the internet site that has been leading the campaign since November, said more than one million people will have downloaded complaints forms and template letters by the end of the week.
Mr Lewis said more than 20,000 people had downloaded the forms by 3pm yesterday, following The Independent's story, with hundreds more logging on every minute. "Thanks to that report, people are now realising this is something that is real," he said. "It's not a gimmicky thing that is only for financial nerds, but a straightforward process anyone can follow in order to claim a refund that is potentially worth thousands of pounds."

The Times leads with a report that

Doctors lose the right to police themselves under tough reforms

Doctors will lose their right to police themselves under proposals to be announced by the Government today, The Times has learnt.
As part of reforms aimed at preventing another Harold Shipman tragedy, ministers are expected to curtail the role of the General Medical Council by stripping its powers to discipline and prevent doctors from practising.
The GMC, the regulatory body for the medical profession, is also set to lose its medical majority, putting an end to the professionally led regulation that has been enshrined for nearly 150 years since its foundation in 1858. Ministers will announce the changes to Parliament in a White Paper.

David Cameron's decision to send his daughter to a church of England school is given prominence,the Times reporting that

Cameron declares his faith in a state education for his children

David Cameron said yesterday that he wanted to send his daughter to a state school and, like Tony Blair before him, entered into an educational controversy. Rather than choose a grant-maintained school, as Mr Blair did, the Conservative leader is opting for a faith school. “I’m quite a fan of faith schools and we’re looking at a church school we’re very keen on, but we’ll have to see what places are available,” he told You and Yours, the BBC Radio 4 programme.

The Mirror reports on the latest form the 21/7 trial

21/7 TERROR ACCUSED CAUGHT DRESSED AS WOMAN.

Showing pictures of the CCTV footage it tells

THESE are the dramatic pictures which show 21/7 bomb plot suspect Yassin Omar fleeing London dressed as a Muslim woman in a burkha.
The CCTV, played to the jury yesterday, clearly captures 6ft 2in Omar wearing a head to foot black dress and veil and carrying a white handbag the day after the failed attempt to blow up the capital's transport system.
Other commuters turn their heads to look at the tall "woman" as he wanders past.
Omar, the alleged Warren Street Tube bomber, admitted he had shaved his arms and the back of his hands. He said: "I didn't want to be noticed. I was scared. I wanted to look like a woman. I dressed like a woman."
He was filmed at Digbeth coach station in Birmingham having caught a National Express coach from Golders Green in North London.

It leads though with the headline

YOU KILLED ANNA NICOLE

A COURT battle for the body of Anna Nicole Smith kicked off in all-out war yesterday amid amazing claims the ex-model was killed by her lover.
For the first time since Anna, 39, died of a suspected drug overdose two weeks ago all the main players faced each other.
It should have been a calm legal hearing. But in minutes it degenerated into an ill-tempered circus played for the benefit of TV cameras broadcasting to a gripped nation.
Mum Virgie Arthur and Anna's boyfriend Howard K Stern, 38, are each claiming to be next of kin so they can bury the former Playboy centrefold near their homes.
Former boyfriend Larry Birkhead, 32 - who is fighting Stern for paternity of Anna's five-month-old girl Dannielynn - is a witness.
After early sparring, tensions finally boiled over as Stern's lawyer Krista Barth spoke about his "12-year relationship" with Anna.
As she did so, Birkhead's lawyer Debra Opri mouthed words and pointed to a clearly agitated Stern.

The Sun meanwhile leads on the story that

Footie prices slashed

BOLTON Wanderers yesterday became the first Premiership club to slash new season ticket prices in a huge victory for The Sun’s Cut The Cost of Footie campaign.
Chiefs will cut the price of seats, barring corporate hospitality deals, by an average TEN PER CENT for next term.
Manager Sam Allardyce said: “The Sun’s been at the forefront of the campaign to reduce prices, and we are delighted we can show the way to do it and put something back into the game. The offer is on the back of last season’s price freeze on season tickets and reinforces our commitment to offering fans great value.”

According to the Mail

UK women are now officially the fattest in Europe

The scale of the obesity crisis was laid bare last night when an alarming report revealed Britons are the fattest people in Europe.
A quarter of women and a fifth of men in the UK are now so overweight that their health is at serious risk.
British women head the EU league, with 23 per cent clinically obese, and men fare little better, with 22.3 per cent classified as obese -behind only Malta.
The shocking figures, compiled by the British women are now officially the most overweight in Europe and men aren't far behind
EU's statistical office, will fuel fears that Britain is facing a public health timebomb created by a growing reliance on fast food and time-saving technology.

