The situation in Zimbabwe is the lead in both the Guardian and the Independent this morning

'Go hang' - Mugabe's message to the west headlines the former

Robert Mugabe rejected growing international condemnation of Zimbabwe yesterday, telling the west to "go hang" and attacking the opposition's "campaign of violence".
Amid signs that other African leaders are increasingly keen to distance themselves from the Zimbabwean regime, President Mugabe robustly defended his police forces which this week allegedly beat opposition protesters with iron bars and truncheons. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, suffered a suspected fractured skull but was last night out of danger.

The Independent has an exclusive with the opposition leader writing for the paper

Morgan Tsvangirai: They brutalised my flesh but will never break my spirit

Seeing a police station, which must be a sanctuary for the protection of the rights of citizens, being converted into a hell-hole was heart-wrenching.
Seeing police officers trash their constitutional duties in favour of brutalising innocent civilians trying to exercise their basic freedoms was equally devastating.
Yes, they brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free.

Mugabe may declare emergency to finish the growing protests says the Times

As opposition militants showed that they were prepared to meet violent repression with increasing retaliation, concern was growing last night that Mr Mugabe may declare a state of emergency that would strip what is left of the curbs on him. Unofficial reports said that the issue had been discussed at Cabinet and in the politburo of his ruling Zanu (PF) party this week.

It leads with the report that

University squeeze on children of graduates

Middle-class pupils face losing out on university places if their parents have degrees and professional jobs, after changes to the admissions system. For the first time, applicants will be asked to reveal whether their parents also went to university, as part of moves to attract more working-class students into higher education.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said yesterday that it had also decided that information on the occupation and ethnicity of applicants’ parents should also be made available to admissions officers. Previously this had been held back until after places were offered.

Would-be students to be quizzed on parents says the Guardian

The move, announced by the central admissions body Ucas yesterday, is part of an effort to drive up the number of students from poor backgrounds getting into university.
"Admissions officers should have as much information as possible, to help enable them to assess who has the potential to succeed," said the higher education minister, Bill Rammell.
The initiative drew criticism from the Tories, who fear that the details provided will lead to discrimination against teenagers from middle-class backgrounds.

The Telegraph reports that

Sept 11 plotter boasts of beheading reporter

The mastermind of the September 11 attacks boasted that he beheaded an American journalist and devised several attacks against key British targets in a shocking confession to a US military panel.
The statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, which includes a rambling justification for al-Qa'eda's confrontation with the West and violence against civilian targets, provides one of the most detailed insights into the organisation's activities to date.

Jowell: cost of Olympics has tripled to £9bn says the Independent

The budget for the London Olympics has tripled in a year to more than £9bn and a raid on National Lottery money will now be necessary, the Government announced yesterday.
Rising costs in construction and security, an unforeseen VAT bill, and a massive contingency allowance has seen the total soar beyond the most recent government forecast of £3.3bn.
The Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, announced to Parliament that most of the shortfall will be funded through a further £675m from the National Lottery, taking its contribution to the 2012 Games to £2.2bn.

The Mail leads with the same story,

LOTTERY FURY AT £9b OLYMPICS with the paper upset by the fact that

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell sanctioned another £675 million raid on good causes - meaning almost £2.2 billion of Lottery proceeds will go towards the 2012 Games.Campaigners said it was a betrayal of the promise made by Tony Blair last week at Tate Modern that there would be no going back to "boom and bust" arts funding.

The same paper reports on the brutal killing on a teenager on the streets of London

Stabbed boy's girlfriend tells of how knife gang ambushed them

The girlfriend of a teenager stabbed to death in Hammersmith told today how his murder was a 'set up'.
Kodjo Yenga, 16, was ambushed by a gang of youths carrying knives, baseball bats and hammers on Wednesday afternoon.

describing how

after a gang of boys and girls chased him chanting, "Kill him, kill him".
Kodjo Yenja, 16, was left dying in a pool of blood after being stabbed and beaten.

The Sun's headline on its front page is simply

KILL HIM KILL HIM

The Mirror returns to the McCartney's for its front page

BEATLE MANIAC
HEATHER'S ASTONISHING CLAIMS ON LOVE, LIFE AND MACCA SPLIT

SHE was supposed to be highlighting cruelty to pigs - but yesterday ranting Heather Mills spouted a load of hogwash about her marriage split.
Heather, 39, toured TV and radio stations to tell millions of viewers and listeners how pigs suffer because of factory farming.
But in back-to-back interviews with Sky, BBC News 24, Five, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio One, GMTV and ITV News she bitterly complained about her own mistreatment over her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney.

Meanwhile the Express reports that

Police warn Heather: Stop wasting our time

ATTEMPTS by Heather Mills to resurrect her tarnished image were dealt a blow yesterday when she was warned by police to stop wasting their time.Launching a public-relations assault, the estranged wife of Sir Paul McCartney gave a series of interviews in which she declared herself the victim of a hate campaign – and said “Beatle nutters” were hell-bent on destroying her.But her efforts appeared to have backfired last night as the police publicly criticised her for “crying wolf”.In an unprecedented move, Brighton & Hove police Chief Superintendent Kevin Moore said: “We are having to spend a disproportionate amount of time on one particular person.

Its lead though warns of

Foot of snow this weekend

BRITAIN is braced for an Arctic battering with icy winds bringing up to a foot of snow this weekend.The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for the whole country for Sunday and Monday. It says treacherous conditions could lead to “heavy disruption” of transport links.Gale force winds will blast the nation from the North for at least five days, causing temperatures to plummet to around freezing and turning snowfall into blizzards.

The Telegraph carries an article by the Prime Minister who declares

We'd all be losers if the Union fell concluding that

Our age is being shaped by the twin forces of globalisation and interdependence. In such an era, our Union is not a relic of a bygone age, but a quintessentially modern expression of how we find common bridges between diverse peoples and hold shared values while retaining distinctive identities. What a dismal message it would send to the rest of the world that we, on these small islands, cannot live together in a political, social and economic union. Instead, I believe we should celebrate what we have achieved in this evolving Union over the past 300 years and continue to be a powerful symbol of what harmony and co-operation can achieve.

According to the same paper,

Green light given to empty bins every 2 weeks

A Whitehall-funded study published today concludes that concerns about overflowing bins attracting vermin are misplaced provided the waste is dealt with "in a clean and efficient way." The report from the Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) will be seen as a signal for more authorities to drop weekly collections. So far, about one third of the 300 waste authorities in England, covering about 10 million households, are experimenting with reduced collections.

AXE FOR WEEKLY RUBBISH PICK-UP says the Mirror

FURIOUS campaigners hit out yesterday at a report clearing the way for the scrapping of weekly rubbish collections.
They warned it will lead to more rats, maggots and smells and could risk a public health disaster.
The controversial government funded report today claims there are no "adverse health effects", giving the green light to councils across the country to collect rubbish once every two weeks.