I will start for a change with the tabloids.The News of the World leads this Sunday morning with a football exclusive

Soccer star's dad in drugs and vice shock

MILLIONAIRE soccer ace Jermaine Pennant's father is the evil muscle-bound boss of a seedy crack den, the News of the World can reveal.
The man credited with guiding the £6.7million Liverpool star to success runs the secret drugs empire at his sleazy council flat.
We filmed Gary Pennant there selling cheap rocks of killer cocaine and deadly heroin as a constant stream of addicts and prostitutes shambled in.

More revelations in the Express

PLOT TO KILL QUEEN FOILED

AL Qaeda terrorists posing as TV crews planned to blow up the Queen by smuggling explosives into last year’s Commonwealth summit.
Two huge outside broadcast vans belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents.
As a result, UBC was unable to transmit live pictures of key summit events, including the Queen’s historic address to the Ugandan parliament on November 22.

The Mail runs its exclusive with

The man who spent 21 years on Death Row reveals his extraordinary journey to freedom

They told me I could choose how to die - electric chair or lethal injection. I said if they were going to kill me they would have to decide..and ordered haggis for my last meal.
Head shaved and an hour from the electric chair, Kenny Richey believed the only way he would ever return to his beloved Scotland was in a coffin.
Sitting alone in a stark cell, he had ordered his last meal and made arrangements for his remains to be scattered in Edinburgh, the city of his childhood.

The Indpendent meanwhile leads with

Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'

Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.
Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.
But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The speculation about Peter Hain is at fever pitch

I will not resign, says defiant Hain

A defiant Peter Hain made clear last night that he has no intention of resigning over missing donations totalling £103,000 that were used to fund his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership, despite questions about a shadowy think-tank that provided the funds.
The Work and Pensions Secretary blamed the controversy on 'poor administration' of his campaign which had failed to declare that he received money to clear campaign debts. He added: 'The notion that there was some attempt by me to hide anything is absurd.'

Peter Hain hangs on as aides urge him to quit says the Times


Hain faces an inquiry by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog. Controversy has focused on a think tank, the Progressive Policies Forum (PPF), which was set up by a key member of his team and allegedly used to solicit and channel donations to his campaign. It has not held any meetings and has no website.
One member of his inner circle said yesterday: “When we found out about PPF we were shocked. The reaction was that it was probably better for Peter to go now rather than wait to be forced out. But Peter was determined to fight on.”

The Telegraph claims

Organs to be taken without consent

Gordon Brown has thrown his weight behind a move to allow hospitals to take organs from dead patients without explicit consent.Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the Prime Minister says that such a facility would save thousands of lives and that he hopes such a system can start this year.

Calls grow for organ transplant revolution says the Observer

A revolution in the way organs are donated for transplant is called for today by the government's chief medical officer as concern grows over the acute shortage of donors and the rise in unnecessary deaths.
An expert report to be published this week says that every major hospital in Britain must have an organ donor specialist skilled in persuading grieving families that the hearts, lungs, kidneys and other vital organs of their deceased relatives should be used to save the lives of others.

Energy rip-off exposed says the Times

BRITAIN’S biggest energy companies have stifled competition to raise prices and make record profits of more than £4.5 billion, a Sunday Times investigation has found.
The six companies that control Britain’s gas and electricity are now facing demands that they be referred to the Competition Commission.
Executives in charge of the six major companies were last week confirmed to be holding confidential meetings at least every two months to discuss market strategy. Smaller rivals are excluded

The Mail meanwhile reports

Secret bonuses double salaries of Northern Rock staff (while our billions are propping it up)

Senior staff at beleaguered Northern Rock have received secret bonuses doubling their salaries – at a time when the bank is being propped up by billions of pounds of taxpayers' money.
Last night shareholders and customers condemned the decision to 'reward' the people involved in the biggest banking crisis in modern British history with annual payouts of up to £100,000 each.

Latest opinion poll in the Telegraph this morning reveals

Tory support rises after tough welfare stance

The Conservatives have received a boost today, as an opinion poll shows their lead over Labour has widened and indicates huge public support for their tough plans to cut the number of people on benefit.The ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph puts David Cameron's party on 40 per cent, seven points ahead of Labour on 33 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 18 per cent.

The Observer claims

Brown's strategy chief 'misled media' on shares

The man appointed to Downing Street by Gordon Brown to improve the running of government and help restore Labour's flagging fortunes allegedly 'misled' the media and 'issued false statements' that helped to inflate artificially the share price of a massively indebted telecoms company, according to court documents filed in the United States.

Dirt begins to fly at Obama reports the Times

WHEN Hillary Clinton warned that Barack Obama had not been thoroughly “vetted”, as she has been, she was hinting darkly at trouble to come over her rival’s radical pastor and shady patron in Chicago, the Illinois senator’s home town.
Clinton is convinced that her opponent will be eviscerated by the Republican attack machine should he win the Democratic presidential nomination. That, at any rate, is her camp’s excuse for doing everything it can to discredit him behind the scenes. The battle to tear down Obama and his claim to represent “hope” has begun.

