The headlines in the papers reflect on yesterday's stock market crash

Black Monday,Recession fears spark global shares crash says the Guardian

Fears that 2008 will see the looming recession in the US spreading to every other continent triggered a global crash in share prices yesterday, wiping £77bn off the value of the City's blue-chip stocks in the biggest one-day points fall in London's history.
On a day of panic selling, hefty overnight falls on far eastern stock markets prompted a ripple effect through Europe and left the City's FTSE 100 index down 323.5 points at 5578.2 at the close


Recession fears spark biggest sharefall since 9/11 says the Telegraph

Yesterday's falls took billions off the value of pension funds, savings and other investments and led to predictions that the UK economy is heading for a major downturn this year.
The gloomy forecasts were underlined by official figures showing a £2.5 billion black hole in the public finances last month, with the Government's borrowing deficit hitting record levels.



World markets plunge says the Times aong with a picyure of a stressed dealer on the phone

George Soros, the billionaire investor who prompted Britain’s withdrawal from the European exchange-rate mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992, said the situation was “much more serious than any financial crisis since the end of the war”. Investors were “drowning in a sea of red,” said Henk Potts, an equity strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers.

The Independent simply says Crashed,whilst the Mail says Now cut interest rates

It is no longer a question of whether rates will be lowered but how quickly and how far. Some analysts expect a rate of 5 per cent or lower by the summer, providing much-needed relief to home buyers.
The respected economists from the Ernst & Young ITEM Club expect rates to be cut three times to 4.75pc by the end of 2008.


It never rains put it pours says the Express

RAIN, snow, shares – they all came down with a vengeance yesterday

At the same time, parts of the country were swamped by rising flood waters as three inches of rain fell in just 12 hours.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from offices, factories and schools as rivers burst their banks, and the Environment Agency warned of “extreme danger to life and property”.
By last night there were already 15 severe flood warnings in place and, with further rain predicted to fall throughout the week, more are expected to follow. Up to eight inches of snow fell across Scotland and northern England and fierce blizzard conditions left roads and rail lines impassable.

Public borrowing smashes forecasts to hit record high says the Independent

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), net public sector borrowing climbed to £7.8bn last month, the largest Dec-ember shortfall on record, while net borrowing for the financial year to date rose to £43.6bn, £11.4bn higher than in the same period last year and well ahead of the Government's forecast of £38bn for the full year. Higher government spending also drove up the public sector net cash requirement, which touched £16.975bn last month, another record for December.

The Telegraph meanwhile reports

Northern Rock plan 'returns to dark 1970s'

Gordon Brown has been accused of returning Britain to the 1970s after unveiling plans for the biggest-ever state bailout of a private company with his proposal for the "part nationalisation" of Northern Rock.Every British family will provide the equivalent of £2,000 in state-backed guarantees to the bank's new owners in a last-ditch attempt by ministers to avoid full-scale nationalisation.

Its leader telling us

Alistair Darling is too generous with our money

As the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable observed, the only people with smiles on their faces yesterday were the hedge fund bosses who swooped on Northern Rock after its collapse and bought shares at knockdown prices.

Opposition parties attack Northern Rock rescue plan says the Independent

No British government has ever provided taxpayers' support on this scale. It is bigger than British Leyland or British Steel," said Mr Osborne. "It is a second mortgage for every home to rescue the reputation of this Government." The Liberal Democrats' finance spokesman, Vince Cable, also attacked the Government's proposals, saying the risks had been nationalised and the profits had been privatised. It was, he said, "a private sector solution without private sector money".



The Mirror leads with the headline

Out of his mind

Handcuffed and sobbing, balcony plunge dad John Hogan stumbles into court yesterday to be accused of murdering his son and attempting to kill his daughter.
Hogan, 34, faced ex-wife Natasha for the first time since he hurled Liam, six, from a balcony in Crete then leapt himself while holding Mia, two.
The court in Chania heard Hogan had been "out of his mind" because his marriage was ending.
But Natasha, from Bristol, said: "He did not need to try and kill my children."

Death fall father: I did not plan to kill my child says the Times

The family had travelled to Crete in the hope that Mr and Mrs Hogan could patch up their marriage. Mr Hogan jumped with his children after his wife told him that she had decided to leave him and would live with her mother on their return. Liam died from severe head injuries and his sister, Mia, then aged 2, suffered a broken arm.

Furious mayor fails to block TV 'hatchet job' reports the Guardian

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, failed last night in an attempt to get Channel 4 to pull a documentary which accused him of financial profligacy, cronyism and links to a Trotskyite faction conspiring to transform London into a "socialist city state".
Last night's Dispatches programme, presented by Martin Bright of the New Statesman, also alleged that public money was used to smear one of Livingstone's adversaries and that mayoral staff raised funds for his re-election bid in breach of local government rules.

The Times reveals

Universities join battle against terror as guidelines are agreed

University leaders have agreed to inform the police of any extremist behaviour by students or visiting speakers that they suspect may lead to terrorism.
A new “tool kit” for universities issued today by Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on campus. It also suggests that universities consider setting up multi-faith chaplaincies instead of separate prayer rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming.

The test that's letting in one migrant every three minutes (and could you pass it?)reports the Mail

Every three minutes a foreigner is granted the right to become a British citizen or settle here.
Official figures show more than 13,000 a month now pass the controversial Britishness test - a rise of 50 per cent in a year.
Some countries have a 100 per cent pass rate for the exam, introduced three years ago to encourage migrants to learn our language and traditions. It must be taken by those who want either citizenship or permanent settlement.

