The Telegraph reports that

Talk starts over release of British sailors

Hopes for the imminent release of 15 sailors and Royal Marines held in Iran were dampened yesterday when Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, urged "caution" over the chances of a swift end to the crisis.

Mrs Beckett said that the Government wanted a diplomatic solution to the stand-off, softening the line taken by the Prime Minister that a "tougher" approach might be needed.

The Indpendent takes the same lead

Britain vs Iran: A high-stakes game of chess

The stand-off over the 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran looks to be moving towards a de facto prisoner exchange, despite denials by Britain and Iran that a swap was intended.
The first sign of a breakthrough yesterday was the release of Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat abducted from the streets of Baghdad two months ago, whom Iran claimed had been seized by Iraqi commandos controlled by the US. At the same time, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said the Iraqi government was "intensively" seeking the release of five Iranian officials captured in a US helicopter raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the Kurdish capital of Arbil in January.

The papers though can't agree on thios morning's main news.

The Mail leads with

Cut-price midwives a 'risk' to babies

Lives will be at risk under 'scandalous' maternity plans which mean that poorlytrained assistants could deliver babies, campaigners have warned.
Ministers have reneged on an election promise to guarantee-that all mothers receive one-to-one care from a midwife during labour.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt - who promised to offer all women a home birth by 2009 - admitted that midwives would probably not be present during the whole labour in any NHS hospital.

The Times also has a maternity theme

Childless couples to face new IVF hurdle

IVF clinics that produce twins and triplets in more than one in ten pregnancies will face disciplinary action under plans to cut multiple births announced yesterday.
The cap proposed by the fertility watchdog would mean that about 50 per cent of women having IVF treatment, mostly first-time patients under 35, would be allowed to use just one embryo at a time.
It would virtually eliminate their chances of having twins or triplets, which is the greatest health risk of the procedure to both mothers and babies, but could slightly reduce the prospect of a successful pregnancy at the first attempt.

Whilst also reporting that

Specialists urge ditching of system to promote doctors

Leading doctors have called for the abandonment of a new system for selecting candidates for higher training and asked consultants to boycott the process. In a letter to The Times, 23 of the top specialists in the country say the system is in chaos and that it is folly for senior doctors to continue struggling to keep it afloat.
They say that the review launched by the Department of Health into the Medical Training and Application Service (MTAS) in an attempt to rescue it is legally questionable and has made things worse by restricting young doctors to just a single interview.

The Telegraph leads with

Red meat 'raises risk of breast cancer'

As little as 2oz (57g) of beef, lamb or pork a day showed an effect. Post-menopausal woman who ate larger amounts, 3.6oz (103g), of processed meats such as sausage, bacon, ham or pies had an increased risk of 64 per cent.Even younger, pre-menopausal women had a slightly raised risk if they ate red meat daily, the study from the University of Sheffield found.The research, led by Prof Janet Cade, a professor of nutritional epidemiology and public health, involved 35,000 women aged between 35 and 69 who have been followed for nearly eight years.

The Guardian leads with the story of

Four years in Guantánamo - the man who said no to MI5

British resident Jamil el-Banna, 44, knew Abu Qatada, a cleric accused of being al-Qaida's spiritual leader in Europe. In 2002 Mr Banna, a father of five from London, was seized by the CIA and secretly flown to Guantánamo Bay, after MI5 wrongly told the Americans that his travelling companion was carrying bomb parts on a business trip to Gambia. On Friday, his companion, Bisher al-Rawi, was released without charge after four years in the US detention camp, after it emerged that he had helped MI5 keep track of Qatada. But Mr Banna's incarceration in Cuba continues. It has now emerged that only days before Mr Banna's arrest, MI5 visited him at his home and attempted to recruit him as an informer, with the lure of a new identity, relocation and money. The Guardian has obtained this MI5 document in which the intelligence officer details, in his own words, that encounter.

More trouble for Gordon Browm according to the Independent

Brown accused of caving in to France on rebate

The Tories accused the Chancellor of "selling Britain down the river" in a "sneaky" deal, seizing on a leaked report that Mr Brown had made unnecessary concessions on the rebate. The attack was part of the Tories' strategy of inflicting the maximum damage on the Prime Minister-in-waiting before he takes power from Tony Blair. Since December 2005, Mr Brown has been at war with the other EU nations, including France, over how to implement a deal on the rebate struck by Mr Blair when he negotiated the EU's €862bn (£580bn) seven-year budget.

The Guardian agrees

Gordon Brown was last night under renewed pressure from the Conservatives after Brussels revealed that the chancellor had been forced to back down in a row over Britain's highly politically-charged EU rebate.
Brussels said the Treasury had yesterday finally abandoned a 15-month rearguard action against a new deal for financing an expanded EU as the price for securing a Europe-wide agreement to tackle VAT fraud.

Whilst the Telegraph continues to concentrate on the pensions debate

CBI spoils Brown pension alibi

However, the CBI yesterday released a copy of its 1997 Budget submission to the Chancellor which stated: "It is widely thought that the Government might restrict, or even abolish, the tax credits attached to dividends. The CBI would oppose this measure.
"This change in isolation would raise money for Government at the expense of businesses and shareholders (taken together), cutting the funds available for investment. The move would cut the actuarial value of pension funds which would need to be compensated at least in the case of defined benefit schemes.

