Doom and gloom this morning in the papers as we have another outbreak of foot and nouth and signs that recession could be on the way

Lockdown on farms over foot and mouth is the lead in the Times this morning

Britain’s farms were locked down last night and all animal movements banned again as government veterinary surgeons urgently investigated a new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey.
A handful of new suspect cases on other farms was also reported near fields at the centre of the alert, close to the Queen’s farm at Windsor.
Protection zones were set up and cattle culled within hours as a precaution after displaying symptoms of the highly infectious disease. Other animals were being tested and results are expected today.

You gave the 'all clear' too soon says the Sun

GORDON Brown was last night accused of ordering experts to give the all-clear too early — after a fresh foot and mouth outbreak.
Tory leader David Cameron suggested Chief Vet Debby Reynolds was told to act too soon when she declared Britain free of the disease last Friday.


Return of foot and mouth brings despair says the Telegraph

The National Farmers' Union described the news as a "hammer blow" to an industry already facing losses of up to £80 million as a result of August's outbreak, which was blamed on a leak of foot and mouth virus from a Government-run laboratory in Pirbright.
The Conservatives suggested that the Government had acted too hastily in lifting a ban on livestock movements last weekend, motivated by a desire to "put (foot and mouth) behind them".

It leads though with

Alistair Darling attacks banks' reckless lending

In an interview with the paper the Chancellor

launches an attack on banks for lending too freely and allowing consumer debt to spiral to record levels.People should consider the consequences more carefully before signing up to loan deals, he says.


The Independent leads with the same theme

First the credit crunch... now the spending squeeze

The era of spend, spend, spend is coming to an end. Britain's shoppers, who for years have been racking up debt on credit cards and home loans with abandon, are finally starting to cut back on their expenditure. A slew of economic and retailing figures this month suggests that families struggling to pay higher mortgage payments are becoming more cautious about the property market and shying away from "big ticket" purchases such as sofas and televisions. In the past few days, some of country's leading store chains, from French Connection to Next, have warned of tougher times to come for the high street, wiping millions off City forecasts. And the retail industry is already predicting that Christmas will be a wash-out.

Boom turning to gloom as house prices begin to show signs of falling

The first signs that Britain's long-running housing boom could be over have begun to appear, with prices across England and Wales falling last month for the first time in nearly two years. Five interest rate rises in the past year have made it increasingly difficult for first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder, according to a report published today by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. reports the Guardian

The Mail leads with

'Prepare for higher mortgage rates' , Bank of England chief warns homeowners

Homeowners were warned to brace themselves for higher mortgage rates yesterday.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King said the cost of borrowing was likely to rise whatever the Bank did with official base rates.
It was effectively an admission that mortgage rates are out of the Bank's control as a result of the crisis in the world's financial markets.

The tabloids continue to report the latest in the Maddy case on their front pages

Madeleine cops want Kate's diary says the Mirror

Portuguese prosecutors have asked to examine Kate McCann’s diary and Madeleine’s Cuddle Cat toy, it emerged today.
It was also confirmed that the McCann’s will NOT seek to use money raised for the Missing Madeleine fund to pay for their legal defence.
Kate and Gerry McCann have appointed British lawyers to support their legal team in Portugal after being named as formal suspects in their daughter’s disappearance.

DOES MUM'S DIARY HOLD VITAL CLUE asks the Express

Detectives believe that desperate entries made by Madeleine’s mother will help unlock the secret of what happened to the four-year-old.

COPS WANT CUDDLE CAT headlines the Sun

DETECTIVES were last night plotting to seize Madeleine McCann’s precious Cuddle Cat toy from her mum.
The Portuguese cops believe forensic tests on the pink animal can yield vital clues to the fate of the four-year-old. adding

They also asked a judge yesterday to let them take mum Kate’s DIARIES, dad Gerry’s LAPTOP computer — plus LETTERS and other personal items.
Last night an aunt raged: “It’s mental cruelty.” GP Kate, 39, has carried Cuddle Cat almost constantly since little Maddie vanished from the family’s Algarve holiday apartment in Praia da Luz more than four months ago.

McCanns may order own DNA tests on car reports the Guardian

the BBC last night quoted a source close to Mr and Mrs McCann who said they were considering carrying out their own tests on the vehicle, which was being kept in a "safe place to avoid any possibility of evidence being planted".

The paper leads with an exclusive story

Al-Qaida has revived, spread and is capable of a spectacular

There is increasing evidence "that 'core' al-Qaida is proving adaptable and resilient, and has retained an ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the western world despite the attrition it has suffered", said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "The threat from Islamist terrorism remains as high as ever, and looks set to get worse," it added.
"The US and its allies have failed to deal a death blow to al-Qaida; the organisation's ideology appears to have taken root to such a degree that it will require decades to eradicate," it continued.

US commander to meet Gordon Brown as pullout from Basra frays ties reports the Times

The general arrives in London after several Republican and Democrat senators accused Britain this week of abandoning southern Iraq to Shia death squads.
The senators’ comments, during two days of testimony to Congress by General Petraeus on the Iraq surge, follow public criticism by several American military officials over the British relocation to the edge of Basra.