The Sun speculates whether

Phone call caused jet crash

A ROGUE phone call may have caused the Heathrow jet crash, it was revealed last night.
Transport Department investigators are probing the possibility a crossed line diverted a call to the Boeing 777, interfering with its computers and shutting down the engines.

The paper leads with the headline

Amy on crack

WILD AMY WINEHOUSE was filmed blitzed out of her skull and struggling to talk after sucking in crack fumes from a glass pipe.
The tormented singing sensation took hit after hit of the deadly drug after a 19-minute binge in which she snorted powdered ECSTASY and COCAINE.

Health fears for Emmerdale legend Jack Sugden reports the Mirror

Emmerdale's Clive Hornby is battling an illness which may rule him out of the soap for good.
Clive, 63 - Jack Sugden for 28 years - is its longest-serving actor.
Farmer Jack Sugden's trademark flat cap may disappear from Emmerdale for ever.
Actor Clive Hornby, 63, who has played Jack for an astonishing 28 years, pulled out of the soap last week because of ill health.


According to the Guardian

Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

The Independent reports that

Barack Obama hits back at 'lies' from Bill Clinton

The increasingly fractious parrying between the two main contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination took another angry turn yesterday as Barack Obama lashed out at the former president Bill Clinton, accusing him of lying about him in campaign appearances on behalf of his wife.
"You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr Obama said in a breakfast interview with the ABC network, saying Mr Clinton had made statements "not supported by the facts".

Israel forced into U-turn over Gaza says the Telegraph

Israel has reversed its decision to stop all supplies reaching Gaza after a storm of international protest accusing the Jewish state of the "collective punishment" of the territory's civilian population.
The closure of all supply lines brought the Gaza Strip, an area that has experienced decades of suffering, close to its worst crisis

The Indy tells us

Mansour Rahal lay unconscious in the intensive care unit of Gaza City's Shifa hospital, linked to an electrically powered ventilator, the coloured monitor above his head showing his heart, respiration and oxygen saturation rate.
On Thursday last week, the teenager was driving his donkey cart through Beit Lahiya when it was destroyed by a missile which targeted militants in a nearby car. The rocket killed his mother and older brother, and Mansour contracted meningitis after suffering severe head wounds.
His hopes of survival yesterday depended on there being enough diesel to keep in operation the four generators which were Shifa's only source of power. His doctor, Kamal al-Geathny, said: "If we lose power, he and six other patients in this unit will die."

France braces for detail of Sarkozy's revolution reports the Times

A howl of rage is expected tomorrow from French taxi drivers, shopkeepers, civil servants and other protected sectors when President Sarkozy receives a revolutionary plan for recasting the face of France.
The scheme, which Mr Sarkozy has promised to enact, would abolish the jungle of regulations that ensure the comfort of trades and professions but stifle the economy. It would also mean opening the frontiers to immigration, building ten large new cities and scrapping France’s 200-year-old départements, or counties.

Humiliation for Ahmadinejad as veto is overruled says the Guardian

The political authority of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suffered a serious blow yesterday after the country's most powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sided with MPs by ordering him to supply cheap gas to villages suffering power cuts in an unexpectedly harsh winter.
In a humiliating rebuff, Iran's supreme leader, who has the final say over all state matters, ordered the enactment of a law requiring the government to provide £500m-worth of gas supplies from emergency reserve funds

Yesterday's weather gets a great deal of coverage

Northern England hit with heavy wind and rain reports the Telegraph

Blizzards and torrential rain struck large swathes of northern England, as the South enjoyed the warmth of early Spring.Severe flooding affected Yorskhire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire, bringing large parts of the rail network to a standstill and causing traffic chaos on the M1 and M62.Yet as the north froze temperatures in London hit 13 degrees and in Devon gardeners reported the arrival of frog spawn; an early indicator that Spring is on its way.

How the Hello! factor is driving millions into debt as they copy celebrity covergirls reports the Mail

Once their ambition was to keep up with the Joneses. But these days millions are trying to mimic the costly lifestyles of celebrities.
The result, say experts, is that a third of us have nothing left in our bank accounts at the end of the month.
They estimate that 4.8million adults spend more than they earn every month, while a further nine million just break even when their next paycheque arrives.
Millions are in the grip of a "spendemic", piling up debts on their credit cards and overdrafts, according to a report published today by the price comparison website Uswitch.com.

COMPULSORY COOKING CLASS FOR PUPILS reports the Express

Teenagers will be given compulsory cooking lessons at school for the first time, under government plans to ensure all pupils know how to make a healthy meal.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls is asking the public to come up with ideas for the classic English dishes and international cuisine that children should learn to cook.

The Indy reports on

Britain's Atlantis: the search for our lost capital

Around midnight, at certain tides, church bells can still be heard tolling from the lost city of Dunwich. Or so local legend has it. The sound comes from beneath the waves of the North Sea, for Dunwich – one of England's most prosperous medieval centres, a place some consider a rival to 14th-century London – has been sunk beneath the waters for 500 years and more.


Finally the Telegraph reports

Prince Charles beamed all the way to Dubai

The Prince of Wales was beamed in Star Trek-style for his first appearance as a hologram when he delivered a powerful speech on the environment to the world's leaders before vanishing into thin air.
A life-size, three-dimensional image of the Prince was projected onto the stage of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.The Prince was reluctant to attend the summit in person because the flights for him and his entourage would have generated an estimated 20 tons of carbon waste. adding

In comparison the hologram is thought to have left a carbon footprint equivalent to a lightbulb.