God and race divide parties in key battle for the soul of the South says the Observer

South Carolina is the state where black voters will, for the first time in this contest, play a significant role. In a race that is seeing the most viable presidential run by a black candidate, that could make a big difference to the Democrat nomination. Yet things will not be simple in South Carolina. Obama is basing his appeal on a 'post-racial' image, far from the traditional tactics of previous runners such as Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Nor can he count on unquestioning black support. He is coming up against Hillary Clinton's formidable machine, which has long-standing ties with black America. Their battle here will set the tone for the contest for America's entire black vote


Bush: pace of withdrawal from Iraq may have to slow reports the Independent

In a development that could have an impact on the US presidential race, President George Bush said yesterday that the US could slow the pace of troop withdrawals from Iraq if commanders on the ground considered it necessary.
Mr Bush, speaking in Kuwait after meeting General David Petraeus, the senior US commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador in Baghdad, said further reductions this year, beyond the 30,000 already announced, would depend on what the general recommended. He and Mr Crocker are due to report to Congress in March.

The Telegraph reports that

Army hero left to die by failings at MoD

A British war hero who bled to death after being injured in an Afghan minefield died because of a catalogue of failures, incompetence and equipment shortages, a military inquiry has found.Cpl Mark Wright, who was posthumously awarded the George Cross after rescuing an injured colleague, could have survived if a properly equipped helicopter had been available, it ruled.A copy of the report, which has been obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, adds that the rescue operation was dogged by confusion, delays, poor communication and a shortage of maps showing the location of minefields.

According to the Observer

Blair kicks off campaign to become EU President

Tony Blair launched his campaign to become the first fully-fledged President of the European Union yesterday by describing the notion of left- and right-wing politics as redundant.
With France preparing to oversee the appointment process, Blair set out his vision of modern European democracy at a meeting of the French governing conservative party by also claiming that EU countries could achieve far more by working together than acting in isolation.

It is the turn of the Independent to report on

The Sarkozy story: the President, his ex-wife and their lovers

The private lives of French presidents used to be a matter for secrecy, speculation and gossip. The private life of President Nicolas Sarkozy has become a daily public soap opera.
The President was described last week, by the woman who lived with him for 18 years, as a "sauteur" (a vulgar word for philanderer). She also described him as "stingy".

And more in the Times

Windsor Castle prepares for Mme Carla Sarkozy

FOREIGN Office officials believe President Nicolas Sarkozy will marry Carla Bruni, the model turned singer, before a state visit to Britain in March.
They say this should spare the Queen the embarrassment of offering the French head of state and his girlfriend separate bedrooms in Windsor Castle.

Staying with royal matters and the Telegraph reports on

Dr Hasnat Khan: Princess Diana and me

His hair is greyer and his features are more rounded but Dr Hasnat Khan's affection for Diana, Princess of Wales, remains undiminished by the passing of more than a decade.Dressed in a white shirt, faded jeans and trainers, he fondly recalls the woman he shared an intimate relationship with until just months before her death.

And on the same topic the Express reports

BURRELL PROMISES DIANA ‘BOMBSHELL’

FORMER royal butler Paul Burrell has promised a series of bombshell revelations when he appears before the Princess Diana inquest this week.
The servant, once described by Diana as ìmy rockî, has told friends in Florida where he lives that he will stun the Royal Family and millions of her fans with what he has to say.


According to The Mail

Bin Laden's son wants British visa - so he and his grandmother bride can live in Cheshire and have a surrogate baby

Osama Bin Laden's son has applied for a British visa so he can live in Britain with his wife.
Omar Bin Laden, 26, who admits attending terror training with the Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, has been interviewed with his wife Jane Felix-Browne, 52, by British Embassy officials in Cairo, where he is currently living.
The couple plan to set up house in Jane's £550,000 home in Moulton, Cheshire, have a child through a surrogate mother and work as "peace activists".

A stich up in the News of the World

ANGRY Hayley Cross has cried ‘Fowl!' at posh telly chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for portraying her as the villain in his TV campaign against factory-farmed chicken.
Single mum Hayley—a fan of the cheap two-for-£5 supermarket birds—accused this week's three-part Channel 4 show, Hugh's Chicken Run, of editing footage to make her look BOSSY and SELFISH.
She said: "I've been completely stitched up by Hugh. Everything I said was twisted to turn ME into a hate figure and make HIM look good."

Finally the Independent reports on

John Milton: the poet who gave us 'Star Trek' and 'The Matrix'

Without him nothing would be terrific, nobody would be sensuous, and we would never have gone into space. Those three words are among the many still in use that were invented by John Milton, author of Paradise Lost and second only to Shakespeare among English poets. This week, there is an unprecedented chance to see how his mind worked, when Cambridge University Library displays documents written by Milton rarely or never viewed by the public before.