The Financial Times makes the headlines this morning as it carries an interview with a former permenant secretary to the Treasury

Ex-Whitehall chief slams ‘Stalinist’ Brown

Gordon Brown has exhibited a “Stalinist ruthlessness” in government, belittling his cabinet colleagues whom the Treasury treats with “more or less complete contempt”, according to the man who was Britain’s top civil servant until two years ago.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Lord Turnbull, permanent secretary to the Treasury for four years under Mr Brown before becoming cabinet secretary in 2002, accused the prime minister-in-waiting of a “very cynical view of mankind and his colleagues”. says the article

The Guardian has more bad news for the Chancellor

Labour - and Brown - slide further says ICM poll

The scale of the challenge facing Gordon Brown is underlined in a Guardian/ICM poll today which shows he would hand the Tories a 15-point lead if he was leading the party at the next election. On the eve of the chancellor's 11th and final budget, the poll also highlights voters' anxiety about the growing financial squeeze on households and the amount they pay in tax.
The findings show that Mr Brown's recent charm offensive has yet to convince the public he will make a good prime minister; the gulf between the two parties has widened in the last month. A small but significant number of voters switch away from Labour when reminded that Mr Brown will probably lead the party at the election, and a similar number are attracted to the Tories by David Cameron.

It and the Times lead with a rather different story

GM mosquito bred to destroy malaria

The fight against malaria could eventually be transformed by releasing into disease-ridden areas genetically modified mosquitoes that cannot transmit the infection.
Scientists in America have engineered a species of mosquito which is resistant to the malaria infection. Its ability to block the infection suggests that it could come to dominate mosquito populations if released into the wild.

GM mosquitoes offer new hope for millions says the Guardian

Trials revealed that the GM mosquitoes could quickly establish themselves in the wild and drive out natural malaria-carrying insects, thereby breaking the route through which humans are infected.
The strategy is likely to prove contentious as it would require the unprecedented release of tens of thousands of GM organisms into the wild. But it has raised hopes among scientists, some of whom believe it may be powerful enough to finally bring under control a disease which strikes 300 million people a year and causes more than 1 million deaths, mostly of children in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the Telegraph

The cost of parking at your hospital: £95m

Its lead story says that

NHS hospitals were yesterday accused of exploiting the "most vulnerable" after they were found to have made more than £95 million in parking charges last year.
Patients attending for treatment and relatives or friends visiting people in hospital were charged up to £3.50 an hour despite paying to build car parks through their taxes.

The Independent marks the 4th anniversary of the Iraq invasion on its front page.

Iraq: A country drenched in blood
Four years to the day after US and British troops invaded Iraq, its people are full of fear. Iraqis often have a look of half-suppressed panic in their eyes as they tell how violent death has touched them again and again.

The Guardian reports

Bush pleads with US public to stand firm over Iraq war

George Bush called on the American public to show patience yesterday as the Iraq war went into its fifth year, with millions displaced, basic facilities such as electricity still patchy and record levels of violence.
In a far cry from his boast in May 2003 of mission accomplished, Mr Bush offered a more modest assessment, saying the war could still be won.
In a five-minute statement from the White House, the president rejected pressure from Congress to announce a timetable for withdrawal of the 150,000-plus US troops. Congress is scheduled to vote on legislation on Thursday to set such a timetable. But Mr Bush indicated he had no plans for a withdrawal in the near future, giving credence to a belief in Washington that he intends to leave office in January 2009 leaving the problem to his successor.

The Times returns to the theme of Zimbabwe

Mugabe threat to kick out diplomats for helping victims of state brutality

President Mugabe threatened to expel Western diplomats yesterday as his security forces pressed on with a violent crackdown to suppress a feared popular uprising.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, the Foreign Minister, said that Zimbabwe was prepared to invoke the Geneva Convention to kick out envoys who, it claimed, offered support to Mr Mugabe’s political opponents.
“We can use that,” he said of the convention, according to ambassadors present. It was the first time in Zimbabwe’s fractious relations with the West that it has issued such a threat, diplomats said.

