Thousands of cars have been hit by breakdowns caused by contaminated petrol from supermarkets.
Garages and roadside recovery firms have been swamped by drivers whose cars ground to a halt after filling up at Tesco or Morrisons.
Thousands more may be hit soon, as the problem can take several days to materialise. Repairs cost up to £400 but are not covered by warranties.
Trading standards officials are carrying out urgent tests to pinpoint the source of the contamination. Experts said it could be caused by ethanol, an alcohol made from plants which is added to make petrol 'greener', or by cleaning chemicals from storage tanks.
The Mirror also follows the same lead
CARS CROCKED BY DODGY FUEL
THOUSANDS OF CARS CROCKED BY DODGY FUEL
Telling us
Darren Ross, 42, of Waltham Abbey, Essex, said: "It's terrible. I need my car for work. This will affect thousands of people."
Garages have been swamped by car owners desperate to get sensors repaired - at a cost of about £200. But the huge demand means mechanics are struggling to get replacement parts, leaving some cars out of action for days.
The Independent lead
Education class war
What the battle of Brighton over a lottery for school admissions really means for...
listing five areas that the decision from Brighton council will affect
Children,parents,house prices,politics and inequality
On the final one the paper says
Admission rules that make the distance between home and school the key factor are said to reinforce social divisions. But the traditional link between schools and their neighbourhoods would be broken and could have profound consequences. That may give children from poorer backgrounds better access to popular schools, but could also drive middle-class children into private schools, thus perpetuating social inequality.
The Guardian reports
War over school boundaries divides Brighton
Two factions of parents have been split by controversial plans to award school places based on a lottery system, confirmed by the town's Labour council.
On one side are the parents of "muesli mountain", families who live in period houses and name their community website the "caring corner". On the other are the well heeled of the "golden halo", couples who have paid up to half a million pounds for homes in the catchment of the two leading secondaries.
The paper leads though with
US commanders admit: we face a Vietnam-style collapse
An elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat.
The officers - combat veterans who are experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province.
Staying in the region the Telegraph reports
Iran stalls over attending Iraq conference
Iran refused to give an undertaking yesterday to attend a planned major conference on Iraq's future, after being caught off guard by Washington's enthusiastic endorsement of the meeting.
And the paper continues,
Despite its hesitation yesterday, Iran would be embarrassed if it failed to attend.
But Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, gave only a guarded welcome to the invitation.
He said: "We will participate in this meeting if it is in Iraq's interest. We will do what we can do to resolve Iraq's problems."
Given Iran's influence and involvement in Iraq, its absence would severely damage the credibility of the meeting, which is designed to lead to a ministerial gathering a few weeks later.
The Times leads on the story
Top black police 'spied on by detectives’
Scotland Yard launched a campaign of harassment against the National Black Police Association as part of its attempt to discredit one of its most senior officers, a new book claims today.
Officers seized a vanload of NBPA files from the Home Office without a search warrent. They then hired accountants to examine the expenses of its senior members.
The book also claims that the NBPA was so concerned that it was being bugged by the Yard that top members took a room at a Hilton hotel under the alias of “Mr and Mrs Brown” for a secret meeting.
and on a similar theme the Guardian headlines
MI5's role in hounding of Met officer revealed
One of Britain's most senior police officers accused MI5 last night of "smearing" him after it emerged that the security service told Scotland Yard it suspected him of being an Iranian spy.
The Guardian has learned that the warning about Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei was one of the principal reasons the force pursued him for four years, mounting a corruption inquiry costing at least £3m. He was suspended amid allegations of drug use, corruption and threatening national security, but was cleared by a jury of minor criminal charges.
The Times reports on an art theft in Paris
Mystery of the £33m Picassos that disappeared clean into the night
Thieves removed two Picasso paintings valued at €50 million (£33.7million) from a flat in one of the most heavily guarded districts of Paris as the owner, a granddaughter of the artist, slept. There was no trace of forced entry.
Police said last night that they were working on a number of theories about the theft of a celebrated 1931 portrait of Picasso’s daughter, Maya with Doll, and a 1961 portrait of his second wife, Jacqueline. They were taken, with a drawing, at about 4am from the flat of Diana Widmaier-Picasso.
