Most of the papers carry pictures of a distraught Natasha Hogan

My son died for nothing says the Mirror

The ex-wife of hotel leap dad John Hogan weeps in anguish yesterday after he was cleared of murdering their young son.
Natasha Hogan, 35, said the shock verdict meant Liam, six, had "lost his young life for nothing".
A Crete court ruled Hogan, 33 - who jumped with Liam and sister Mia, two, in 2006 - was mentally ill.
But inconsolable mum Natasha, from Newport, Gwent, sobbed: "To have done this to our children is unforgivable."


My Liam lost his young life for nothing says the Sun

A court in Chania, Crete, ruled that tiler Hogan of Bristol, had diminished responsibility after a row with Natasha and sent him for psychiatric treatment.
But Natasha, now living in Newport, Gwent, South Wales, branded his tragic act “unforgivable”.

The Guardian reports that

Natasha Hogan needed 10 minutes to compose herself properly after the verdict was read out. Even then, she couldn't read the statement she had written, though her words left nobody in any doubt about her feelings towards her ex-husband, and their six-year-old son, whom he had killed.

Another death is also prominently featured

The heartbroken drugged up world of Heath Ledger says the Mirror

The Sun reports that

HOLLYWOOD star HEATH LEDGER went on cocaine and ecstasy binges with model NAOMI CAMPBELL, it emerged last night.

Heath Ledger died after overdosing on sleeping pills says the Mail

An accidental overdose of sleeping pills emerged as the most likely explanation yesterday for the death of Hollywood actor Heath Ledger.

Post-mortem results were inconclusive and experts said further tests were needed to establish the cause of death.

Friends said 28-year-old Ledger, a former heroin addict, was heartbroken after splitting from his fiancee, American actress Michelle Williams, with whom he had a twoyearold daughter, Matilda

The paper leads with the story that

Government to beat obesity epidemic by PAYING fat people to lose weight

Fat people could be paid to lose weight under Government plans to tackle obesity.
Ministers said the Health Service and employers could give vouchers to the overweight to spend on healthy food in supermarkets.
They also suggested that those who manage to lose weight could be given cash prizes.

The Telegraph carries the same theme

Ministers believe that by giving people incentives to do something about their weight now, it will help avoid larger costs associated with treating cancer, heart disease and diabetes caused by obesity. Similar schemes have worked well in America and British medical insurance companies already offer discounts for people who go to the gym regularly.

More trouble for the government on the front page of the Guardian

Labour facing humiliation on terror bill

Government whips are believed to have warned ministers that if a Commons vote were held now on pre-charge detention it would be "touch and go" and the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, must go out and make the case if she is to win over sceptical Labour backbenchers

£200m tax reprieve for small businesses reports the Times

Alistair Darling will try today to rescue Labour’s business reputation with a £200 million climbdown on capital gains tax designed to help owners of small companies.
Three months after announcing in his first Pre-Budget Report a new flat rate of capital gains tax at 18 per cent, the Chancellor will rewrite his own rules before they have even come into effect.
In the face of enormous pressure from the business community, Mr Darling will halve that rate on at least the first £750,000 of gains made between the buying and selling of assets.

Brown and Darling lose confidence of entrepreneurs, poll shows says the Independent

Gordon Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling are losing the confidence of British entrepreneurs, according to a survey.
A poll by ComRes of 188 prominent businessmen found that only 26 per cent have confidence in the Prime Minister, while more than twice as many (59 per cent) have faith in David Cameron. Only 17 per cent feel able to place their trust in Mr Darling, who has a much lower "confidence rating" than the shadow Chancellor, George Osborne (48 per cent).

Britain IS heading for a recession, warns billionaire investor George Soros says the Mail

Britain and America are heading for a recesssion, one of the world's most powerful financiers said yesterday.
The bleak warning from George Soros follows a rollercoaster week on the financial markets demonstrated yesterday by the FTSE 100, which rose on Tuesday, falling again and the plunging Dow Jones rallying to finish up 300 points

Hopes of large cuts in interest rates dashed by bankers says the Independent

As the Office for National Statistics revealed that Britain's economy was growing at its slowest pace for more than a year, analysts were surprised to learn that members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee had voted eight-to-one in favour of keeping interest rates on hold – at 5.5 per cent. The emphatic nature of the vote, revealed in the minutes of the MPC's last meeting, surprised analysts who had thought the decision rejecting calls for a second interest rate cut – after the 0.25 percentage point cut in December – had been finely balanced.


