The headlines this morning are dominated by yesterday's falls on the world stock markets

BLACK THURSDAY says the Sun

BRITAIN faced panic on the crisis-hit Stock Market yesterday as billions of pounds in shares were sold off.
Almost £70billion was wiped from the value of the UK’s leading 100 firms — the biggest fall in more than four years.

Summer meltdown: stock market suffers biggest fall in four years says the Independent

Crash" is a dangerous word. No one has managed to define it precisely but, like a juggernaut that careers off the highway, slams into your house and parks itself in your lounge, you certainly know when you've been hit by one, even when you can't quite believe it or explain how it happened.

Stock market rout as blue chips lose £60b headlines the Times
The FTSE 100 index of London’s leading shares slumped by more than 4 per cent, suffering its steepest one-day percentage loss for nearly 4½ years, as it shed more than 250 points in frenzied dealing.
In points terms, the drop in the bluechip benchmark was its fourth-biggest ever, and eclipsed even that suffered on Black Monday in 1987.

The Guardian warns

Pension funds lose £27bn in market turmoil

Britain's pension funds were last night plunged into a £15bn deficit after the biggest fall in London share prices since the eve of the Iraq war in 2003 cut the value of the stock market by £60bn in a single day's frenetic trading.
After years of building up the value of funds following the dotcom collapse at the start of the decade, funds are now facing the prospect of new black holes after seeing a £12bn surplus eradicated by the market turmoil of the past month.

But says the Telegraph

in a remarkable sign of the current volatility in the markets, the US staged an astonishing turnaround in the final minutes of trading, briefly turning positive before closing down just 15.7 points at 12845.8.
Jim Reid, a credit strategist at Deutsche Bank, explained: "The rally seemed to be prompted by speculation surrounding possible rate cuts by the Fed as well as rescue financing for some financials which gave a significant boost to financial stocks, most notably Bear Stearns whose stock rose nearly 13pc its largest gain since October 1998."

The Guardian reports yesterday's other major news story

'The earth was like jelly' - hundreds die in Peru quake, but Lima escapes

Peruvian rescue services were combing through rubble last night for survivors of a powerful earthquake which killed at least 450 people and injured more than 1,500.
Several villages and towns south of the capital, Lima, were in ruins, with dozens of bodies scattered on the streets and hundreds more feared to be lying beneath collapsed buildings.
The 8.0-magnitude quake struck at 6.40pm local time on Wednesday and lasted for several minutes. Power blackouts, cracked motorways and boulders tumbling from mountains blocked the Pan-American highway and delayed rescuers reaching the worst-hit areas.

The Independent reporting that

Rescue workers and local journalists reported scenes of widespread devastation, as homeless survivors walked around in a daze, searching for friends and relatives and constructing makeshift sleeping quarters on the cracked streets and pavements of their levelled neighbourhoods.
"The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets," the mayor of Pisco, Juan Mendoza, told a radio station. "We don't have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen, churches, stores, hotels, everything is destroyed."

The Times reports on its front page that

Main homes exempt in new Tory plan to abolish inheritance tax

Inheritance tax, faced by more and more families because of the steep rise in property prices in recent decades, would be abolished under Conservative proposals published today.
In a dramatic opening of the bidding war between the parties in advance of the next general election, a policy group headed by John Redwood will say that the tax - which at present applies to estates worth more than £300,000 and brings in about £4 billion a year for the Treasury - should go when economic circumstances allow.

Tories will scrap inheritance tax, pledges Cameron says the Mail

It leads with a different theme though

Blood pressure epidemic spirals as doctors warn our lifestyle is killing us

Nine in ten Britons can expect to suffer high blood pressure, putting them at risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.
Alcohol abuse, smoking, a salt-rich diet and a lack of exercise have caused the condition to soar out of control, warn medical experts today.
Hypertension, the medical term, is now diagnosed even in adolescents and children and if ignored could lead to a "partly irreversible high-risk condition years later", says an editorial in the Lancet journal.
A global epidemic means the number of sufferers worldwide will soar past the billion mark in the next 20 years.

Both the Mirror and the Express continue to lead with Madeleine

McCanns' 20,000 cards of hope headlines the Mirror

Every morning Kate and Gerry McCann wake with the hope that maybe this time the new day will release them from their hell.
Every night they go to sleep with their hopes shattered yet again. Another day with no news of vanished daughter Madeleine. Another day of pain in their hearts and an aching void in their lives.
Yesterday the couple, both 39, had to suffer the admission by Portugal's police chief that after 105 days, 450 interviews and dozens of claimed sightings he still had "no idea" where Madeleine, four, was or why she was snatched.

Meanwhile the Express claims

WE ARE HOURS AWAY FROM MADELEINE SOLUTION

Portugal’s top police officer Alipio Ribeiro made the announcement as sources revealed the net was closing on new suspects in the case. It is the first time such a high-ranking officer has spoken publicly since Madeleine vanished 106 days ago.
Mr Ribeiro, head of Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria, said senior officers were preparing for a major breakthrough. They are working on the theory that Madeleine died on the night she disappeared. The announcement follows reports that detectives know the identity of her killers.

