A Mixed bag of headlines in the papers this morning

Ministers accused of post office hypocrisy says the Telegraph

Ministers have been accused of "rank hypocrisy" after it emerged that a third of Gordon Brown's Cabinet are campaigning against Government plans to axe post offices in their own constituencies.The Government said the proposals to close 2,500 branches in Britain were necessary to preserve the Post Office network's £150 million-a-year subsidy, and cut its estimated losses of £4 million a week.
However, the move has caused widespread public opposition and The Daily Telegraph can disclose that seven Cabinet members oppose the plans in their constituencies.

Tories make £28bn pledge to set the pace on NHS spending reports the Times

A Conservative administration would increase health spending by up to an extra £28 billion a year, a leading moderniser has told The Times. Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, gave a long-term commitment that under the Tories health spending will rise to take up an extra 2 per cent of GDP.
“I think we are bound to have rising real-terms health expenditure,” he said. “That means that health expenditure is going to be a rising proportion of total public expenditure.” adding that

It is the most explicit pledge to increase spending on the NHS since David Cameron became Tory leader and take the party into territory beyond current Labour commitments.

The paper meanwhile also reports that

Council tax increases send household bills soaring above £3,000

Inflation-busting council tax rises will push average household bills above £3,000 for the first time, The Times can reveal.
Council tax, water and energy bills will rise to £2,510 this year, up from just over £2,000 two years ago. Once average phone bills are added, the total rises to £3,169.
A survey by The Times and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) shows that council tax will rise by 3.9 per cent from April, with the average Band D bill increasing by £52 to £1,374.

The Guardian leads with the news that

New strategy to stem flow of terror recruits

Senior police officers have drawn up a radical strategy to stop British Muslims turning to violence which will see every area of the country mapped for its potential to produce extremists and supporters for al-Qaida. The 40-page document, marked restricted, was approved by a top-level police counter-terrorism committee on Monday, and is expected to be formally adopted within weeks.

The same paper reports that

GP practices earning 58% more for 5% less work

A review by the National Audit Office will also say that the deal to improve pay and conditions for doctors cost £1.76bn more than the government intended, without producing the expected improvements in patients' health.
The NAO said the earnings of partners in GP practices across England rose by 58% over the two years to March 2006 to an average of £113,614 a year per partner, but their workload reduced by about seven hours a week. They delegated more consultations to salaried GPs and nurses, whose earnings barely kept pace with inflation.

The Telegraph adds

Some GP partners have taken home salaries of more than £250,000, even though they are working on average seven hours less per week.Meanwhile, practice nurses are seeing more patients but their pay, which is determined by GP partners, has dropped in real terms

Most of the papers report

The 'dungeon of torture' in Jersey begins to give up its secrets,the Mail says

The full horror of what may lie beneath the "Colditz" care home began to emerge last night as police uncovered a double dungeon where children were said to be taken for torture.
Detectives feared more bodies would be found after a dog trained to pinpoint human remains went berserk as officers smashed into the bricked-up cellar.

The Mirror reports on

Jersey care home hell

police confirmed more than 160 former residents had given harrowing accounts of being drugged, beaten and sexually abused at Haut de la Garenne.
Forty people, including former care workers and police officers, are now being investigated and deputy police chief Lenny Harper warned: "There will be arrests."


Innocent men want DNA records destroyed reports the Times

Two Britons who were cleared of crimes brought a landmark human rights challenge yesterday to have their DNA samples destroyed.
The judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg were told that keeping DNA samples of innocent citizens was a breach of their human rights. Lawyers for the men, who are from Sheffield, told the court that retaining the information cast suspicion on people who had been acquitted of crimes or who had their cases dropped.