A story also covered by the Telegraph

English tip Europe's scales

The Mirror reports that

200,000 WILL DIE IN ASBESTOS TIMEBOMB

NEARLY 200,000 people will die from asbestos-related cancer up to 40 years after coming into contact with the killer fibre, scientists warned yesterday.
Those most at risk are carpenters, laggers, shipyard workers, metal workers and electricians who worked in the 60s and 70s.
Experts believe 30,000 have already died from mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lung, which is caused by inhaling asbestos dust. Another 60,000 victims are believed to be doomed.
A further 90,000 will die from asbestos-related cancer of the lung.
Cancer specialist Professor Julian Peto, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said yesterday: "Mesothelioma is on a completely different scale from any other industrial cancer disease in the world.

The Guardian keeps us up to date on the Labour leadership election

Leadership contenders reveal war differences

Two frontrunners for Labour's deputy leadership today give fresh impetus to demands for an inquiry into the planning and conduct of the Iraq war, though Hilary Benn and Alan Johnson insist it should be after British troops have withdrawn.
"The right time to look at what more we could learn from an inquiry will be after our troops are no longer engaged in Iraq; but not while they are there," Mr Benn told the Guardian's survey of declared or putative candidates for the leadership and deputy leadership.

News from Abroad is quite varied this morning,the Independent reports on the comments of Presidential candidate John McCain

Pro-war McCain launches scathing attack on Rumsfeld

John McCain, the most staunchly pro-war of the 2008 Republican candidates for the White House, has launched a withering attack on the former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, calling him "one of the worst" secretaries of defence in American history.
The Arizona Senator delivered his broadside during a campaign meeting in South Carolina, a state with a strong military tradition and which holds one of the most important early primaries - where Mr McCain suffered a crucial defeat at the hands of George Bush in 2000.
Senator McCain had increasingly voiced criticism of Mr Rumsfeld as the war in Iraq dragged on, accusing him of failing to send enough troops to get the job done. However, he was notably gracious when Mr Rumsfeld was forced to step down the day after the crushing Republican mid-term defeat last November, saying he "deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service." But on Monday Mr McCain's language was very different. "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement of Donald Rumsfeld," he told a crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near the Hilton Head Island resort.

The Guardian reports on a third candidate's emergence in the French elections

Farmer cast as dark horse of French polls

He's a gentleman farmer known as the horse-whisperer, a fervent Catholic who raises thoroughbred mares and writes historical biographies, posing for photographs on his tractor to appear close to the people.
But the centrist François Bayrou, who has been repeatedly dismissed as too boring to win over France, emerged this week as the presidential election's dark horse, a "third man" to challenge the standoff between the left's Ségolène Royal and the right's Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Times reports from Zimbabwe on

Mugabe has £30,000 birthday as his people starve and die of Aids

Robert Mugabe celebrates his 83rd birthday today as his supporters prepare a cake-and-fizzy-drinks party in the central city of Gweru.
Africa’s oldest leader and the world’s oldest head of state and government is fit, active and alert, according to senior sources in his ruling Zanu (PF) party. But he is under pressure as never before.
The party has been deducting money from civil servants’ wages and bullying near-bank-rupt businesses for donations to raise the 300 million Zimbabwean dollars (about £30,000 at real rather than official rates) to pay for the celebration on Friday. In attendance will be the 21st of February Movement, an organisation of children established with the sole purpose of gathering on this day each year to pay homage.
Together with hundreds of Mr Mugabe’s rich and powerful cronies, they are expected to hear a long address from the Most Consistent and Authentic Revolutionary Leader — his official title. The cost of the party would supply 300 Aids sufferers with antiretroviral drugs for a year in a country where only 50,000 people out of 500,000 infected have access to them.

According to the Telegraph

Hornets hit France and could reach Britain

Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at massacring honeybees have settled in France.
And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.
Global warming has largely been blamed for the survival and spread of the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.
Thousands of football-shaped hornet nests are now dotted all over the forests of Aquitaine, the south-western region of France hugely popular with British tourists.
"Their spread across French territory has been like lightning," said Jean Haxaire, the entomologist who originally identified the new arrival.