Binge Britain-the Toll grows says the Mail's front page this morning

A police chief lashed out at the drinks industry last night for selling beer 'cheaper than water' and leaving hospitals to pick up the bill in injuries and bloodshed.
Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, accused drinks companies of 'marketing alcohol to children' and making profits 'on the back of misery'.
His comments came as innocent 48-year-old Gareth Avery recovered in hospital from a vicious beating by drunk thugs who broke his jaw and cheekbone in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Its front page also faetures the future king

William and the clubber slashed with a bottle,which makes the lead in the Mirror under the headline

I was bottled at William's £1 a drink pub

It was the ugly night that booze yob Britain shared a nightclub with Prince William - and it ended with blood on the floor.

Decorator Dan O'Callaghan, 19, gawped with his pals as he watched Wills and friends knock back booze at a £1-a-drink party night.
The prince was sitting with friends at a table laden with 14 bottles of vodka-based alcopops and shot glasses of potent Aftershock spirits.
Soon afterwards, Dan was involved in a row with two men. Later, the thugs tracked him down to the dance floor.


Children ‘carry knives to fend off bullies’ says the Times

Growing numbers of children say they are carrying knives and bottles to defend themselves against bullies and are afraid of being stabbed at school, according to a report.
Media coverage of children and young people being shot or stabbed in towns or cities, together with a fear that serious bullying is becoming more common, are creating a climate of fear in some schools, the research by Roger Morgan, the Children’s Rights Director, suggests


The paper leads with the story that

Terror law is in tatters as extremists go free

Dozens of anti-terrorist investigations and prosecutions are in jeopardy after senior judges yesterday quashed the convictions of five young Muslims for downloading extremist propaganda. Three Court of Appeal judges, led by the Lord Chief Justice, questioned whether they should ever have been prosecuted for merely possessing the material. The ruling means that in future the prosecution will have to prove that defendants intended to commit terrorist attacks.



The Guardian reports that

They were prosecuted under section 57 of the Terrorism act 2000, which makes it an offence to have books or items useful for a terrorist. Striking down the convictions, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips said: "[Section 57] must be interpreted in a way that requires a direct connection between the object possessed and the act of terrorism."
Directions given to the jury by the trial judge did not tell jurors "that they had to be satisfied that each appellant intended to use the relevant articles to incite his fellow planners to fight in Afghanistan".

It leads with the news that

Tuition fees favour the rich - new study

Teenagers from poorer families are turning their backs on a university education because of fears they will be saddled with thousands of pounds of debt, new research shows. The study on the impact of tuition fees reveals today that nearly two-thirds of pupils who decided not to seek higher education cited anxieties about money.
The number of students planning to study at universities close by, so they can live with their families, has risen from 18% in 1998 to 56% today, the research shows. By comparison, pupils from independent schools are now significantly more likely to move to a university in a different city, opening up the option of Oxbridge and other leading institutions, says the influential charity the Sutton Trust.

Many of the papers report on

The second Litvinenko?

Police are investigating the "suspicious" death of an exiled Georgian billionaire living in Britain who feared assassination in an Alexander Litvinenko-style murder plot. says the Telegraph adding

A post mortem examination was being carried out as police retraced the last steps of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a charismatic oligarch and Georgia's richest man, who collapsed and died in front of his wife at their £10 million mansion in Leatherhead, Surrey, at 11pm on Tuesday.
Detectives were treating his death as "suspicious". It is understood one of their first actions after the scene was sealed was to test for radioactivity, but they said later there was no evidence of a radioactive substance being involved.

The Independent reports that

Mr Berezovsky said that the Georgian tycoon – said to be worth £6bn – had complained about his heart when the two men met on Tuesday. Police said he fell ill on Tuesday evening while entertaining family and friends at his mansion in Leatherhead. Mr Berezovsky said yesterday: "The death of Badri Patarkatsishvili is a terrible tragedy. I have lost my closest friend. This is a huge loss for all of his family and friends. I shall make no further comment on the circumstances of Badri's death. I shall wait for the authorities to complete their investigation."


The Telegraph leads with

Standard of living will fall, warns Mervyn King

Britons have enjoyed a decade of high spending on luxury goods, holidays and second homes, fuelled by low interest rates, easy credit and near-record lows in living costs.But Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, issued a stark warning that this period had come to an end.
In an uncharacteristically blunt statement, he said rising inflation and the fallout from global economic turmoil would take its toll on the spending power of British households

The Guardian reporting

Faced with stagnating growth and rising prices for food and energy, King said the bank was facing one of its trickiest periods since assuming control of interest rate policy more than 10 years ago.
When asked whether a recession was possible this year, he said the predictions for growth in yesterday's inflation report were "not inconsistent" with two quarters of zero or negative growth - the technical definition of a recession.

The Independent's front page carries a letter to the Chinese government

China has been called upon to abandon its support for Sudan by a coalition of Nobel Prize-winners and international athletes, who demanded that this year's Olympic hosts cease to trade with a regime which is held responsible by the world for the carnage in Darfur.
A letter of protest, organised by a group of Nobel laureates and carried on the front of this newspaper, criticises China's President Hu Jintao for providing succour to a government "that continues to carry out atrocities against its own people".


Car bomb ends life of Hizbullah chief says the Guardian

Imad Mughniyeh could have had no idea he was about to die on Tuesday evening as he approached the silver SUV parked in an anonymous street in Kafr Soussa, a quiet residential suburb of Damascus.
Still, Mughniyeh must have been used to danger - he had been one of the world's most wanted men for more than 20 years. Israel's Mossad, the CIA and other intelligence agencies were anxious to give him a taste of his own medicine, with bombings, assassinations and kidnappings making up his extraordinary CV

Bloody end of man who made kidnapping a weapon of war says Robert Fisk in the Independent

Mougnieh was an enemy of America, an enemy of Israel; the latter's denial of responsibility for the car bomb that killed him will be seen by his supporters as a mere linguistic sleight of hand, and he knew the risks. His brother was assassinated in Beirut by a bomb meant for him and his own loathing for the CIA station chief in Beirut, done to death by Islamic Jihad after his 1984 abduction, was proof enough of Mougnieh's war with the United States.

