Both the Times and the Guardian lead with the decisions taken by the government over nuclear power

Race for nuclear Britain begins says the Times

Ministers ended years of uncertainty by declaring that nuclear power was “clean, secure and affordable”, but they declined to put a limit on the number of new stations nor the amount of electricity they could supply, prompting companies to set the battle lines for their share of the £36 billion construction programme

Labour goes nuclear but row erupts over who will foot bill says the Guardian

The government gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations yesterday but stepped into a fierce row over financial sweeteners to private sector operators. John Hutton, the business secretary, insisted there were no subsidies but the small print of the white paper showed concessions had been given away.
Private companies who wanted to build new stations would have to pay for the entire cost while "meeting the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs", argued Hutton who said atomic power was needed to reduce carbon and the growing reliance on energy imports.

Opposition changes tack and backs nuclear power plan says the Independent

Environmentalists and some Labour MPs expressed outrage at the decision to allow a new generation of reactors, warning about the long-term dangers of cost and nuclear waste.
But the Tories performed a U-turn, dropping their policy that nuclear energy should be an option of "last resort" and backing plans to allow private firms to invest in the plants.

It leads with another energy issue on its front page asking

Can the world afford the Tata Nano?

It's either the start of a people's revolution or the trigger for social and environmental headaches across the globe. The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, was unveiled with great fanfare in the Indian capital yesterday amid bright lights and blaring music.
Designed to put a stop to a family of four travelling on a single scooter, the new model from Tata Motors – and more importantly its price tag of £1,277 – should make motoring affordable for a new class of consumer in the developing world. But green activists predict trouble ahead for countries that already have inadequate infrastructures and soaring CO2 emissions.

Staying with the environment of a sort,the front page of the Express tells us


The Telehraph has a picture of the former wife of the French president,under the headline

ex attacks 'stingy' husband

President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cécilia has branded him a "stingy philanderer" with a "behavioural problem" who is an "unworthy president" of France.As the Élysée palace soap opera descended to new depths of vitriol, Mrs Sarkozy alleged that her 52-year-old ex-husband was "a man who likes no-one, not even his children".
According to a new book, she even called the president's other female friends "a bunch of slappers" and young female government ministers "boring wallflowers".

The story shares the lead with

Abuse of cannabis puts 500 a week in hospital

The public health impact of the Government's decision to downgrade cannabis is disclosed today in official figures showing a 50 per cent rise in the number of people requiring medical treatment after using the drug.Since cannabis was downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, the number of adults being treated in hospitals and clinics in England for its effects has risen to more than 16,500 a year. In addition, the number of children needing medical attention after smoking the drug has risen to more than 9,200.

Bird flu virus confirmed after deaths at Dorset swannery reports the Guardian

Government vets were last night awaiting the results of tests on more dead birds discovered in southern England, following confirmation that three swans in Dorset had the deadly H5N1 flu strain.
The environment department, Defra, said the dead birds had been found at Abbotsbury swannery by routine surveillance, and efforts were under way to discover where the virus came from; the outbreak poses little risk to human health. Swannery staff are being monitored for symptoms and have been given Tamiflu tablets as a precaution.

Protection zone set up as deadly bird flu found at swan reserve says the Times


The front page of the Mirror tells us that

£5 would have saved tragic Rhianna Hardie

The faulty heating system that exploded and killed baby Rhianna Hardie could have been fixed for just £5, it was revealed yesterday.
Ten-month-old Rhianna suffered appalling 95 per cent burns when a thermostat failed, sending gallons of scalding water cascading over her cot as she slept.
As a coroner yesterday slammed the Government for failing to pass on warnings about the deadly boiler, the pitifully small cost of preventing the tragedy emerged.

To politics and the Independent reports

Hain fights to save cabinet job as pressure mounts over donations

Peter Hain is fighting to save his position in the Cabinet after admitting that he failed to disclose donations totalling £103,000 to his campaign to become Labour's deputy leader.
The Work and Pensions Secretary shocked fellow Labour MPs by revealing that he had not registered 17 donations with the Electoral Commission –six of them channelled through a left-of-centre think-tank.

Lancet savages Gordon Brown's NHS plans says the Telegraph

A respected medical journal has attacked Gordon Brown's "empty rhetoric" on the NHS.

An editorial in The Lancet, published today, accuses the Prime Minister of jumping on the bandwagon of the NHS's 60th anniversary this year.
The attack follows a savaging of Government policy last year after Mr Brown announced plans for all hospitals to undergo a "deep clean" as part of the battle against superbugs and a ban on doctors wearing long sleeves. The journal said in September there was little evidence that either were effective at preventing the spread of infections.

The Mail's front page meanwhile says

Blair accused of taking blood money over £1m job with US bank profiting from Iraq war

Tony Blair has taken a lucrative job with a U.S. bank which is profiting from the Iraq war.
JP Morgan is expected to pay him £1million a year as a part-time adviser.
It is the first of a series of posts that could see the former prime minister rake in a staggering £40million.
The move brought fierce criticism last night. Reg Keys, whose soldier son Tom was killed in Iraq in 2003, said it was "almost akin to taking blood money".