The Red tops are excited about Britain's largest earthquake for 20 years with the usual headlines

Quaking all over says the Mirror

Hundreds of homes were hit with £30million worth of damage after yesterday's quake - but amazingly only ONE person was seriously injured.
The epicentre of the 5.2 magnitude quake - Britain's worst in 25 years - was in rocks six miles below Ludford, Lincs.
Retired army warrant officer John Sinclair, 78, who lives nearby, said that when the earth moved at 12.56am "it was like a bomb going off".


The night the earth moved for millions says the Express

Whilst the Sun reports

The earth movedd for us-Bed shook more than usual says lovebirds

A COUPLE’S passion went off the Richter Scale when yesterday’s record earthquake hit them as they romped.
Charlotte Green and Rob Wilkinson were enjoying a sexy cuddle in Gainsborough, Lincs.
She said: “I thought it was Rob getting carried away


The Guardian reports from the epicentre where

A carved stone cross which tumbled from the roof of Market Rasen's medieval church may have been the only local casualty, but everyone in the Lincolnshire town had stories of judders, roars and terrifyingly visible wobbles in their houses' old stone walls overnight.
"It was like the most awful fairground ride you can imagine," said Adrian Campbell, 56, a DVD and video producer who initially thought that his tumble dryer had somehow come on at 1am. "It just got worse and worse. We went to see a film last week about a giant lizard loose in New York, and I honestly started to wonder if something like that had come for us."

Protesters scale Parliament roof in anti-runway demo reports the Independent

Five members of the anti-aviation group Plane Crazy were arrested after gaining access to the roof of the Palace of Westminster where they unfurled banners attacking the plans for a third runway at the airport.
The protesters said they entered the palace as visitors, and walked on to the roof through an outside door, raising the prospect that a passholder helped them reach sensitive parts of the palace and guided them through the warren of corridors in the building.

The paper leads though with the news that

The campaign that changed the eating habits of a nation

Sales of factory-farmed chickens have slumped since a high-profile campaign raised awareness of the cruelty at the heart of the poultry industry and implored consumers to pay more to improve the animals' welfare.
In a victory for campaigners who have fought to expose the short and brutal lives of broiler birds, shoppers have bought millions more free-range and organic birds while leaving mass-produced chickens on the shelves.

The Mail is on day 2 of its campaign against bags and its front page tells us

M&S joins The Mail's campaign to Banish the Bags by charging for
them

Marks & Spencer is to stop offering free throwaway carrier bags in a landmark move to fight 'plastic poison'.
The company will introduce a charge of 5p for the bags at its 600 UK food stores.
The decision is a major breakthrough for the Daily Mail campaign to cut the waste caused by the 13billion single-use carriers handed out by retailers every year.

The Guardian meanwhile is on day 2 of its campaign

MPs call for inquiry into Tesco's tax avoidance

MPs and Lords called for a crackdown on tax avoidance yesterday following the Guardian's revelation that Tesco was using an elaborate corporate structure involving offshore tax havens which enables it to avoid paying what could be up to £1bn of tax on profits from sale of its UK properties.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor said: "This exposé shows the depth of the tax avoidance culture among Britain's leading companies, as well as the very rich.
He said that "given the widespread practice of these tactics by non-domiciles" there is now a real challenge for the prime minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling.

The Telegraph reports that

Northern Rock bought rugby fields three weeks before crisis

The transaction has come to light because it was recorded in the accounts of the Falcons, which sold its grounds at Kingston Park to Northern Rock on August 17 after struggling to meet its mortgage repayments to the bank. It has been seized on by critics as more evidence of the bank's increasingly desperate acts to bolster its 2007 results.
The transaction - said by analysts to have been at a high price - may also raise eyebrows among the bank's investors, who face getting nothing now Northern Rock has been nationalised, and the Government, which is liable for any losses the bank incurs.

14 years after the end of arpartheid, white students force cleaners to drink urine soup says the Times

A video showing four white Afrikaner students forcing five black domestic workers to eat dirty meat and drink soup into which they had urinated has inflamed racial tensions and provoked violent protests between students.
The home-made video, which was made to protest about moves to integrate black and white students in the same university residences, shows students at the University of the Free State humiliating black workers, some of whom are elderly.
A violent backlash against the film caused all classes to be suspended yesterday as hundreds of staff and students marched in protest. Police fired stun grenades to disperse an angry crowd gathered outside the whites-only halls of residence where the film was shot.

