Most of the papers carry a picture of the beached plane which crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow yesterday with accompanying headlines

Just 20 seconds from disaster says the Mail

Just 20 seconds from landing, Captain Peter Burkill suddenly found he had no power speculating that

Last night investigators were probing whether the catastrophe was caused by a bird striking the plane

Give him a medal as large as a frying pan says the Mirror

A heroic British Airways pilot averted catastrophe yesterday by gliding his jet into Heathrow after its engines failed.
Capt Peter Burkill kept Flight BA038 airborne over houses and schools before crash-landing in a field. Only 19 of the 136 people on board were hurt.
A witness said: "He deserves a medal as big as a frying pan."
The jet swooped in a few feet above cars heading for the airport - including one carrying Gordon Brown.

The great escape of Flight BA038 says the Times

It was 12.42pm. The flight, which had left Beijing 12 hours earlier, was on time. A minute from touchdown at Heathrow, Captain Burkill and his co-pilot discovered that the aircraft was dropping faster than the standard three-degree descent. There appeared to have been a catastrophic loss of power affecting both engines. The cockpit electronics may also have failed, leaving only the battery-powered airspeed indicator and altimeter operating.

Crash pilot averts Heathrow disaster says the Telegraph

Despite the sudden loss of power the captain, Peter Burkill, managed to "glide" the airliner over houses, airport buildings and a busy road before "belly flopping" it on to grass at 100mph only 50 yards inside the perimeter fence.
One wing was almost ripped away as flight BA038 from Beijing landed 400 yards short of the runway and its undercarriage sheared off as it skidded almost a quarter of a mile to a halt. Terrified passengers told how they were left in darkness as the lights went off and the plane's emergency oxygen masks dropped down. One claimed that smoke began to fill the cabin as the BA crew ushered them out to emergency chutes.

The Independent meanwhile focuses on a plane travelling in another direction

Brown accused of ignoring human rights on visit to China

Gordon Brown arrived in China last night on a visit designed to boost business links, but was accused of soft-pedalling over the world's concerns about human rights in the country.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said that Mr Brown would raise human rights in a general sense during two days of talks with Chinese leaders. But British officials admitted the issue would not be central to his discussions. adding

They insisted that human rights would be debated fully in an annual session involving officials from the two countries on 28 January. But Mr Brown's stance drew criticism from Tory politicians. Edward McMillan-Scott, a Tory MEP, accused Mr Brown of "humbug" because he wanted to stop Zimbabwe's forthcoming cricket tour to England but would not back calls for a boycott of this summer's Beijing Olympics


The Guardian leads with the news that

Panic selling shuts £2bn fund


One of Britain's biggest property funds was forced to shut its doors to withdrawals yesterday after the slump in commercial prices triggered panic selling by small investors.
The move prompted fears of a Northern Rock-style run on billions of pounds invested in once high-flying funds which many savers have seen as a safe haven for their pensions.
Scottish Equitable said yesterday that 129,000 small investors in its £2bn property fund will not be able to access their money for up to a year, although payments relating to regular income already being paid, retirements and death claims will not be affected

Delay capital gains reform, Gordon Brown told says the Telegraph

Gordon Brown is under pressure to postpone reform of the capital gains tax system following months of Government "dithering" that senior business and City figures say is leading to mass confusion.Ministers pledged to announce revised plans to reform capital gains tax before Christmas following criticism of their proposals to raise the levy by up to 80 per cent for small businessmen and entrepreneurs.

The Times reports on the Suffolk murder trial

Strangler suspect ‘was seen washing his car in the dark’

The man accused of murdering five Ipswich women in six weeks regularly cleaned his car at odd times of the day – even in the dark, a court was told yesterday.
A neighbour spoke of having often heard the washing machine at Steve Wright’s flat running in the early hours of the morning. The prosecution at the trial of Mr Wright, 49, a forklift truck driver, says that he was trying to destroy evidence of his link to the victims and that his actions were part of a compelling picture of his guilt.

I slept with the murdered four says the Sun

SUFFOLK Strangler suspect Steve Wright admits he had sex with four of the five prostitutes he is accused of murdering, a jury was told yesterday.
Wright, 49, says he also picked up the fifth in his car for sex – but changed his mind and dropped her off.
His DNA and fibres from his clothing, home and car were found on their bodies because of the contact, the court was told.
Timothy Langdale QC, defending, said Wright used prostitutes, among them the five murdered women.

The Mail reports that

Top judge attacks 'feral' yobs in a courtroom tirade and places the blame with law makers

A judge warned yesterday that an obsession with rights had created a society "bedevilled by feral youth".
Judge Ian Trigger spoke out amid a wave of anger over the murder of devoted family man Garry Newlove in a vicious gang attack.
He also attacked the policy of releasing violent offenders on bail - the case with the ringleader of the gang who kicked 47-year-old Mr Newlove to death outside his Warrington home.

