The presidential primaries and the tribulations of Britney Spears dominate this Saturday morning

BRITNEY ON SUICIDE WATCH SHE'S LOST THE PLOT ..AND THE KIDS says the Mirror

Britney Spears was in hospital on suicide watch last night after holding her two sons hostage in a three-hour custody stand-off with armed police.
Doctors fear Britney, who was stretchered from her Beverly Hills home with restraints on her ankles after finally handing over Sean Preston, two, and 15-month-old Jayden James, may have suffered a complete mental breakdown.

Britney on horse drugs says the Sun

WRITHING BRITNEY SPEARS was rushed to hospital yesterday - tied to a stretcher after a three-hour stand-off with cops.
The junkie singer had refused to hand over her two kids to estranged husband KEVIN FEDERLINE and then locked herself in the LOO with one of her sons.
The Sun can reveal that 26-year-old Britney has been hooked on a lethal cocktail of narcotics - including a drug designed to make RACEHORSES leaner.

The other news from America is the results from Iowa

The White House? Political earthquake propels Obama towards presidency says the Independent

It was only the third day of January, a frigid evening in a smallish state in the vast American heartland. But it has generated a raw, electric political excitement, a palpable sense of novelty that this country has not witnessed in more than a generation.
Yes, Mike Huckabee (what is it about former governors of Arkansas?) won the Republican caucuses in Iowa. But the night – and perhaps the political year that will follow, culminating with the presidential election on 4 November – belonged to Barack Obama.

Obama reshapes US politics says the Guardian

"They said this day would never come," said the Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama at the outset of his barnstorming victory speech on Thursday night. But as he arrived in New Hampshire early yesterday, Americans woke up to the historic possibility that the day when they might have a black president was closer than they thought - not just within their lifetime, but within the year.
Until Thursday night that was little more than a remote likelihood - a fresh-faced, freshman senator whose middle name is Hussein up against the daunting might of the Clinton machine in the sixth whitest state in America. Last month, former president Bill Clinton asked if the United States was ready to "roll the dice" on an Obama presidency.

America goes Obama barmy says the Sun

White House a win away, says Barack Obama says the Telegraph

Fresh from his stunning eight-point victory in the Iowa caucuses, an assured Mr Obama landed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and declared: "If you give me the same chance Iowa gave me last night, I truly believe I will be President of the United States."

The paper leads with the story that

Half of English teens falling short on Three Rs

The figures will be published next week as part of a school-by-school breakdown of results designed to stop teachers inflating pupils' performance by encouraging them to take so-called "soft" subjects, such as media studies, at the expense of the basics.

New laws to govern alternative medicine is the top story in the Times

Aromatherapy, homoeopathy and other popular complementary therapies are to be regulated for the first time under a government-backed scheme to be established this year.
The new Natural Healthcare Council – which is being backed by the Prince of Wales – will be able to strike off errant or incompetent practitioners. It will also set minimum standards for practitioners to ensure that therapists are properly qualified.

Many of the papers report

TV presenter is arrested after finding his fiancée dead in bath

Mark Speight, a popular presenter of BBC children's programmes, was arrested yesterday in connection with the "unexplained" death of his fiancée.
Natasha Collins, 31, an actress who appeared on television shows alongside Mr Speight, was found dead by her fiancé on Thursday afternoon in the bath of their shared flat in St John's Wood, north-west London.
Mr Speight was released on police bail until the first week of February on suspicion of murder and supplying cocaine. says the Indie

I didn't kill her, says BBC children's TV presenter says the Mail

Last night former public schoolboy Speight, described by BBC colleagues as a "party animal", issued a statement denying he had anything to do with the tragedy at the couple's rented £500,000 flat in St John's Wood, North London. He said he was "absolutely distraught".
Scotland Yard said Miss Collins' death was being treated as "unexplained", but sources said it appeared to have been an accidental drugs overdose.

Pay firms to find work for jobless, say Tories reports the Telegraph

David Cameron will unveil radical plans next week to pay the private sector for getting millions of people in long-term unemployment back to work.The Tory leader will also propose a "screening" regime to identify fraudulent claimants of invalidity benefit, cutting benefits to people who refuse to make themselves available for work and forcing lone parents to seek employment once their youngest child reaches the age of four.

Brown plans killer disease screening on NHS for all men as they reach 65 reports the Guardian

Millions of men are to be screened for the first time by the NHS in an attempt to wipe out one of England's biggest killer conditions under plans to be announced by Gordon Brown next week.
The prime minister wants men to be checked for abdominal aortic aneurysms - in which the main artery in the body becomes swollen and can rupture. Every man reaching 65 is to be offered an ultrasound test to check for vascular abnormalities which can be rectified by a relatively simple operation if detected early enough.

200,000 a week catch norovirus sickness bug...and there's no treatment says the Mail

A sickness bug sweeping the country is claiming 200,000 victims a week.
Many thousands more are expected to catch it when offices and schools reopen after the Christmas break on Monday.
Already, more than 100 hospital wards have been closed, operations cancelled and visitors banned in a desperate attempt to halt the march of the norovirus

The crisis in Kenya is reported in many of the papers

Food alert as Kenya erupts says the Mirror

Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki, is facing growing dissent within his own Kikuyu community over the way Kenya's election was conducted and his refusal to accept talks with the opposition under international mediation, it emerged yesterday.
Wealthy Kikuyu business people, who control much of Kenya's economy, have seen their companies' value dive over the past week and are trying to persuade Kibaki to soften his stance. Younger Kikuyu professionals, meanwhile, are accusing the president and his advisers of turning the rest of the country against their ethnic group.


