As the fallout from the overextended railworks continues the Times reports that

Railways to sack private engineers

Network Rail is to take another step towards renationalisation by stripping its contractors of responsibility for some key upgrades and taking much of the work in-house.
More than 250,000 passengers had journeys disrupted by the four-day overrun at Rugby and a similar 24-hour stoppage at Liver-pool Street station in London after Network Rail admitted that it was caught by surprise when projects overran badly over Christmas.
The Times understands that contractors are likely to be removed from the role of overseeing schemes and could eventually lose much of the £2.5 billion of work commissioned by Network Rail each year.

According to the Telegraph

Network Rail ignored warnings for a month

Network Rail has come under fire after it emerged that the company was warned nearly a month ago that engineering works would not be finished on time.The Daily Telegraph has learned that the issue was first drawn to Network Rail's attention on Dec 6.At the time it said there was no problem, only to ask for a one-day extension a week later. Network Rail repeatedly appealed for more time after Christmas.


Brief snow snap increases misery for rail travellers reports the Guardian

Christmas card snow scenes belatedly reached much of Britain yesterday, but the main effect of the briefest of cold snaps was to add to the misery of travellers disrupted by the overrun of rail repair work on the West Coast main line.
Network Rail denied allegations that some schedules - which were supposed to be completed during the Christmas and New Year holiday - had been extended because of festive staff hangovers, in between a succession of apologies for "mucking passengers around". The company faces punitive fines from the Office of Rail Regulation.

The paper leads with the news that

Scientists take on Brown over nuclear plans

A group of scientists and academics today condemns as undemocratic and possibly illegal the government's plans to force through a new generation of nuclear power stations to meet Britain's energy needs for the next 30 years.
They warn that questions about the risks from radiation, disposal of nuclear waste and vulnerability to a terrorist attack have not been addressed - even though the government was ordered last February to repeat a public consultation on energy supply, after its exercise was declared unlawful by a high court judge.

Row over plan for new coal-fired power station reports the Telegraph

The energy company E.ON UK wants to replace existing coal-fired units at Kingsnorth ower station in Medway, Kent, with two new cleaner units.
The company claims the £1 billion project would produce power from coal more efficiently and more cleanly than ever before in the UK providing enough energy to supply 1.5 million homes while cutting carbon emissions by almost 2m tons a year.


Meanwhile the Independent reports

Households face 15 per cent rise in their energy bills

Households will face substantial rises in gas and electricity bills this winter after Britain's second biggest power company confirmed it was to saddle its customers with the cost of escalating wholesale prices.
The average energy bill is expected to top £1,000 a year when npower reveals the full scale of its price hike later today. Some estimates suggest the German-owned company's 6.8 million customers face increases of about 15 per cent – 16 per cent for gas and 14 per cent on electricity



The Independent's front page focuses on the plight of the chicken

The true cost of cheap chicken
In a tiny space a battery chicken has 40 days to live before it is slaughtered and sold for £2.50 in a supermarket

A covertly filmed video of factory-farmed chickens struggling to walk and enduring distressing and unnatural conditions is set to ignite a growing campaign to improve the lives of Britain's 800 million "broiler" chickens.
The animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) shot the film at a farm which supplies meat to the country's leading supermarkets to illustrate the grim life inside chicken "coops" designed for 25,000 to 50,000 birds.

Kenya still dominates the foreign news

Close ally of president calls for review of election result says the Guardian

Kenya's attorney general has called for an independent investigation into the results of the presidential election that has plunged the country into turmoil and seen more than 300 people killed.
Amos Wako - who is seen as a close ally of President Mwai Kibaki, the winner of the disputed poll on December 27 - warned in a televised statement that Kenya was "quickly degenerating into a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions".
"It is necessary ... that a proper tally of the valid certificates returned and confirmed should be undertaken immediately on a priority basis by an agreed and independent person or body," he said. Western diplomats have been pushing for an independent review of the vote, but there is concern that the official forms have been tampered with since the results were announced.

Kenya mobs set fire to churches despite unity plea reports the Times

Churches are in the front line of Kenya’s postelection bloodshed. More than 30 people, mostly women and children, died on Monday when the church in which they were seeking sanctuary was set ablaze in the northwestern town of Eldoret. It was burnt by gangs claiming that Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate, had been cheated of the country’s presidency by the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, who claimed a narrow win in deeply controversial circumstances.

A great deal about health matters,The Mail leads with the story that

Two new mothers die of identical bug after giving birth at SAME hospital on SAME day

Amy Kimmance, 39, and Jasmine Pickett, 29, had their babies at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester on December 21.
Within 72 hours they had both died from complications linked to streptococcus A infection - known as Strep A - which normally causes sore throats.

More health news with the Guardian reporting

Children's bodies ferried miles for postmortems

The bodies of children who die suddenly are being illegally transported hundreds of miles to have a postmortem examination because there are only 40 qualified paediatric pathologists, it is revealed today.
The practice breaches the Coroner's Rules, which make it illegal to move a body beyond an adjoining district to the one in which the death occurred.
The breach has become the norm in areas such as the south-west, which is chronically short of specialists. "There aren't enough people to do the job," said Dr Chris Wright, chairman of an advisory committee at the Royal College of Pathologists. Speaking to BMA News, a newspaper distributed to doctors, he added: "Babies that require postmortems will be going to other parts of the country."