Yesterday's A level results get a lot of coverage

A-levels: The exams 'you can't fail' says the Telegraph

A record quarter of entrants now achieve an A grade and 96.9 per cent of all students pass the "gold standard" exam.
The increase in top grades has been partly fuelled by the rise in the number of students tackling the harder, traditional subjects such as further maths, physics and chemistry. The trend also saw boys close the gap on girls

The Guardian reports that

Comprehensives falter as top grade gap widens

Ministers yesterday defended the record of comprehensive schools at A-level as another round of record results revealed that the steady rise in A grades was largely fuelled by private and state selective schools.
The widening gap between state comprehensives and secondary moderns provided the most eye-catching statistics on a day when the traditional rows over whether the exams were being dumbed down were quieter than usual.


New grades will raise the bar for best performers says the Times

Getting top marks in A-level examinations could become harder after the introduction of a new A* and an A** grade, exam chiefs suggested yesterday, after record results showed that more than a quarter of all A-level entries were awarded an A.

The Mirror publishes an INVESTIGATION EVERY PARENT REALLY MUST READ

Struggling under the weight, an 11-year-old girl walks out of an off licence carrying enough powerful booze to kill her - a terrifying snapshot of Britain in 2007.
It's a story which will shock every responsible parent in the country to the core and comes days after a police chief and government minister both blamed cheap and easily available alcohol for the widespread anti-social behaviour and violence among youngsters.
With just two weeks' pocket money in her pocket, Paige Walker was able to buy nine litres of cider, some as strong as 7.5 per cent proof.

Meanwhile the Mail reports that

Thugs that break an ASBO should not go to jail, judges told

The Sentencing Advisory Panel wants even the worst offenders - where imprisonment is "unavoidable" - to have their maximum jail term cut to just a year.
Opponents said the move sent out entirely the wrong message at a time of public horror over the killing of Garry Newlove in Warrington.
They said that when a father can be beaten to death for confronting a teenage gang, sentences should be toughened rather than weakened.


Climate change demonstrations spread to two more airports reports the Indy

Eleven people were arrested outside Biggin Hill in Kent, an airport popular with business figures and celebrities flying private jets, after protesters chained themselves to gates and lay down on the main access road to the airport yesterday morning.
Twenty protesters at Farnborough airport in Hampshire launched a similar protest, blockading the main gate for about two and a half hours. They dispersed peacefully without any arrests being made. The campaigners at Biggin Hill said they chose that particular airport because of its popularity with clients using private jets, which they said was one of the most inefficient and polluting ways to travel.

The Guardian reports on the

US citizen found guilty of aiding terror groups

Jose Padilla, a US citizen branded an "enemy combatant" by the Bush administration, faces life in jail after being found guilty yesterday of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and elsewhere.
In one of the highest profile terror-related cases to be heard in a US court since 9/11, Padilla was convicted of providing material support to violent Islamist groups. Convicted with him were Adham Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Kifah Jayyousi, a naturalised US citizen from Jordan. Lawyers for the men said the money was for charity relief work in the countries, not terrorism.

The papers continue to follow the lottery winner

HEY BIG SPENDER says the Sun

BRITAIN’S biggest Lotto winner spent some of her £35.4million jackpot yesterday — at a DISCOUNT shopping centre.
Thrifty Angela Kelly, 40, still has an eye for a bargain, despite her fortune earning £5,338 a day in interest.
She and son John, 14, were not splashing out on posh grub either. A female friend paid for their £16.17 lunch of roast beef rolls with chips and soft drinks.

Whilst the Mirror reports that

£35million winner had a Lotto heartache

The 40-year-old single mum has been repeatedly rocked by tragedy and bitter disappointment since she was a young girl.
Relatives told last night how she was devastated when her dad walked out - on her 16th birthday.
AdvertisementShe also lost her mum to breast cancer and her marriage crumbled as she desperately battled to hold her family together.

Elvis lives on 30 years after his death reports the Telegraph

He might be three decades passed but the legend lives on, as thousands of fans proved when they marched through his Graceland estate to mark the 30th anniversary of his death.Memphis officials estimated that a vigil, related concerts and seminars organised by Elvis Presley Enterprises will bring in 75,000 visitors to the area for "Elvis Week", marking the anniversary.
Despite temperatures reaching 38C, fans began lining up on Wednesday evening - many waiting hours - to file up the drive of the estate and past his grave in a candlelight vigil.

The Guardian says that

Blair hires Clinton lawyer to seek multimillion memoir deal

Tony Blair has decided to write his memoirs and has hired the US lawyer who negotiated a multimillion dollar deal for Bill Clinton to secure him a publishing fortune. Sources close to the former prime minister confirmed that Robert Barnett, who arranged a $12m deal for Mr Clinton's hefty My Life, would be contacting publishers on his behalf.
Rupert Murdoch's publishing giant, HarperCollins, will be among the favourites to secure the memoirs, particularly as Mr Blair is using an American lawyer. So too will Random House, which took Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years to the top of the UK bestseller list, despite the former spin-doctor admitting that he had excised material he thought would be damaging to Gordon Brown.


Finally the Times reports that the

Petition against TV actress’s tearoom exposed as a fraud
Police are to investigate claims of fraud and dirty tricks by villagers seeking to stop Penelope Keith, the award-winning actress, from building a café in their remote Highland community, The Times has learnt.
In allegations that have rocked the village of Avoch (population 1,500), local residents have complained that their names have mysteriously appeared on a petition against a tea-room proposed by Ms Keith and her husband, Rodney Timson, who have a holiday cottage nearby. Among the names on the 12-page petition are a man now deceased and a pensioner who cannot read, as well as some of the café’s most vocal supporters.
Detectives are to investigate after one resident lodged a complaint with police yesterday, alleging fraud. Three other residents have made complaints to the local council, which received the petition this year and is now asking for it to be withdrawn.