The family picture of Tory MP Derek Conway stares out from a number of the front pages this morning

Career hangs by a thread says the Guardian

The Conservative MP Derek Conway was despatched to the political wilderness by his party last night as he faced the threat of a police investigation into alleged fraud for paying his sons up to £77,000 from public funds to work as his research assistants.
Twenty-four hours after a damning report on the Old Bexley and Sidcup MP, which brought Tory sleaze back into the headlines, the Conservative leader, David Cameron, made a U-turn and withdrew the party whip from the backbencher.


The Sun calls him a goner


DAVID Cameron effectively ended shamed Tory Derek Conway’s career as an MP last night.
The Conservative boss made it clear he expects his local party chiefs to axe him.
He stepped in as cops were urged to probe Mr Conway after he used £50,000 of taxpayers’ cash to pay his son Freddie for research he did not do.
Meanwhile leaked documents revealed the MP’s wife, Freddie and elder son Henry have cost taxpayers £374,402 in salary, bonuses and overtime since 2001.

The Mail claims that

in six years the cost to the taxpayer of Derek Conway and his family was an astonishing £1,535,716.70.
The figures came to light in leaked documents seen by the Daily Mail.
They show that the MP's wife Colette, who works legitimately as his secretary, and their sons have cost £374,401.73 in pay, bonuses and overtime since 2001.

The Telegraph reporting that

The MP Derek Conway faces a possible police investigation and de-selection as a Tory Parliamentary candidate over £260,000 of taxpayer-funded payments he made to his two sons and wife, it has emerged.

Meanwhile many of the papers report

Fanatic planned to kidnap British Muslim serviceman and behead him 'like a pig'

The Guardian reports

A plot to lure a British Muslim soldier to his death and behead him "like a pig" was outlined to a jury yesterday.
The man behind the plot was Parviz Khan, 37, an unemployed teaching assistant from Birmingham, who wanted to post a film of the atrocity on the internet to "cause panic and fear within the armed forces and the wider public".
Khan, who has already pleaded guilty at Leicester crown court to his role in the planned beheading, was said to be behind a terror cell and had been under surveillance by the security services.

The Mail adds

Leicester Crown Court was told that the terror cell had sent money and equipment to Pakistan for the use of terrorists trying to kill British soldiers on the Afghan border.
Prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt QC said Khan wanted to get "physically involved" in the bloodshed but was prevented by "his bosses overseas" because his supply operation was so valued.
Instead, the court heard, he hatched the plot to kill a soldier in the UK.

The lead on the front of the Mirror this morning is the story that

£19million Lottery jackpot winner has killer heart defect

Lottery winner Steve Smith yesterday said he would give up his £19million jackpot if he could have his health back - adding: "I can't spent it in the cemetery."
Steve, who has a serious medical condition that means a weakened wall in his main heart artery could burst and kill him at any moment, said he was delighted with the massive win.
But he insisted he would return the money without a moment's hesitation for the guarantee of a long, healthy life with wife Ida.

More lottery news in the Times which reports

Lotto rape victim wins hope for thousands

One woman’s quest for justice against the so-called Lotto rapist ends in victory today, with a court ruling that paves the way for thousands of sex abuse victims to sue their attackers for compensation, The Times has learnt.
In a landmark ruling, five law lords are expected to sweep away the current bar on historic claims being brought for sexual assault. Until now victims have been precluded by law from bringing a claim more than six years after an attack or, in child abuses case, more than six years after reaching majority at 18.

The Telegraph reports that

Firm finds nearly 3.7m pay highest income tax

The number of people paying the highest level of income tax has almost doubled since Labour came to power, according to recent statistics.The statistics show that the number paying tax at 40 per cent will have increased from just over two million in 1997 to almost 3.7 million by the end of this financial year. and adds the paper

higher rate tax payers are losing out on at least £700 a year, experts said, because tax thresholds have not risen in line with wages.

Warning over one million homes at risk reports the Guardian

More than a million homeowners could be at risk of serious financial difficulty and possibly losing their homes in an economic slowdown, the City regulator warned yesterday.
The Financial Services Authority is preparing for a tougher climate of rising inflation and a slower economy. It fears that many homeowners with large mortgages who have borrowed three and a half times their salaries or more could be at risk.
The warning comes as surveyors predict today that 123 homes a day will be repossessed this year. The FSA cites three warning signs on mortgages

The Times reports

How the elderly and disabled are being left to fend for themselves

A growing number of elderly and disabled people are being denied help with washing, dressing and eating as more local authorities ration social care.
A report showed that seven out of ten councils restrict help to very serious cases, leaving others to pay for themselves or rely on family and friends.
The annual report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection found that thousands fewer people qualify for care now compared with three years ago, despite a 3 per cent rise in the number of people over 75. Only 840,000 people received social care services in 2006 compared with 867,000 in 2003. Those receiving funded care at home declined from 479,000 in 1997 to 358,000 last year.

