They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf says the front page of the Independent this morning.In an article by Robert Fisk,the paper reports

So let's run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair might have done in his policeman's notebook before he became the top cop in London.
Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.
Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir's supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf.
Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf.
Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.
Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?
Er. Yes. Well quite.

Benazir buried beside her father as mourners promise revenge says the Guardian,

Benazir Bhutto's last moments were spent, like much of her life, as a lone woman among men. A sea of male hands bore her from her country home in Naudero inside a simple wooden coffin decked with the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's party. Wails rang out from the women's enclosure inside the house.
The cortege continued down a road lined with silver-barked eucalyptus trees and pools of bathing water buffalo before reaching the family mausoleum at Gahri Khuda Baksh, a towering Mughal-style structure topped with onion-shaped domes. Tens of thousands of men, many draped in the party colours or brandishing photos of the fallen heroine, followed



Whilst the Times says

Al Qaeda blamed as Pakistan burns

Bhutto's masked butcher says the Sun

FANATICAL al-Qaeda warlord Baitullah Mehsud was last night named as the mastermind behind the murder of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto.
Officials released a transcript of a phone call in which the bloodthirsty Islamic militant can be heard gloating about Thursday’s suicide bomb horror in Rawalpindi.
Evil Mehsud, 34, who always masks his face, calls the atrocity “spectacular” and praises the “very brave boys” behind the attack.

Away from Pakistan and the papers have a variety of topics

HOUSE PRICES RISING AGAIN reports the Express

Home owners are breathing a sigh of relief after new figures revealed house prices are rising again in many areas.
A predicted slump in the housing market has not arisen, despite the credit crunch.
Latest research by the building society Nationwide yesterday revealed prices nationally were up 4.8 per cent year on year.

Thugs are trying to silence me says the front page of the Mail

The widow of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence says she is the target of an intimidation campaign.
Frances Lawrence, 60, has made astonishing claims of death threats from men on her front doorstep, a burglary at her home and being rammed off the road in her car in the past five months.
The mother of four is convinced the incidents are linked to 27-year-old Learco Chindamo's application for parole after serving 12 years for her husband's murder.

Doctors say no to abortions in their surgeries reports the Telegraph

Family doctors are threatening a revolt against Government plans to allow them to perform abortions in their surgeries, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.Four out of five GPs do not want to carry out terminations even though the idea is being tested in NHS pilot schemes, a survey has revealed.
The findings will throw doubt on Government trials to provide medical abortions - using drugs in the early stage of pregnancy - outside hospitals.

Much speculation about the New Year's honours,the Indy reports that

Brown spurns chance to choose new peers

Gordon Brown has, in effect, ended the Prime Minister's right to nominate people for peerages and issued a New Year honours list that sticks with recommendations made by committee.
In releasing the first such list of his premiership, Mr Brown sent a signal that he aims to clean up the honours system and party funding after the "cash for honours" allegations.
The list saw "unsung heroes" of British society honoured, alongside a host of celebrities and civil servants. And the Prime Minister's allies said he would use a White Paper on constitutional reform in the new year to formalise changes to the way the system functions.

I should OBE lucky reports the Sun meanwhile

KYLIE Minogue said she was “deeply touched” last night after her brave comeback from cancer was crowned with an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List.
The Aussie singer, 39, is joined by retiring chat show maestro MICHAEL PARKINSON, who gets a knighthood — as revealed by The Sun

Honours recognise the public says the Mirror

Everyday heroes were also honoured with four out of five awards going to people involved in charity and voluntary work.
Those who went out of their way to help others during the devastating summer floods were also recognised.
Nina Dawes, chief executive of Lichfield District Council, Staffs, headed the flood honours with an OBE.
The area was the worst hit in Britain with 250 families left homeless during 40 days of flooding.


Both it and the Sun lead with Maddy

Murat's Maddie alibi blown says the Sun

TWO British sisters have revealed they saw oddball Robert Murat lurking by the Portuguese holiday apartment from which Madeleine McCann vanished.
Annie Wiltshire, 58, and Jayne Jensen, 53, told cops they spotted the 34-year-old ex-pat smoking a cigarette outside the Ocean Club moments after the search for Maddie was launched.