The Telegraph has more bad news

Police challenge pay 'betrayal' in the courts

Police officers have launched a High Court battle to overturn the Government decision to ignore an independent panel and cap this year's pay award at 1.9 per cent.Yesterday more than 22,000 off-duty officers marched through Westminster to protest about the pay deal in the biggest gathering of police officers in Britain's history.

The Guardian reports that

Doctors could quit NHS in protest at longer hours, says BMA

The move, which could result in patients paying up to £25 for a short consultation, was among options drawn up by leading GPs who object to being made to offer evening and weekend appointments.
adding

A BMA briefing document leaked to Pulse, a doctors' website, said: "If the government intends to impose such major cuts on our funding, we may have to face the possibility of an exit strategy from the NHS entirely. This would be a huge step. All current income streams would be lost, and GPs would have to face a much more uncertain financial future.

NHS write off bad debt millions says the Sun

BAD debts" are reportedly forcing hospitals to write off millions of pounds over private and international patients who fail to pay their bills.
Figures obtained by Health Service Journal (HSJ) revealed that NHS trusts and foundation trusts were owed millions in outstanding fees.

most of the papers report that

Publish the secret document on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ministers are told

The unpublished draft document was drawn up by John Williams, who in 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, was the head of information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and one of the senior government spin-doctors.
Yesterday the Information Tribunal ruled that the Williams report should be made public so that people could make their own judgment as to whether its contents could have influenced the official dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including the 45-minute claim.

The Mirror reports that

'935 President George Bush lies took USA into Iraq war'

George Bush and his advisers told a pack of lies in the aftermath of September 11, it was claimed yesterday.
They are accused of issuing 935 false statements about Iraq in the two years after the terror attacks on the United States in 2001.
A report claims they "led the nation to war under decidedly false pretences".
Surveys of statements in which Iraq was mentioned were carried out by two nonprofit journalism bodies.

The front page of the Independent concentrates on the crisis in Gaza

Freedom (for one day only) says the paper

Abdullah al-Najar, who runs a taxi company in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya, reflected for a moment as the families and donkey carts, laden with everything from olive oil to mattresses, from cement to computers, streamed past him and through what only hours earlier had been the impenetrable part-iron, part-concrete southern wall incarcerating Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Palestinians pour into Egypt reports the Guardian

In one of the more extraordinary scenes of life in Gaza yesterday, tens of thousands of Palestinians poured through the border crossing into Egypt in an excited and desperate rush to buy food, fuel, blankets, goats, cigarettes, fertiliser, 50kg bags of cement, Chinese-built motorbikes and anything else they could find. Overnight a series of carefully placed explosions, almost certainly orchestrated by the Hamas movement, blasted holes in the wall, in some areas bringing huge sections to the ground. Yesterday morning the crowds did the rest, marching through the sand and clambering into Egypt.

The Times reports that

reforms are ridiculed after police crackdown on Zimbabwe rally

Zimbabwean police fired teargas yesterday and charged several hundred demonstrators who were demanding a democratic constitution, water, electricity and the right to draw money from banks without queueing.
The leader of the Opposition was detained, ten demonstrators were treated in hospital and dozens were arrested, lawyers said.

Iranian people fear new wave of sanctions reports the Independent

The foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Britain, Russia and the United States – plus Germany agreed on a draft resolution that would tighten financial and travel sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment which they fear may one day lead to the production of a nuclear weapon.
Momentum for a third resolution had diminished after the American National Intelligence Estimate, a declassified US intelligence report, reported in December that Iran's nuclear ambitions were civilian, not military. But Bush administration officials countered that Iran's weapons programme could easily be restarted.

Kerry denounces 'lies' about Obama reports the Guardian

John Kerry, the Democratic candidate in the 2004 presidential election, made an extraordinary intervention on behalf of Barack Obama yesterday, accusing his opponents of stooping to "Swiftboat" smear tactics to destroy the senator's presidential ambitions.
Kerry, whose presidential bid was wrecked by innuendo and lies about his Vietnam service as a Swiftboat officer on the Mekong river, did not name the Clintons but they appeared to be the main target of his outburst.