Did Mossad blow up the Hezbollah 'Master Terrorist' asks the Mail

Obama launches economic manifesto reports the Telegraph

Barack Obama has set out plans to revive America's economy in an attempt to counter criticism that his White House campaign was too strong on rhetoric and too weak on detail.The Illinois senator has pulled ahead of Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination after winning the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC primaries by a wide margin on Tuesday night

The Guardian reports that

Clinton banks on Texas as defection adds to woes

Hillary Clinton's campaign yesterday struggled to convince Democrats she can deliver the strong wins she needs in the powerhouse states of Texas and Ohio to remain a viable candidate.
A day after Barack Obama's sweep of three primary contests around Washington DC, Clinton suffered an even more personal rejection yesterday when David Wilhelm, who managed her husband's 1992 campaign for the White House, endorsed her opponent.

The Indy reports that

Bruni 'sorry' for comparing critics to anti-Semitic collaborators

The new French first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, apologised yesterday for comparing a magazine website to French collaborators who "denounced Jews" during the 1939-45 war.
In her first interview since her marriage 11 days ago, the Franco-Italian pop singer stumbled unnecessarily into one of the most sensitive issues in recent French history. However, she recovered, and gained considerable credit, by making an almost instant apology

Child fingerprint checks at European borders reports the Telegraph

Children as young as six will have to have their fingerprints checked in order to enter or exit the European Union, under radical proposals made by Brussels.
By 2019 all travellers, including children, will be required to enter a closed booth on their own, where their biometric details, stored digitally on microchips in passports, will be checked against their real fingerprints.


Back to the Uk and the Sun's front page proclaims

Ashley is damaged goods.How can I ever trust him again? reporting that

While the England defender clowned with Chelsea pals in Surrey, friends of his devastated missus voiced fears that her weight has plunged to a terrifying SIX STONE.The 24-year-old GIRLS ALOUD pin-up has been refusing to eat and chain-smoking on a Thai island as she fades into a sad shadow of the pop world beauty.
She fled her marital home three weeks ago after The Sun revealed Ashley had cheated on her. And in the first pictures taken since then, her agony was clear to see.

The Express is pleased with the weather

Glorious says its front page

Summer came early yesterday as the country soaked up record-breaking temperatures.
In an unexpected half-term bonus, millions flocked to beaches, parks and the countryside to make the most of the sunshine.
Although forecasters said the next few days would be cooler, they promised that the glorious weather would be back next week.

Most of the papers report on

£100m drug trafficking ring smashed by 30 raids, say police

Scotland Yard yesterday claimed to have smashed one of the biggest drug trafficking rings in Britain, using a mechanical digger to gain entrance to the luxury home of one of the alleged masterminds.
In 30 simultaneous dawn raids, police seized an estimated 111kg of cocaine, worth around £5.5m, including 100kg at a single address in Surrey. A total of 23 people were arrested in London and surrounding counties.
Detectives said they had also seized firearms, a silencer and cash in the biggest series of drug raids they have staged at one time. The drug ring is believed to have been worth £100m and to have consisted of several gangs who came together to form one trafficking ring.

Bridgend suicides: Coroner investigating nine new hangings says the Mirror

The coroner for a suicide-hit town is investigating another NINE hangings in the surrounding valleys.
An inquest was opened yesterday into the death of Neil Rowley, 29, who was found hanging from a tree in woods near his home.
He is the latest of nine people who appear to have committed suicide in this way in the Glamorgan valleys in the last two months. The area surrounds Bridgend where 14 youngsters have hanged themselves, including Natasha Randall, 17.

BROWN’S DEBTS COST YOU £1,300 A YEAR reports the Express

HOUSEHOLDS are paying an average £1,300 a year in taxes just to meet interest charges on spiralling Government debt under Gordon Brown, figures revealed yesterday.
And experts predict every family could be squeezed for a further £375 within five years.

The Times reports on the final chapter of Nabakov's legacy

It is one of the most heated debates in contemporary literature: should Vladimir Nabokov’s final and incomplete novel be destroyed, as the author explicitly requested?
Fresh details of The Original of Laura — Nabokov’s last significant work — are revealed in times2 today, reviving a debate about the rights of an author to insist on his or her work being destroyed posthumously.

Secrets of Cambridge 'porn' library revealed reports the Telegraph

For decades generations of Cambridge undergraduates have fantasised about a secret stash of Victorian pornography in the university's library tower.
Many have tried to gain access to the chamber to uncover its illicit secrets. So intrigued was Stephen Fry by the collection that he wrote about it in his first novel, The Liar.Despite the brilliant scientists, spies and politicians that the university has produced, no student is believed to have gained access to the closely-guarded hideaway.


Finally some of the papers report on

Two Newcastles, one £2.7m Whitehall mix-up according to the Telegraph

Bungling Whitehall officials got their Newcastles mixed up and gave £2.7 million meant for the North East city to its namesake in the Potteries.
Newcastle-under-Lyme, population 74,000, was handed the cash instead of Newcastle upon Tyne, the regional capital of the North East. And the Staffordshire market town is refusing to hand back its windfall from the Department for Communities and Local Government, saying it was accepted in good faith.
"We assumed it was in recognition of the work we've done to encourage business," said Simon Tagg, the borough council leader