The Telegraph meanwhile reports

Poor diet kills 70,000 every year,

The nation's poor diet costs the economy £10 billion, of which £7.7 billion comprises NHS treatment that could be avoided if people cut down on fatty and salty foods and ate more fresh fruit and vegetables.Those who die prematurely would have lived for almost 10 years longer if they adhered to dietary advice, the report says.
The figures are contained in the Cabinet Office report Food: an analysis of the issues, commissioned by the Prime Minister as a precursor to a government review of food policy and a new strategy on tackling obesity

New vaccinations give scientists hope of conquering flu pandemic
says the Times

A vaccine that could help to control a flu pandemic has shown encouraging results in its first human trials.
The vaccine, made by Acambis, based in Cambridge, should protect against all strains of influenza A, the type responsible for pandemics. Unlike existing vaccines it does not have to be reformulated each year to match the prevalent strains of flu, so it could be stockpiled and used as soon as a pandemic strain emerges. Nor does it need to be grown on fertilised chicken eggs, as the existing vaccines do, but can be produced by cell culture.

And back to the Mail which reports that

Doctors say 200,000 are catching the winter vomiting bug EVERY week

Doctors estimate up to 200,000 people a week are catching norovirus, the winter vomiting bug which has swamped NHS Direct with more than a million queries.
It is the worst outbreak for five years and the Royal College of GPs has warned workers who catch it to remain at home for 48 hours after symptoms subside to avoid spreading the bug
Last night at least 56 hospital warsd in the UK had closed in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.

Maddy returns to the front pages

McCanns' fury at police chief's warning says the Mirror

Kate and Gerry McCann were furious last night after learning they are still prime suspects in daughter Madeleine's disappearance.
The couple's hopes of being cleared today were crushed when police chief Paulo Rebelo asked a judge to extend their arguido status because detectives are sticking to their belief that they accidentally killed the four-year-old


MCCANNS ARE MAIN SUSPECTS SAY POLICE says the front page of the Express

Prime suspects says the Sun

ANGUISHED Kate and Gerry McCann are facing up to living as suspects over their daughter’s disappearance for another TWENTY years, it emerged yesterday.
A legal expert revealed that is the length of time prosecutors have to decide whether to press ahead.

The same paper as many of the others reports on events at Britney Spear's home

BRITNEY Spears has left her Los Angeles home in an ambulance after police were called to the home last night.
The popstar has been taken to hospital for a possible mental health evaluation, it was reported today.
Cops said they arrived at her home because of a custodial dispute involving her children.

The Times reports that

Officers were called to the Los Angeles residence at 8pm on Thursday (0400GMT Friday) and were still there three hours later. The call involved a “family custodial dispute that we are trying to resolve ... peacefully by court order,” said Jason Lee, a police officer.

The Guardain reports that

Plan to give every child internet access at home

Parents could be required to provide their children with high-speed internet access under plans being drawn up by ministers in partnership with some of the country's leading IT firms.
Jim Knight, the schools minister, said he is in talks with companies such as Microsoft, BT, Sky, Virgin and RM to help close the widening achievement gap between pupils from the richest and poorest families. More than one million children have no access to a computer at home.

Half a million under-35s on disability benefit reports the Telegraph

Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions indicate that last May 504,000 people below the age of 35 were claiming incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance, compared with 443,000 claiming jobseeker's allowance.
Although the number of young people qualifying for incapacity benefits has fallen from close to 560,000 six years earlier, a high proportion of those left are signed off on mental or behavioural grounds. The latest figures include more than 300,000 young people claiming for such disorders.

The Times reports that

Teachers could get power to stop forced marriages

Teachers, social workers, women’s rights groups and local councils may be given the power to stop forced marriages, under government plans to protect vulnerable teenagers.
Ministers are preparing a list of third parties who would have the authority to go to court to try to prevent families from forcing children into marriage in Britain and abroad.


The Sun reports

A FUMING businessman burned more than £1,000 worth of his wife’s designer bras and knickers after she decided to divorce him, a court heard yesterday.Neil Medley, 46, allegedly spent hours destroying £5,000 clothing – including posh lingerie by Lejaby – in an incinerator at the £750,000 home he shared with missus Jane.

Finally many of the papers report

I'M LEAVING BRITAIN FOR A BETTER LIFE...AT AGE OF 102 The Express tells

YOU’RE only as old as you feel – and 102-year-old Eric King-Turner feels like a change.
So the retired dentist is off to start a new life on the other side of the world.
He will become Britain’s oldest emigrant when he sets off for New Zealand tomorrow with his 87-year-old wife Doris.
Last night the intrepid traveller said: “When I’m 105 I don’t want to be thinking ‘I wish I had moved to the other side of the world when I was 102’.”


And the reason?

The way of life is very much the same as here but it is not so crowded and the weather is certainly better.