Jailing mothers 'damaged a generation' reports the Independent

Mothers of young children should not be jailed unless they pose a risk to society, the Children's Commissioner for England says in an outspoken condemnation of sentencing policy.
Around 18,000 children were separated from their mothers by imprisonment every year, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green said, adding that the high level of custodial terms was damaging the prospects of a new generation as well as being a burden on the taxpayer, who will have to foot the bill for the damaged children

Inspector criticises rush to build jails reports the Guardian

The government's "scramble to build new prisons" threatens to move the UK towards a system of "large-scale penal containment" which would mean worse as well as more jails, the chief inspector of prisons warns today.
In her annual report, Anne Owers criticises by implication successive home secretaries for the record 80,000 prison population in England and Wales.
"That crisis was predicted and predictable, fuelled by legislation and policies which ignored consequences, cost or effectiveness, together with an absence of strategic direction," she says.


The violence in Kenya continues to dominate the foreign news

Army helicopters fire on looting gangs in Kenya reports the Telegraph

Three helicopters swooped over machete-waving crowds, firing their machine guns in a last-ditch attempt to stall the rampage in the tourist town of Naivasha.
In Nairobi's slums, elite police struggled to keep rival groups apart.
Tear gas was fired in Kisumu and fighters armed with bows and arrows again manned roadblocks outside Eldoret, as the death toll from a month of violence climbed towards 900.

Ethnic conflict takes hold in Kenya reports the Guardian

Some carried golf clubs: an old fairway wood, a lofted iron, a silver putter. A young man swung a hockey stick. Others clutched pieces of plumbing pipe, rubber whips, slingshots made of rope, melon-headed clubs straight from an Asterix comic, hammers, axes, and bows and arrows. But the weapon of choice was the panga, or machete, sharpened against the railway track as if it were a whetstone


Blizzards bring chaos to China's New Year holiday migration reports the Independent

China's worst snowstorms in 50 years have brought the world's biggest annual human migration to a standstill, leaving millions of migrant workers stranded ahead of a week-long festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Icy temperatures, snow and sleet across the south, centre and east of the country have closed railways, motorways and airports and there are fears of riots as discontented travellers vent their frustrations.

The Times reports from Israel where

Report on Lebanon war threatens Ehud Olmert power amid call for resignation

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, will face one of his toughest challenges today when a damning report into his leadership during the 2006 Lebanon War is released, threatening his political career and the renewed peace process on which he has staked his reputation.
The publication of the Winograd Committee report will also create a dilemma for Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, who had pledged to lead his Labour Party out of the shrinking coalition government once the committee released its findings. Such a move would bring down the Government at a time when the right-wing opposition Likud party is riding high in the polls.

The lead story in this morning's Indy tells us

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.
The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

I'll mend broken Britain reports the Sun

DAVID Cameron yesterday unveiled his plans to mend Broken Britain . . . and give power back to the police.
In an exclusive Sun interview he said officers could be given free rein to stop and search youngsters on the street.
Tough rules — introduced in the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act after complaints from civil liberties groups that black and Asian youths were deliberately targeted by cops — face being SCRAPPED.

New stop and search powers planned reports the Telegraph

A report by former RUC chief Sir Ronnie Flanaghan was delivered to the Home Office and Downing Street yesterday.
It recommends stripping out the bureaucracy that hampers police who want to stop suspects. Senior officers have long complained that form filling and procedures brought in to protect minorities is allowing criminals to escape justice.

The Mirror reports that

'Climate is threat to health'

Climate change could become a bigger health threat than smoking, boozing or obesity, it was claimed yesterday.
Prof Ian Gilmore, head of the Royal College of Physicians, warned Britain could face more asthma as pollution rose, more heat-wave deaths and diseases such as malaria arriving.
There would be a "knock-on effect to health in this country if there is global starvation and drought", he told a London conference.
Worldwide more natural disasters and threats to food and water supplies would affect health and stretch health services.

Julie Christie marries long-term partner reports the Telegraph

After insisting for decades that she saw “no reason” ever to marry, Julie Christie has finally wed her long-term partner Duncan Campbell.The Oscar-winning actress, 66, told her brother Clive Christie that she and Mr Campbell had married in a secret ceremony in India two months ago.
Christie, who won the Screen Actors Guild award for best screen actress three days ago and who has spent decades shunning the limelight, has been with Mr Campbell, a journalist, for 28 years.

Finally the Guardian reports

Nudist flights ready for take-off

A German travel agent has come up with the ultimate in no-frills flying - a charter flight for passengers who want to fly naked. Naturist holidays are particularly popular among east Germans, who like nothing better than to stretch out on a beach in the nude. "The flight can be enjoyed as God intended," said OssiUrlaub, a company specialising in selling to holidaymakers from the former east. "For the first time, passengers in Germany can fly completely in the nude."