The Guardian reveals that

State teachers' views of Oxbridge stop pupils from applying

Teachers at state-run secondary schools are out of touch about the number of pupils from their sector who apply successfully to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, according to a survey today.
More than a third think that fewer than 20% of Oxbridge students come from state schools, even though the latest figures show that the figure is 54%, said the Sutton Trust, a charity set up to help promote social mobility through education.
Its Oxbridge survey came as government figures released yesterday showed there was a fall of British applications across universities in England and Northern Ireland when the £3,000 top-up tuition fees were introduced in the autumn of 2006.

Identity fraudster steals £10,000 from Barclays boss says the Indy

When Marcus Agius was appointed as the £800,000-a-year chairman of Barclays Bank, he was lauded for his ability to pull off financial coups. It is unlikely that falling foul of a conman who persuaded Britain's third biggest bank to issue a credit card in his name and then stole £10,000 is the sort of spectacular deal that Mr Agius had in mind.
The bank, which last year announced losses of £1.3bn from the sub-prime mortgages crisis in America, was forced to admit yesterday that its high-profile chairman had been scammed by a fraudster who succeeded in impersonating Mr Agius to a call-centre employee to the extent that a Barclaycard was sent out for his use.

The Mail follows its lead of yesterday with

Over 20,000 horses may have suffered at the hands of trader held on horror farm

More than 20,000 horses could have suffered at the hands of the meat trader arrested amid grotesque scenes of animal suffering this week.
Jamie Gray, 44, has been dealing in horses, ponies and donkeys for at least 25 years, according to sources close to the investigation, who yesterday described the scene at his farm as an "equine Belsen".
Throughout much of that time, the RSPCA claims to have been looking at his case, concerned about the conditions of the animals destined for Continental dinner tables.

The Sun claims

Owner drove into sick horses

THE owner of a hellhole farm where 84 horses and donkeys were rescued mowed down terrified animals for fun in his 4x4, locals claimed last night.
Jamie Gray is said to have smirked as he appeared to chase the starving creatures in his blue Mitsubishi Shogun.
Dozens of other pitiful horses were left with terrible leg injuries after Gray smashed into them on a QUAD BIKE, neighbours claimed.

The paper leads with

Maddie for hire

THE boss of a lookalike agency who hopes to make a fortune out of a little Madeleine McCann double said last night: “It’s not sinister – it’s entertainment.”
Shona Adams reckons three-year-old Kelsey Lynn Kudla’s similarity to missing Maddie could earn her £9MILLION for starring in a proposed feature film about the vanished tot

An exclusive in the Mirror

Paul Merson gambles away £300,000 home

Troubled football idol Paul Merson has been made homeless after gambling away the roof over his head.
The former millionaire, who once earned £20,000 a week, has been forced to quit his plush £300,000 flat and move back into his parents' ex-council house after failing to pay his mortgage.
Friends say the addict is a mess and has squandered his wealth on gambling, drinking and womanising. One said last night: "Effectively, he's homeless. It's so bloody sad.

Foriegn stories and the Independent reports

Occupation of Palestinian land must end, Bush tells Israel

President George Bush last night called for Israel to end what he unequivocally called its "occupation" of territory seized in 1967 and proposed "compensation" as a means of solving the issue of Palestinian refugees.
As his first presidential three day visit to Israel and the West Bank neared its end, the US President went his furthest yet in publicly promoting what he had bullishly predicted would be a "signed peace treaty" between Israel and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "by the time I leave in office" in January 2009.

The race is on in the $5bn election – this time for hard cash says the Times

Presidential candidates are scrambling in a frantic four-week dash for cash ahead of “Super Tuesday” next month when hundreds of millions of dollars will be showered on an advertising air war in delegate-rich states.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which raised more than $115 million last year –and has spent more than three quarters of it – was issuing appeals yesterday for fresh donors to come forward because much of its existing list have “maxed out” by giving the legal limit of $2,300.

Kerry snubs Edwards by backing Obama says the Guardian

John Kerry, the senator who ran against George Bush in 2004, endorsed Barack Obama yesterday in a slap in the face to Hillary Clinton and to John Edwards, his vice-presidential running mate in 2004.
"Martin Luther King Jr said the time is always right to do what is right," Kerry told a rally in South Carolina. "This is the right time to share with you ... that Barack Obama can be, will be, and should be the next president of the United States.


Chávez wins freedom for Colombian hostages reports the Guardian

Venezuelan Red Cross helicopters plucked two high-profile Colombian hostages from the jungle yesterday, ending their six-year kidnap ordeal and raising hopes for other hostages. A day of drama ended in breakthrough after Clara Rojas, a former Colombian vice-presidential candidate, and Consuelo González, a former member of the country's congress, were retrieved from a remote region in eastern Colombia, in a deal brokered by Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez.

The Telegraph reports on

DNA link in Meredith Kercher case

Traces of DNA belonging to Amanda Knox's boyfriend have been found on the bra of Meredith Kercher, the British student killed in Italy.
Italian police have said that they finally had the evidence to link Raffaele Sollecito, 23, to Miss Kercher's murder.

Finally the Indpendent reports

Know your salad dodger from your tart fuel? Then you must be Australian

Gentlemen: isn't it time to take care of the "manscaping"? Singletons: why not break out and try a spot of "read dating"? And parents: just admit that the "kippers" are getting on your nerves.
Confused? Well then it's time to update your vocabulary, with a bit of help from Down Under. Australia's national dictionary publisher, Macquarie, is asking people to vote on their word or phrase of the year in 17 different categories, from food and drink to fashion to the environment.