Meanwhile the Independent reports

President Petraeus? Iraqi official recalls the day US general revealed ambition

The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.
Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq's Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.
"I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, 'No, that would be too soon'," Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said.

Children don't exercise enough reports the Telegraph

Fewer than three per cent of 11-year-old children are taking enough exercise at the time in their lives when they should be most active, a major research project on the inactivity of youth reports today.Their findings will fuel concerns about the extent of the couch potato culture, with parents afraid to let children out to play, while youngsters prefer computer games to sport. Doctors have warned that this generation of overweight, lazy children could be the first to be outlived by its parents.

And more health worries in the Times

So maybe Granny did know best

New mothers survive on an average of three and a half hours’ sleep a night for the first four months after their babies are born, half as much as their own mothers had.
Most mothers’ lives do not get much better until their babies reach 18 months old, with five hours’ sleep the norm for the first year and a half, new research has found.
The study, which included a poll of 3,000 parents, suggests that the gadgets and monitors installed in the home of almost every new parent are largely to blame for the sleep deficit.

And in the Guardian

Hint of cancer risk after 10 years mobile phone use, say researchers

Mobile phones do not pose health problems to adults in the short term but there is a "slight hint" of a cancer risk for long-term users, according to the results of a study which could not rule out risks of brain or ear cancer for those who have used mobiles for more than 10 years.

And with the price of oil continuing to rise the Independent claims

Rising petrol prices could force obese Americans to hit the street

For overweight Americans relief is on the way, in the shape of ever-higher petrol prices. Getting out the car to drive downtown for a super-sized plate full of fatty fast-food is the highlight of the day for many Americans. The result is a public health crisis with four out of 10 American adults already overweight or heading that way.
After consuming mountains of chips, fried meat and baked goods all washed down with corn-sweetened soft drinks, overweight Americans then worry which best-selling diet book will help them see their toes again. It turns out that higher petrol prices can slim down more than the wallets of the overweight.

Police in 56M lost hours says the Mirror

Police are wasting 56 million hours a year on paperwork and bureaucracy, shock figures revealed last night.
Home Office statistics show every officer spends 19.3 per cent of their time filling in forms.
It means a police officer spends 397.5 hours a year, roughly 10 working weeks, on paperwork.
This adds up to 56,405,687 police hours each year, equivalent to 7,050,733 working days.



The Guardian reports that

Japan's PM quits after scandals and poll defeat

Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said yesterday that he would resign to take responsibility for his scandal-ridden party's disastrous showing in recent national elections, sparking a new round of political turmoil.
Mr Abe said he hoped that his departure would also end the political deadlock over the future of Japan's logistical support for US forces in Afghanistan.

Russia stunned by Vladimir Putin's choice reports the Telegraph

Dramatically passing over his powerful deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, the Russian president awarded the position to Viktor Zubkov, the head of the country’s financial monitoring service.
The unexpected appointment raises the prospect that a bureaucrat whose name and face are almost totally unknown to the Russian public could emerge as president of the world’s largest country when Mr Putin steps down next year.

Divorce and dismissal loom amid scandal for the naked civil servant claims the Times

A simmering sex scandal at the top of the European Commission is set to come to a head with new allegations that could derail Angela Merkel’s coalition Government in Germany.
Claims that Günter Verheugen, the second most influential man at the Commission, promoted his lover to chief of staff are to be published in the German media today.
The allegations suggest that Mr Verheugen has lied to the press and perhaps also misled his boss, José Manuel Barroso, the Commission President, who has backed his deputy for the past year.

Castro makes the headlines in a number of the papers,

Fidel Castro 'saved' Ronald Reagan's life says the Telegraph

Fidel Castro has claimed that Cuba had once saved the life of President Ronald Reagan by tipping off American officials about an assassination plot by Right-wing extremists.He made his extraordinary claim in a long newspaper essay read out on Cuban television in which he argued that his country had co-operated with the US in the past.
Castro wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the United Nations was warned in 1984 of a plot by an extreme Right-wing group to kill Mr Reagan during a planned trip to North Carolina later that year.

Many of the papers report on

Heard the one about the Irish Catholic forced to quit for telling jokes ... about Irish Catholics!

As an Ulster-born Catholic, Denis Lusby is perhaps more qualified than most to poke fun at the Irish.
But although most enjoy reading the jokes he prints in his parish magazine, some can't see the funny side.
And after a council official complained they were racist, Mr Lusby, the magazine's editor, resigned. reports the Mail

The Sun says

His jokes about his countrymen outraged Ginny Harrison-White, head of Cornwall’s Equality and Diversity Service.
She objected to Denis’s use of the names Murphy, O’Reilly and Paddy and condemned as “derogatory” and “racist” jests like the one below.
Mrs Harrison-White was also upset by his joke about a Catholic who confused “pedestrian” with “Protestant”. He stood still when a US traffic cop said: “Pedestrians OK” — and finally asked, “When do you let the Catholics across?”