Pressure grows on Kibaki to hold talks as divisions emerge among own community says the Guardian

Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki, is facing growing dissent within his own Kikuyu community over the way Kenya's election was conducted and his refusal to accept talks with the opposition under international mediation, it emerged yesterday.
Wealthy Kikuyu business people, who control much of Kenya's economy, have seen their companies' value dive over the past week and are trying to persuade Kibaki to soften his stance. Younger Kikuyu professionals, meanwhile, are accusing the president and his advisers of turning the rest of the country against their ethnic group.

There are battles on the streets — and there’s no tonic for the ginreports the Times

Supplies of tonic water ended on Wednesday and the next day there was no milk for the tea. Tourists from many European countries are being flown out as the tribal-based clashes lead to shortages of food and fuel and growing fears about public safety.
Mombasa yesterday experienced the most serious rioting since the disputed presidential election as the estimated 6,000 British holidaymakers and 30,000 expatriates in Kenya became increasingly isolated.

Rangoon flooded with police as Burma celebrates independence reports the Independent

Four months after huge protests erupted against the military regime, Burma marked 60 years of independence from Britain by flooding Rangoon, its biggest city, with uniformed and plainclothes policemen.
Riot police took up positions outside the city hall and Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, all of which were the focus of protests in September. City residents reported seeing groups of officers clustered at bus stops and on street corners.
Official celebrations were low key. Senior figures in the junta watched as the national flag was raised in a park near Shwedagon pagoda and a brief, patriotic message by the junta's supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe, 75, was read out.

The same paper reporting how a

Naples rubbish crisis turns nasty

Anger over Naples' refuse crisis took a macabre turn yesterday as residents awoke to find 21 tailor's dummies resembling Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and town mayor Rosa Jervolino dangling from trees and lampposts.
Anti-terrorist police from the Digos, Italy's equivalent of Special Branch, said the home-made dummies were hoisted on the trees overnight by militants from a branch of the right-wing opposition party, the National Alliance.
Many of the mannequins in the southern city carried placards bearing the words Addio a 'stu munno 'e munnezza – Neapolitan dialect for "Good riddance to this rubbish."

Speed demons will meet their match on the piste reports the Times

Skiers and snowboarders who love the unrestricted thrill of hurtling down alpine pistes on a sunny winter’s day are about to be stopped in their tracks.
Switzerland is introducing speed cameras on the slopes to try to reduce the increasing number of accidents. The first such nationwide controls will treat skiers like cars on the motorway. Speeders will be caught with hand-held radar devices carried by hidden personnel.

The Express is up in arms over

SCANDAL OF 27% ON ELECTRICITY

ONE of Britain’s largest energy companies was last night accused of putting thousands of lives at risk after increasing bills by up to 27 per cent.
The 6.8 million customers of npower were left shocked by the increases, which take effect from today and will see some billsrocketing by £229 a year

The Independent reporting that

Npower - the UK's fourth biggest energy supplier - blamed the decision to up prices on steep rises in wholesale gas and electricity costs, which it claimed have risen by more than 60 per cent since the middle of last February.
It added that gas distribution costs had also contributed to price pressures and Npower announced today that its gas prices will vary regionally for the first time to reflect gas transportation costs.

FOREIGN energy giants accused of treating UK like Treasure Island says the Mail

Energy watchdogs demanded an investigation by the European Commission and the Competition Commission in this country to ensure there is no illegal price fixing.
Adam Scorer, campaigns chief at the consumer body Energywatch, hit out as the profiteering of the foreign energy giants.

The Guardian reports that

Britain on verge of 'new Renaissance'

Britain may be about to produce "the greatest art yet created", ushering in a "new Renaissance" comparable with that in 15th century Italy, according to a policy review to be published by the government next Thursday.
Supporting Excellence in the Arts, written by Sir Brian McMaster, a former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, was commissioned by the culture secretary, James Purnell. It proposes that state subsidy of the arts should focus on the pursuit of "excellence" rather than the fulfilment of targets, and says this switch could contribute to a historic cultural moment.

Many of the papers report on the

A PUB chain has banned parents who bring in children from having more than two drinks — so the kids “don’t get bored”.

The Sun reports that

JD Wetherspoon, which runs 683 pubs across the UK, said it did not want youngsters having to spend hours in its bars — even if one parent stuck to non-alcoholic drinks.
But the rule caused outrage among customers. Furious Stephen Gandy said he and seven friends were refused service during a meal at his local because they took a child along

Drug dealer refuses to leave his 'comfy' cell reports the Telegraph

A judge has condemned the "barking mad" human rights rules that allowed a drug dealer to stay in his prison cell rather than appear in court.Amir Ali, who was jailed for almost four years last September, refused to leave the "comfortable" cell because he was afraid of losing it to another inmate.

staying on the same subject the Mirror reports

New jail prices a real steal

Prisoners are to be offered supermarket-style value items at jail shops after moans over prices.
Bosses acted after a survey showed branded goods sold by suppliers Aramark are almost twice as expensive as at Tesco.

Finally the Express reports that

SOUTH EAST MOST POPULAR DESTINATION

Around 2.5 million people have moved to the South East from other areas of the UK during the past 10 years, figures have shown.
The region was the most popular area of the country for people to relocate to between 1996 and 2006, according to Britain's biggest mortgage lender Halifax but the South East also had the second highest level of people leaving it for other areas of the UK.