Taliban threaten spring offensive on Kabul claims the Telegraph

Western officials have told The Daily Telegraph that intelligence reports warn of Taliban plans to increase pressure around the city, which saw more than 30 bombings last year. Some Nato officials predict that figure could rise above 100 this year.
The Taliban strategy will aim to cripple the city's economy through "spectacular" attacks in a new spring offensive, and erode international will to remain in Afghanistan.

The Guardian meanwhile reports that

Turkey to pull out of Iraq in days

Turkey's military operations against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq will last another three or four days, a senior Turkish official said yesterday, after Washington called for a speedy end to the incursion.
Hours after the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said Turkey must be "mindful of Iraqi sovereignty" and should not extend its operations longer than a week or two, the Turkish official said the cross-border operation would be over by next week. "Ten days will be a good enough time for the operation. It has been going on now for six or seven days, so another three or four days should wrap it up," the official said.

Britain's equality chief: Obama will only prolong America's racial divide

says the Independent

Trevor Phillips, Britain's most influential black figure, has warned that the election of Barack Obama as US president would prolong rather than end America's racial divide.
The chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission accused Mr Obama of "ruthless cynicism" and said he would not be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country's first black president

The Telegraph reports

Shopkeeper who killed robber won't face trial

A shopkeeper who stabbed an armed robber to death in a desperate struggle to defend himself wept with relief after learning that he will not be charged.Tony Singh, 34, could have faced a trial for murder or manslaughter.
He also disclosed he had been "a few millimetres" from being killed in the fight with Liam Kilroe, a career criminal who tried to mug him armed with a knife.

The Mail reports on

37-year murder mystery of teenage girl solved after dying librarian leaves confession note and murder weapon

To his family and neighbours, pensioner Harvey Richardson was a true gentleman quietly living out his final years.
But after his death it emerged that the retired librarian had been harbouring a secret which could help crack a murder unsolved for 38 years.
Police are investigating claims that the 77-year-old was the killer of Lorraine Jacob, a 19-year-old mother of two, after decorators found a detailed confession while renovating Richardson's terrace home.
Alongside the nine-page note was a folder of press cuttings relating to her murder in 1970, as well as a Second World War gun and an item of clothing. They are all being examined by forensic and handwriting experts.

The Sun reports on the SAS hero killed in Taliban ambush

A SPECIAL forces hero gave his life in a daring bid to save 15 comrades — after they were cornered by SEVENTY Taliban gunmen next to a bridge.
Brave sergeant Paul Bartlett tried to sneak past the bloodthirsty killers on a mission to fetch help as his ambushed patrol — including its wounded commander — took refuge in a ditch.
The fanatics spotted him and he was gunned down in a hail of terrorist bullets


A day early but the Indy celebrates

The magic and mystery of leap years

For most of us, the arrival of 29 February means one extra day at work, another day on the mortgage and 24 hours' delay in the arrival of the pay cheque. No wonder a leap year is universally regarded as unlucky. This is particularly the case for those unfortunates who can only celebrate their real birthday once every four years. For some reason, musicians tend to be born on 29 February .

Finally most of the papers report on

Philanthropist donates £125m art collection

Some marvel at the generosity of Henry Tate, the 19th-century industrialist who donated his art collection to the nation and added enough money for a building dedicated to British art.
Others revere Samuel Courtauld, who gave a magnificent collection of mainly French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings to found the Courtauld Institute in 1932.
But now the art world is abuzz with the name of Anthony d’Offay, 68, a retiring former art student who has just handed a £125 million collection of work by modern artists — including Andy Warhol, Gilbert and George and Damien Hirst — to the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland.