The Times leads with bad news for Gordon Brown

Poll wipes the smile off Gordon Brown makeover

Gordon Brown suffers a triple blow today in his attempt to relaunch his premiership as a Times poll reveals a big slide in his leadership ratings and a new report attacks the way that Labour has handled medical training.
The day after Mr Brown made health the centrepiece of his new year fightback, an influential report seen by The Times will propose that responsibility for doctor training should be taken from the Department of Health and handed to a new body.

As does the Guardian

Inquiry launched as Labour caught in new donations row

Peter Hain will be forced to admit that he failed to declare tens of thousands of pounds worth of donations from businesses and unions when he stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour party, the Guardian has learned.
The disclosure will reopen the controversy over Labour party funding and is likely to anger Gordon Brown, who has begun the new year hoping to reinvigorate his government and draw a line under the donors issue, which is currently been investigated by Scotland Yard

As the Independent reveals

Brown appoints City PR man as chief strategist

Gordon Brown has tried to sharpen up his Downing Street operation after a trouble-hit three months by appointing the head of a public relations company as his new chief strategist.
Stephen Carter, the 43-year-old chief executive of the Brunswick communications group and former head of the media regulator Ofcom, will become the Prime Minister's chief of strategy and principal adviser on a salary of £137,000. He will head the political operation in No 10 and Mr Brown's team of 18 special advisers.


The Postcode lottery says the Telegraph

Gas companies are to introduce regional pricing - charging some householders up to £100 a year more for using the same amount of energy as those in other parts of Britain, it has been disclosed.
The postcode lottery will be a severe blow for consumers following a series of energy price rises, with the average combined gas and electricity bill forecast to break through the £1,000-a-year mark soon

Most of the papers cover the incident in the Gulf

Two minutes from war says the front page of the Mirror

US warships came within seconds of firing at Iranian gunboats in a showdown that brought the countries to the brink of conflict.
An American captain ordered his men to battle stations after receiving a radio transmission that said: "I'm coming at you! You will explode in two minutes!"
Bloodshed was averted only after the five heavily armed Revolutionary Guard craft turned away at the last minute.
They were within 200 metres of three US ships in Sunday's tense stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Guardian reports that

In Tehran, the foreign ministry suggested that its boats had not recognised the US vessels. A spokesman, Muhammad Ali Hosseini, played down the incident, saying that it was "similar to past ones ... That is something normal that takes place every now and then for each party, and it [the problem] is settled after identification of the two parties," he told the state news agency IRNA.

Scot who spent 20 years on death row is free says the Independent

Kenny Richey, the Scot who spent two decades on death row for a crime he insists he did not commit, was freed from prison yesterday after entering a plea deal ensuring all further charges against him will be dropped.
The proceedings went off without a repeat of the health scare that postponed his release, originally set for last month in time to send him home for Christmas. That hearing was put off at the last minute when he was rushed to hospital with a heart scare.

The Telegraph reports that

Tories plan to make jobless clean up parks

The long-term unemployed will be put to work collecting rubbish and cleaning graffiti under radical Conservative plans to reform the welfare system to be unveiled this week.Anyone claiming unemployment benefits for two years or more will have to carry out a year-long "community work programme" in their local area. Participants would be set to work cleaning up parks and public buildings. adding

The plans, to be launched by David Cameron on Tuesday, are the latest salvo in an escalating battle with Labour to get tough on what critics call a culture of welfare dependency.

Cameron: Jobless must do community work or lose benefits says the Mail

With the next primaries today,the Times reports

Hillary Clinton close to tears as cracks begin to show

At a coffee shop in Portsmouth, Mrs Clinton became emotional when asked by a woman voter: “How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?”
After beginning her answer, her voice began to break and tears filled her eyes. “You know, this is very personal for me. It’s not just political it’s not just public. Some people think elections are a game, lot’s of who’s up or who’s down, [but] it’s about our country.”

Obama in overdrive as Clinton falls behind says the Guardian

Hillary Clinton yesterday braced herself for a second humiliating defeat in today's New Hampshire primary election, vowing to continue the fight for the Democratic nomination until the conclusive Super Tuesday contest a month from now.
With several new polls charting a deepening collapse in support since her defeat in the Iowa caucuses, Clinton insisted she would not drop out of the race even if she loses New Hampshire.
"Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," she told CBS TV yesterday. "We're going to keep going until the end of the process on February 5. I've always felt that this is going to be a very tough, hard-fought election, and I'm ready for that."

The Independent leads with

Revealed: a new bank rip-off

Some of Britain's biggest banks have unscrupulously exploited last month's base rate cut by failing to pass on the benefits to mortgage holders, yet at the same time imposing even bigger cuts on interest accruing to savings accounts.
The double whammy means banks are squeezing their customers tighter than ever this winter, as they fight to protect their dwindling profits from the credit crunch and potential legal action over bank charges.

Familiar headlines in the Mail and the Express this morning

MADELEINE: IT WAS HER BLOOD IN PARENTS’ HIRE CAR reports the latter

BLOOD found in the McCanns’ hire car and holiday flat DID belong to missing Madeleine, it was claimed yesterday.
It reflects detectives’ belief that she is dead and her parents Kate and Gerry disposed of her body.
New results sent to Portugal in the last few days show the blood samples could only belong to Madeleine, it was claimed.