Cameron backs John McCain in US race says the Telegraph

David Cameron last night risked political isolation in Washington as he broke diplomatic convention by backing a candidate in the US presidential race.Speaking at a dinner hosted by Barclays Capital at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Conservative leader heaped praised on one of the Republican front-runners, John McCain.

Whisky in the morning for Ken as sleaze row claims first victim reports the Indy

For years, Ken Livingstone has been the immovable face of London politics. Yesterday, as an avalanche of sleaze allegations engulfed his office and forced the resignation of a key aide, his position had never looked more precarious. Even for a man who thrives on controversy, the capital's Mayor has not had a good week.

The Telegraph claims

Boeing 777s had six other engine failures

Details of the incidents involving Boeing 777s emerged as officials from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch try to uncover the reasons behind last week's accident involving British Airways flight 038 from Beijing.The earlier failures were logged by the US National Transportation Safety Board, which has an investigator working with the AAIB. It has been established that the two engines on the BA jet failed to produce the thrust needed as the plane, with 136 passengers on board, came in to land.

EU aims for moral high ground with swingeing climate change package says the GuardianA blueprint for tackling global warming was put on the table yesterday by the EU, which challenged the US and other big polluters worldwide to join the battle against climate change. Setting out plans for the world's first significant low-carbon economy, the EU ordered swingeing cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which included challenging targets for Britain.
Under draft legislation unveiled by the European commission, 20% of Europe's energy mix is to come from renewable sources by 2020, while Europe's biggest polluting industries must slash their emissions by 21% against 2005 levels by the same deadline.

20,000 wind turbines - plus a 15% rise in electricity bills says the Times

The cost of household electricity bills is expected to rise by up to 15 per cent if Britain is to meet compulsory climate change targets announced yesterday.The investment required to get Britain’s energy supplies anywhere near the target mean that electricity prices are likely to rise 10-15 per cent by 2020 even before other inflationary factors are taken into account

Most of the papers reveal

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin spaceship

Speaking at a launch at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, he said: "Two thousand eight is going to be the year of the spaceship. We're excited about this, and everything it will do."
He described the designs of both the mothership and the new spaceship as "absolutely beautiful" and beyond anything he had expected for commercial space flight when his company registered the Virgin Galactic name in 1999.

The front page of the Express tells us that

1.3M POLES ARRIVED IN BRITAIN LAST YEAR

The official figures immediately provoked condemnation of the Government’s failure to monitor the country’s borders.
The influx was more than six times the number who arrived in 2002, two years before Poland joined the EU and its citizens were granted the right to live and work in Britain.
But even that massive total was called into question when critics of the Government’s border control policy described it as a “drastic understatement” of the true picture.


The Sun reports that

GANGLAND mobs are robbing long-distance coaches by sneaking DWARVES into the luggage holds in sports bags.

The tiny tea-leaves are smuggled aboard disguised as innocent items of baggage.
Once inside, they slip out from their hiding places to rifle through the belongings of unsuspecting travellers. Then they take their loot back to their hiding place and wait to be collected by another gang member when the coach reaches its destination.


The Indy reports

Scilly isle home to better restaurants than Manchester

The 110 residents of St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly cannot complain that they have nowhere fashionable to eat. The Tean restaurant on the windswept island at the most westerly point of Britain, 30 miles from Land's End, has just won a Michelin star.
The distinction means the island, which measures just one square mile, officially enjoys better dining than the four million inhabitants of Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester, none of which has one restaurant with a star in the latest edition of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland, published yesterday.

Finally in a week of financial meltdown the Guardian reports on

Robert Tchenguiz: he's lost £560m and counting. But he says the yacht is safe

The flamboyant property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz has for years cut a swath through Britain's property industry like he was taking a turn around the monopoly board. His combined fortune with his brother Vincent has been estimated at £850m - wealth on a par with Lord Ashcroft and Sir Alan Sugar. He inhabited the world of the Monaco yacht set, celebrity parties and the gossip columns.
But the luck of the dice has turned: the Mayfair-based investor has emerged as one of the biggest and most high-profile victims of the credit crunch.
A series of collapsed corporate deals and plunging stock market sentiment have led to a fall in the paper value of three Tchenguiz investments of more than £560m in less than 12 weeks. Calculations by the Guardian show that declines in the share price of Sainsbury's, the pub group Mitchells & Butlers and the computer games publisher SCi Entertainment have respectively led to a drop in the value of Tchenguiz investments of £325m, £200m and £40m since November 4.