The Mail leads with the story

SO MUCH FOR THE MAGIC OF BIRTH

Thousands of pregnant women are being left alone during labour in overstretched NHS maternity units.
Instead of being guided through what should be one of the most joyful days of their life, they find themselves isolated and frightened.

Almost two-thirds of women told a nationwide survey they were left alone too soon after the birth, while some first-time mothers said they received little or no advice.

This time it is not the phone ins themselves that worries the Mirror but the competition itself

THE EUROVISION SONG CON-TEST

EUROVISION was hit by a cheating storm last night after the band that won the British entry contest were accused of miming their song.
Rivals such as Justin Hawkins and Brian Harvey were furious when Scooch admitted they had two hidden backing singers to boost their performance.
They claimed the group duped the public by getting them to vote without knowing they had offstage help on winning song Flying The Flag (For You).

Other entertainment stories are making the news this time fom America.

Spector goes on trial accused of murder reports the Independent

The curtain opened on California's latest piece of judicial theatre yesterday as Phil Spector, the legendary record producer and reclusive eccentric, appeared in court for the first day of his long-awaited trial for the murder of a B-list actress shot dead in his mansion.
Spector, sporting a new blond mop-top hairdo, looked on with interest as the arduous process of jury selection got underway in the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. He was accompanied by his latest wife, Rachelle Short, several bodyguards and a clutch of lawyers.

NAOMI'S COMMUNITY SERVICE CHIC reports the Mirror

THE nipped-in sleeveless jacket comes with dayglo orange and yellow segments for that instant get-you-noticed look.
Matched with black combat boots and rubber gloves, it is the latest in community service chic as modelled by Naomi Campbell yesterday.
The supermodel looked just like Lady Muck as she prepared to clean the floors - and maybe even the loos - in a dingy New York warehouse.
Naomi - serving five days' community service for throwing a mobile phone at her maid - arrived at 8am on Manhattan's Lower East Side wearing a smart designer outfit, stilettos and trademark sunglasses.
But she had the combat boots slung over her shoulder and soon got busy under the stern eye of sanitation boss Albert Durrell.

You scrub up well says the Sun onits front page

The Telegraph reports on the start of another trial as its ex owner appears in court

Conrad Black's wife lets fly

Conrad Black's wife, Barbara Amiel, shattered the calm of his fraud trial yesterday, telling a woman journalist that she was a "slut" and dismissing the profession as "vermin".Black had previously shrugged off the media camped outside Chicago's federal court house, occasionally batting away questions with one-word answers or even responding in French. However, Lady Black - who has accompanied her husband each day since the trial started last Wednesday and has so far refused to answer questions - slipped into the vernacular as the pair left after a day of legal wrangling that delayed opening statements in the trial.

The front page of the Sun reports

VEIL BAN ON KIDS

VEILS will be banned in schools to help pupils learn and to keep them safe, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has ruled.
His decision will affect thousands of Muslim girls who wear clothing like the full niqab.
He will publish details of his guidance to headteachers in the Commons today. The wearing of full-length robes may also be affected.
A source said: “Veils mean teachers can’t see the face.

The Mail also prominently features the story

School heads get right to ban veils

New government guidelines unveiled today will spell out the right of headteachers to ban the Muslim veil or other religious dress from the classroom if they feel it is getting in the way of children learning.
Education Secretary Alan Johnson has drawn up the updated guidance after a 12-year-old girl lost a legal battle to wear the full-face niqab in class in her Buckinghamshire school last month.

Finally the papers feature the story of a polar bear at London zoo,the Sun reporting

Kill tame bear, say animal nuts

ANIMAL-RIGHTS activists have called for a zoo’s baby Polar bear to be KILLED — because it relies on humans.
Knut became a superstar after he was rejected by his mother at birth last December.
His twin brother died after just four days.
The hand-reared polar bear touched the hearts of the nation and became the symbol of Berlin Zoo.
He was even photographed by star snapper Annie Leibowitz for an international campaign.
But extremists in Germany claim Knut’s cuteness is against his own “animal rights” and he should be put to sleep.