The Mail turns its attention to the Diana inquest

bugged by a five-strong surveillance team

Princess Diana's bedroom was being bugged two years after her split from Prince Charles, her inquest sensationally heard yesterday.
An electronic surveillance expert made the astonishing discovery after Diana asked him to check her Kensington Palace apartment for listening devices because she feared "dark forces" were snooping on her.
Former soldier Grahame Harding located a suspected bug behind a wall in her bedroom, adjacent to a room which had been used by Charles

Spy bug found in Diana room says the Sun

She was also convinced secret service agents were intercepting her mobile phone conversations. The Princess called in Mr Harding to sweep Kensington Palace for listening devices in 1994.

The paper leads with

Carragher sees red

The Liverpool defender lost it over banter by eight Luton supporters wearing curly black wigs and yellow shellsuits like the bickering Scousers from ’90s comedy show Harry Enfield’s Television Programme. Like the TV characters, they urged him to “calm down” as he jogged round the pitch with teammates after Sunday’s FA Cup draw at Luton’s ground.
They also hurled remarks about midfielder John Arne Riise’s ginger hair.
Ex-England player Carragher first shouted at the fans, who were in a box on the terraces, from the pitch. But then he leapt up a fence to confront them.

More sport on the front pages

India's fury at racism 'slur' on cricketer

Furious Indian cricket fans have taken to the streets after their national team collapsed to an embarrassing defeat against Australia in a match which saw an Indian player banned for allegedly racially abusing a member of the opposition.In an incident that threatens to take on diplomatic proportions, India's cricket board announced it was suspending its tour to Australia following the decision to punish the Sikh spin bowler, Harbhajan Singh.

crisis in world cricket as tour suspended over latest racism allegations reports the Guardian

The Australians allege that Singh called Symonds a "monkey" in a heated exchange during the second Test in Sydney, which was won narrowly by Australia on Sunday evening. The Indians deny that any racist language was used, and the BCCI's decision to suspend the tour - in effect a threat to return home if Singh is not cleared on appeal - is a direct challenge to the authority of the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council.

Back to the Uk and the Indy reports on

Deported to the Philippines: man whose crime was breaching Asbo

A young man has been deported to the Philippines, a country he left as a four-year-old, for breaching an antisocial behaviour order.
John Garcia, 20, is faced with building a new life i a country where he has no close relatives and does not speak a word of the language.
He is thought to be the first person to have been removed from Britain for failing to abide by the terms of his Asbo. Mr Garcia came to Anglesey as a boy to join his Filipino mother, went to school on the island and only speaks English and some Welsh

Prison officers react with fury as Jack Straw reimposes ban on strikes says the Times

Britain’s overcrowded jails are facing further industrial unrest after Jack Straw moved yesterday to ban prison officers from striking.
Mr Straw’s controversial move is intended to avoid a repeat of a wildcat strike by the Prison Officers’ Association last August, which caused chaos in the jail system.
Leaders of the association reacted with fury to the announcement and said that they had been betrayed by the Government.
Mr Straw’s decision to reimpose a legislative ban on industrial action by 25,363 prison officers opens up another front in the Government’s row over public sector pay.

Meanwhile according to the Mirror

Greedy Tory MPs back inflation-busting rise

Gordon Brown has urged MPs to show "discipline" and accept the same 1.9 per cent as nurses and police. David Cameron has ordered his frontbenchers to support Mr Brown's proposal.
But many Tory backbenchers are ready to vote for the 2.8 per cent recommended by an independent pay review panel. They are backed by many Lib Dems and hope enough Labour MPs could join them to push it through next week.

The Guardian reports that

Baby's death caused by heating fault that puts 3.5m homes at risk, says coroner

Ten-month-old Rhianna Hardie was killed when hot water cascaded on to her cot as her family spent their first night in their new council home.
At the start of the hearing the coroner, Michael Rose, said the case could have national implications and might lead to a change in the law. Matthew Hardie and his partner, Charlene Haworth, were spending their first night in the house in Taunton, Somerset, with their two children when the accident occurred.

The Mirror reports on the

Wife's plot 'to poison husband'

A wife tried to poison her husband with antifreeze to cash in on his life insurance, a court heard yesterday.
Kate Knight allegedly searched on the internet for ways of killing him to solve her financial crisis.
She mixed the toxic anti-freeze into a bottle of wine, the jury was told.
Lee Knight, described as being in his late 30s, survived but he has been left deaf, blind and with brain and kidney damage.

Mother died after epidural 'was injected into her arm instead of her spine' reports the Mail

A nurse died two hours after giving birth when an epidural anaesthetic was injected into her arm instead of her spine, an inquest heard yesterday.
And in a cruel twist, Mayra Cabrera's husband is facing deportation - because his wife is no longer working.

Many of the papers report that

Hollywood cancels Globes glitz

Keira can put her frock away. So can Julia and Cate and Jodie. And George won't be needing his tuxedo. The Golden Globes, second-ranking ceremony of the film awards season, will not take place on Sunday thanks to the Hollywood writers' strike.
Instead, a press conference will announce the roll call of winners, and the TV cameras will then have to move off in search of the various Golden Globes parties in Hollywood in an effort to track down the winners. says the Guardian

Finally the Independent reports on

Blue Monday: the day of reckoning

Unhappily married? Sick of your job? Or just suffering the winter blues? Yesterday was the day the nation faced up to its problems

On the 14th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ... divorce papers. If you didn't spend yesterday booking a holiday or looking for a new job there's a fair chance you may have booked an appointment with your divorce lawyer or

If the extended Christmas break seemed to drag on for ever, spare a thought for those for whom it wasn't enough and who still couldn't face going back to work. It is estimated that 21 million working days are lost each year to people pulling sickies. or

After what seems like weeks pickled in booze, referrals for alcohol-related problems soar 40 per cent in the first weeks of the year. It is estimated there are eight million problem drinkers in the UK, of whom 1.1 million are physically dependent on alcohol