We saw Murat at Maddy flat says the Mirror

Sisters Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire say they are 100 per cent sure they saw Robert Murat nearby minutes after Madeleine McCann vanished.
A friend said last night: "Jayne and Annie know what they saw and that is that."
Annie, 58, and Jayne, 54, holidayed at the same resort complex and got to know Kate and Gerry McCann and their three children.


The Mail reports that

New super-cameras will mean no hiding place for drivers who smoke, eat or use a phone

Digital speed cameras which capture drivers smoking or eating at the wheel are being introduced nationwide in a new move to hammer motorists.
Drivers will also face fines, bans and even jail for infringements such as driving without a seatbelt, using a hand-held mobile phone or overtaking across double white lines.
The hi-tech DVD cameras, which have instant playback, will also be used to provide photographic evidence against those eating sandwiches or rolling-up cigarettes at the wheel.

CRACKDOWN TARGETS TEENAGE DRINKING says the Express

Police seized the equivalent of 6,500 pints of alcohol from teenagers during a month-long crackdown on underage drinking in public places, the Home Office said.
Officers from 21 forces across England and Wales confiscated more than 3,700 litres of beer, wine, cider, spirits and alcopops during the autumn blitz.
They also used new powers under the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 to disperse groups suspected of alcohol-related crime or disorder.

One-year-old boy killed by pet rottweiler reports the Guardian

A one-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a rottweiler while playing outside a relative's home, police said last night.
The boy, who has not been named, was in the back garden of the home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, when his mother discovered he had been mauled by the pet yesterday afternoon. He was taken by ambulance to Pinderfields general hospital but died hours later.
A police spokesman said last night: "After the dog released the child and he was taken to hospital a police marksman who was in the vicinity destroyed the dog to ensure the safety of others."



Barton to spend New Year in jail says the Telegraph

Joey Barton, the Newcastle United footballer, will spend New Year in prison after being refused bail on charges of assault and affray.He made a 45-minute court appearance yesterday at which magistrates rejected a defence application and remanded him in custody for six days.The £5.8 million midfielder, who has one England cap, was arrested with his brother Andrew, 19, and 27-year-old Nadine Wilson at 5.30am on Thursday after an alleged incident in Liverpool city centre.
The trio are claimed to have been involved in a confrontation inside a 24-hour McDonald's restaurant.

Foreign news and the Guardian reports that

China abandons plans for huge dam on Yangtze

China has abandoned controversial plans to build a huge dam which would have submerged one of the country's most renowned tourist areas and forced the relocation of 100,000 residents in the south-western province of Yunnan.
In a rare and high-profile victory for China's environmental movement, the project at Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river was scrapped during a meeting in the provincial capital, Kunming.

Old guard crumbles as votes counted in Kenya says the Independent

Senior members of Kenya's political old guard were swept from power last night and the opposition challenger Raila Odinga threatened to complete the rout by unseating President Mwai Kibaki.
At least 12 cabinet ministers lost their seats, many of them mzees – old men who have dominated politics in Kenya since the country won independence from the United Kingdom in 1963. The high-profile casualties included Vice-President Moody Awori, 80, the Defence minister James Njenga Karume, 78, and the Roads minister Simon Nyachae, 75. In the race for the presidency, unofficial tallies gathered by the main television stations showed Mr Odinga ahead by more than a million votes with more than half of the ballots counted.




Finally according to the Guardian

Branson offers £100,000 ticket to the heart of a space spectacle

It looks like a cut-price version of the set of a Bond movie. Blocky, 60s-style white consoles face a large wall-mounted video screen, each covered in dials and buttons with words like "pump on", "fire" and "liftoff" written on them. Only the slightly shabby appearance of the place and the metre-high inflatable rocket in the corner indicate that this is not the home of cat-stroking villains but a place of academic study.
The operations room of the Esrange space centre near Kiruna in the far north of Sweden is one of a handful of places in the world that perform space launches. The facility, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic circle, is used by the European Space Agency and others to launch rockets and balloons for studying the upper atmosphere and the effects of microgravity. It also serves as a monitoring station for numerous satellites that orbit between the north and south poles.