Corrupt MoD official can keep £1.5m

A corrupt civil servant behind one of the biggest frauds in Whitehall history has managed to avoid paying anything towards a £1.5m confiscation order because the Crown Prosecution Service delayed enforcing it for 11 years, the Guardian has learned.
Gordon Foxley, who was head of defence procurement at the Ministry of Defence from 1981 to 1984, was given a four-year jail sentence in 1994 for taking bribes from foreign arms manufacturers. The trial judge ordered him to hand back £1.5m that had been used to buy his family eight properties. But the high court has now struck out a legal attempt by the CPS to enforce the order because the judge ruled a fair trial of the issues was impossible after such a long delay.

The Independent leads with

The twins who unlocked the secrets of leukaemia

A study of two identical twin girls has led to a new understanding of the causes of childhood leukaemia and could revolutionise the treatment – and possibly prevention – of the potentially lethal disease. The detailed investigation of the two British girls has, for the first time, enabled medical researchers to track down the source of the cancerous stem cells in the blood that can lead to leukaemia in the first few years of life.

The Express is concerned with the weather

A month's rainfall in the next two days says its front page

Fears of further widespread flooding rose dramatically last night amid warnings that a month’s rain will fall in the next 48 hours.
At the same time southern Britain will be hit by gales of up to 60mph.
The Met Office said western parts of England and Wales could be drenched by nearly 4in (100mm) of rain – the average for the whole of January – during today and tomorrow.

With a picture of a red sky the Sun reports
WEATHERMEN were on red alert last night – after warning this blood-coloured sky means more storms and floods are heading our way.
The amazing picture was taken early yesterday by Stephen Huntley in Danbury, Essex.
Experts say it heralds extreme weather – like the adage “Red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning.”

News from abroad and the Independent reports that

Kenyan opposition leader threatens to call general strike

Kenya is bracing itself for another week of protests and unrest after the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, vowed to increase the pressure on Mwai Kibaki's embattled government with a general strike and boycott of some of Kenya's largest companies.
The death toll from the country's post-election violence rose yesterday after a second day of opposition-organised protests. Mr Odinga accused police of killing seven people in Kasarani, Nairobi. More than 600 people have so far died, many by police bullets, others during clashes between opposition supporters and tribes which supported Mr Kibaki in December's election

Your actions are a stain on your reputation, David Miliband tells Russia reports the Times

Britain told Russia yesterday that its actions against the British Council were a “stain” on its reputation which was risking its standing in the world.

The council formally suspended operations in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg because of the campaign of intimidation against its staff, including the detention of Stephen Kinnock, son of the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty. Lord Kinnock, who is chairman of the British Council, looked on from a Commons gallery as David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, described Russia’s behaviour as reprehensible.

UK could block trade deal for Russia says the Guardian

The Independent reports that

Blair unfit to run EU, say French political veterans

Two of France's senior statesmen have launched an ABB movement – "Anyone But Blair" – in an attempt to prevent the former prime minister becoming the first president of the European Union next year.
Although much of the support for Mr Blair comes from President Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and the former prime minister Edouard Balladur, who is M. Sarkozy's mentor and friend, have declared Mr Blair to be unfit for the job.

Hollywood strike 'nears end, as studios cave in says the Times

Hopes were raised when the Directors Guild of America, headed by the British former Coronation Street director Michael Apted, announced that it had reached a tentative agreement on the terms of its new contract, which will come into effect when the old one expires in June.

Lily Allen has lost her baby reports the Sun in an exclusive

POP star LILY ALLEN was “distraught” last night after losing her baby.
The singer, 22, had a miscarriage after returning from a romantic holiday with boyfriend ED SIMONS, 37. A source said: “They are in a state of shock.”

The Telegraph reports that

Dyson's new big idea is a mini vacuum cleaner

The Dyson Baby, which is 11.5 inches high and 15.5 inches wide, is designed to tackle awkward corners and confined areas, but is powerful enough to clean a whole house.
The cylinder style vacuum cleaner is a third smaller than other Dyson machines.
Sir James Dyson, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, said: "I would suspect people will gravitate towards the smaller cleaners if they have got all the technology and if they are as powerful and effective as a big one."

59 per cent of wives would leave their husbands (if they could afford it) says the Mail

They may have promised to have and to hold for richer and for poorer.
But wives are most interested in the richer part, it was claimed yesterday.
In a study of married men and women, the majority of wives - 59 per cent - said they would divorce immediately if their future economic security was assured.

Finally the Mirror speculates on a what if following yesterday's plane crash

Gordon Brown stared death in the face yesterday as the stricken Heathrow jet came hurtling in just 25 feet above his head before crash landing.He had arrived for a flight to China which was waiting on the ground. Already on board the jumbo was Mirror Political Editor Bob Roberts.
One aide told him of the terrifying moment the PM and his entourage feared they were about to be wiped out. The insider said: "It was just yards above our heads, almost skimming a lamppost as the plane came in fast and very, very low."

And if it had happened?

If Gordon Brown had died yesterday there would have been an emergency Cabinet meeting to choose his successor.
There is no deputy PM to take over automatically.
If the Cabinet could not pick their new leader promptly Lord Chancellor Jack Straw would be most likely to act as stand-in PM because of his seniority in the government.