Ms Widmaier-Picasso, 34, and a male companion were woken by noises in the small hours but went back to sleep in the first-floor flat of a mansion on the Rue de Grenelle in the 7th arrondissement. They found the art missing in the morning. The thieves had taken Maya with Doll from a wall in its frame, and the Jacqueline portrait was removed from its frame with a knife.
The robbery was the biggest involving the often-stolen master’s works since 11 Picassos were taken from the Riviera villa of Marina Picasso, another grandchild, in 1989. They were recovered quickly.
The Independent reports on a celebratory caller to a phone in show
I'm gaining ground, Castro tells Chavez phone-in
Fidel Castro chatted on the phone with the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, for 30 minutes in a live broadcast early yesterday, the first time the ailing Cuban leader has spoken publicly since emergency surgery forced him from power in July.
"I'm gaining ground. I feel I have more energy, more strength and more time to study," President Castro said, speaking slowly but confidently during a relaxed conversation broadcast live on Venezuelan radio.
The conversation formed an apparently unscheduled highspot of President Chavez's regular chatshow, Aló Presidente, and was accompanied by video footage of the Venezuelan leader's last visit to Mr Castro's sickbed in Havana in January. Cuban television later interrupted its nightly news programme to broadcast the exchange.
The Sun reports on the
Lotto winner 'raped 2 girls'
A MILLIONAIRE lottery winner appeared in court yesterday accused of raping two schoolgirls.
David Dyas, 52, attacked the youngsters when they were between the ages of eight and 12, jurors heard.
Married Dyas — who won “several million” in 1998 but kept his win secret — is alleged to have bought one of his child rape victims’ silence with £2.
He also offered to buy the second schoolgirl “some nice things” if she kept quiet, it was claimed.
Ex-builder Dyas, who has a son with wife Tracey, told the court yesterday: “I did have a large lottery win but I kept it very quiet.
Its front page though returns to the events at the Millenium Stadium on Sunday
TERRY BRAIN SCARE
Terry, whose fiancée Toni Poole had his twins last May, spent two hours in a private Surrey hospital from 2.30pm YESTERDAY. But specialists found no swelling, clots or signs of lasting damage.
However, the star will today see the consultant neurologist who treated Chelsea ’keeper Petr Cech for a fractured skull last October.
More phone in scandal is reported in a number of the papers
X Factor viewers hit by £200,000 voting blunder says the Mail
Viewers who voted on The X Factor were overcharged by £200,000, ITV has admitted.
The broadcaster said Sky Digital users who voted using the red button on their remote controls had been overcharged by 15p.
ITV said "incorrect payments" were collected from the Saturday night shows, broadcast between October 14 and December 16 last year.
It said the error had come to light last week during an audit of red button interactive revenues supplied by Sky.
Some 1.3million votes have been affected.
The Express reports on
Now Poles arrive in Coronation Street
THEY have come here in their thousands and now Polish workers will walk the cobbled streets of Britain’s most popular TV show.Coronation Street will be hoping for a ratings surge by tackling the issue of cheap migrant labour.Scriptwriters on the ITV1 soap admit they are courting controversy as the immigrants find work and are accused of stealing British jobs. But they say immigration is “fair game” because it has become one of the most debated topics.The spring storyline will see greedy knicker factory boss Liam Connor hire Poles on low wages to cut his wage bill.Fearing for their jobs, local staff, led by Janice Battersby, tell police that he is hiring illegal workers.
Finally the Guardian reports
Wagner - public genius with a private passion for bustles, bows and bodices
A previously unpublished letter by Richard Wagner to a firm of Milanese couturiers offers the intriguing possibility that the great composer was, in fact, a cross-dresser.
The letter is published for the first time today in the inaugural edition of the Wagner Journal. In it, the composer of the Ring des Nibelungen details the cut of an outfit, ostensibly intended for his wife, Cosima.
Requesting "something graceful for evenings at home" he continues: "The bodice will have a high collar, with a lace jabot and ribbons; close-fitting sleeves; the dress trimmed with puffed flounces - of the same satin material - no basque at the front (the dress must be very wide and have a train) but a rich bustle with a bow at the back, like the one at the front) ..."
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