Grandmother faces manslaughter charge after dog killed five-year-old reports the Guardian

The grandmother of a five-year-old girl who was mauled to death by a pit bull terrier-type dog was yesterday charged with manslaughter. Ellie Lawrenson suffered severe head and neck injuries in the attack by her uncle's pet at her grandmother Jackie Simpson's home in St Helens, Merseyside, early on New Year's Day.
The one-year-old dog, Reuben, was owned by Ellie's uncle, Kiel Simpson, 23. He has since been charged with possession of a dangerous dog.


PIT BULL GIRL ELLIE GRAN ON DEATH CHARGE says the Mirror

The dramatic developments were announced at a press conference held by Merseyside police yesterday.
Det Supt Stephen Brougham said: "Police have spent the last three months piecing together the circumstances surrounding Ellie's tragic death.
"The Crown Prosecution Service has decided on the evidence gathered to charge Jackie and Kiel Simpson."
Chief Crown Prosecutor Paul Whittaker said the charges exposed the perils of keeping dangerous dogs.
He said: "Ellie was savaged by a pit bull terrier type dog belonging to her uncle while she had been left and cared for by her grandmother. Her parents were out enjoying New Year festivities.

The Times reports that

You could be going home in a body bag, British diplomat told

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to London was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for a dressing-down yesterday after the state media in Harare issued what appeared to be a death threat against a British diplomat.
Gillian Dare, second secretary at the British Embassy, was accused of “blatant interference” in Zimbabwean politics by visiting injured members of the Opposition in hospital.
“It will be a pity for her family to welcome her at Heathrow airport in a body bag, like some of her colleagues from Iraq and Afghanistan,” wrote a columnist in The Herald, a state-owned daily paper.

The tabloids take an interest in the exploits of Keith Richards,the Mirror leading with

RICHARDS: I SNORTED MY DAD'S ASHES

KEITH Richards has confessed to his most shocking drugs binge - when he snorted his dad's ashes.
The Rolling Stones hellraiser, 63, mixed his father Bert's remains with cocaine. He admitted: "It was the strangest thing I've tried to snort. But it went down pretty well."
Rolling Stones wildman Keith Richards has probably tried every illegal substance known to man in more than 40 years of debauchery.
But fans will be horrified by his most shocking drugs admission - that he inhaled a cocktail of his late dad's ashes and cocaine.
The rock hellraiser, 63, admitted: "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father.
"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow."

The Sun shares some more stories

In his interview, Keith also recalled his worst drugs experience — when pals thought he died after “someone put strychnine in my dope”.
He said: “I was comatose but totally awake. I could listen to everyone, and they were like, ‘He’s dead, he’s dead!’”
But he said he has no “pretensions about immortality”, adding: “I was number one on the Who’s Likely To Die list for ten years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.”

The Mail reports on

The big bean battle: Branston goes large to take on Heinz

Heinz faces a challenge to the supremacy of its baked beans. And it's a big one.
Branston is to sell tins containing beans double the size of the haricot which has traditionally been used by manufacturers.
The move is the latest step in a running battle that has been going on between the rival companies since Branston launched its own baked beans in November. It initially won a PR victory with claims that Branston had beaten Heinz in taste tests thanks to a higher tomato content.
At one stage the firm even threatened to hijack the famous slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz".

The Indy reports on Boris Johnson's latest gaff

Portsmouth? It's full of obesity and drugs, says Boris

It is something to do with their shared maritime heritage or maybe, as his supporters claim, it is merely his inability to tell a lie. Maybe he just doesn't learn.
But yesterday the residents of Portsmouth discovered common ground with the people of Liverpool and the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea when they found themselves victim to a dose of Boris Johnson-style candour.
While on official Conservative business to talk to students at the city's university, the shadow minister for higher education found himself unimpressed with the historic home of the Navy. Gliding through its apparently unlovely streets in a chauffeur-driven £340,000 Maybach limousine he was simultaneously road testing for GQ magazine, Johnson observed "one of the most depressed" towns in the south of England.
Writing up his car review, he went further. Portsmouth was "too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs".

Two days to Easter and the Express reports that

YOUTH CANNOT CRACK EASTER


In a sign that Britain is losing its Christian values, one in six 16-24-year-olds do not know what happened on Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified. And one in 10 do not understand the meaning of Easter Sunday, the day of his resurrection.The survey of 1,130 people was carried out for Somerfield as it gears up for the Easter rush to buy chocolate eggs.The news led the Church of England to warn that the true meaning of the festival could become “as hollow as most chocolate eggs”.

Its front page returns to its favourite topic

DIANA DEATH: ANOTHER COVER-UP

CRUCIAL evidence which details what Princes Charles and Philip know about Princess Diana’s death will not be made public at her inquest.
In a move likely to spark further accusations of a whitewash, the coroner, Baroness Butler-Sloss, yesterday ruled that she will retain tight control over the mass of documents from the £4million Operation Paget inquiry into the Princess’s death.

TGV lives up to its name with 357mph record says the Independent

A double-decker French train smashed the world speed record for railways yesterday, touching 574.8 kph - or 357 mph - on a gently downhill stretch of track in eastern France.
The five-car experimental train fell only just short of the speed record for all forms of train travel - 581 kph - held by a Japanese magnetic levitation (Maglev) train.
By pulverising its own speed record for conventional railways - and almost matching the Maglev - France hopes to propel itself to the forefront of a growing international market for high speed rail technology.