Northern Rock dominates the papers this morning.

Northern Rock nationalised says the Telegraph

The unexpected move left the taxpayer liable for close to £100 billion and led to a furious reaction from shareholders, who threatened legal action.
The decision is an admission of failure by the Prime Minister and his Chancellor, Alistair Darling, who for months have argued for a private sector sale, and has left the Government facing accusations of incompetence


Darling under fire says the Guardian

With Labour desperate to minimise the political fallout from the decision, government sources insisted that a "temporary" period of public ownership did not represent its "Black Wednesday moment" but was the best outcome for the taxpayer.
Opposition parties were, however, quick to exploit the chancellor's embarrassment after he used a press conference at the Treasury to admit that the failure of talks with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group - the preferred private bidder - had left the government with no alternative

Takeover brings back nationalisation says the Times adding that

However, Mr Darling now faces the prospect of almost certain legal action from shareholders, who could have their investments rendered valueless.Such a court case could lead to the emergence of embarrassing details, such as why the Chancellor decided not to allow an early rescue attempt for Northern Rock by its high-street rival Lloyds TSB.

The Mail describes it as

£100billion gamble with YOUR cash

The move leaves taxpayers responsible for the crippled bank's £100billion in mortgage debts – just as the housing market has entered a downturn. and focuses on

The man chosen to salvage the Rock is Ron Sandler, who rescued the stricken insurer Lloyd's of London in the 1990s.He will be paid £90,000 a month and his chief financial officer, Ann Godbehere, will get £75,000 a month.

Its not all doom and gloom though as the Express headlines

A MASSIVE bounce in the housing market has pushed up values by £7,500 in just one month, figures show today.
The price of the average three-bedroom semi-detached in England and Wales rose to £237,856 in January.
And the 3.2 per cent surge will be a huge relief to home owners who have been concerned about falling prices in a faltering property market.

The front page of the Independent shares the story of Northern Rock UK PLC with


The state of Kosovo is born

It's the biggest day for a million years!" declared an ecstatic Kosovar, celebrating his country's independence along with tens of thousands of other ethnic Albanians in Pristina last night.


Fireworks exploded over the city, thousands of cars paraded through the streets, horns blaring and bonnets strung with Albanian flags, while men and women in traditional costume banged drums and danced and sang. Kosovo became the world's 193rd nation state yesterday. For the Albanians who constitute 90 per cent of Kosovo's people, the declaration marked the end of generations of oppression by Serbs, who claim Kosovo as their historic homeland but for centuries have accounted for a minority of its population. Yet for all the euphoria, there was a decorous, almost sombre edge to the festivities. Kosovo takes to the world stage with the less than unanimous backing of Europe and amid angry denunciations by Serbia and Russia.


Albanian celebrations leave Serbs defiant says the Guardian

Kosovo declared itself an independent state yesterday, celebrating a final break from Serbia. But the move immediately widened already ominous political rifts, with tensions inside the state amplifying on the world stage.

Whilst the Telegraph reports

Violence followed the declaration when at least two grenades were thrown at a courthouse in the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, although no injuries were reported, while in Belgrade Serbs stoned the US embassy to protest at the declaration.
Russia meanwhile, demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to see the Kosovo declaration "annulled". Its foreign ministry warned "of an escalation of tension and inter-ethnic violence in the province and of new conflict in the Balkans".

The Independent reports that

Attack kills 82 in the worst atrocity since fall of Taliban

The carnage was savage even by the bloody standards of the spiralling and vicious violence in Afghanistan. More than 80 people watching a dog fight on the outskirts of Kandahar were killed yesterday when a suicide attacker detonated his bomb, causing the worst atrocity in Afghanistan since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001.

As elections begin in Pakistan,the Times reports that

Troops on high alert

Pakistan votes today in one of the most contentious elections in its 60-year history with the Opposition threatening to launch massive protests if the poll is rigged, as expected, to prevent the party of the late Benazir Bhutto from winning.
About 500,000 security personnel, including 81,000 troops, were deployed last night on high alert to try to stem a wave of bloodshed before the poll. A suicide attack on a rally on Saturday killed 47 people.

'Cycle wallahs' win the hearts of city's poor in contest of shifting loyalties says the Guardian

For 12 years the inhabitants of Double Phattack, a clutch of tottering shacks and rat-runs in the southern Pakistani city of Multan, pressed their local authorities for title deeds to their modest homes. Nobody listened. The petitioners came from the least powerful classes - Christians, Hindus and the descendants of penniless Muslim migrants from India - and lived in fear of eviction.
But two weeks ago the city fathers had a change of heart. As campaigning for today's election gathered pace, the mayor, a staunch supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, declared that the slum dwellers could finally have their land titles. Many celebrated. Some announced that they were switching their vote to Musharraf's party

Many of the papers report

Valentine boyfriend on romantic trip to Venice, is found dead in canal,the Times reveals

Richard Raynor, 23, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, vanished while returning from a romantic dinner with his girlfriend Katie Robinson in the early hours of Thursday.
Ms Robinson, 22, told The Times yesterday that they had enjoyed dinner and drinks and had gone to the the Piazzale Roma, near the causeway, to get a taxi back to Mestre, where they were staying. She lost sight of Mr Raynor shortly after midnight when she was talking to a taxi driver. “I turned around and he’d gone, he’d just disappeared,” she said.

The same paper reports on

The sick note that will tell the boss you’re fit enough to work

GPs will be required to tell the employers of sick patients what tasks they can perform in a new “well note” designed to reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit, The Times has learnt.
Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, will this week prepare the ground for controversial changes, saying that family doctors need to “change our sick-note culture into a well-note culture”. His aides acknowledge that the introduction of a new “well note” risks inflaming GPs, already angry over demands that they improve access, but insist they are not being asked to police Britain’s benefit system.

Most of the papers cover the story that

Speaker under fire after breaking air travel guidlines says the Independent

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, faces mounting pressure after it emerged that he breached parliamentary guidelines by cashing in air miles earned on official business for flights for his family.
Air miles accrued on business trips should be used to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of future work-related flights, according to official advice to MPs.
But Mr Martin used his to knock £360 a head off the £3,090 total cost of business-class tickets for a return trip from Glasgow to London for his children and grandchildren over the New Year.

Meanwhile the Mail reports that

Environment secretary Hilary Benn has come under fire after flood defences outside his family's home were shored up while a historic harbour nearby is being abandoned to the sea.
Last October 100 concrete tiles were replaced on a sea wall outside the Essex farm belonging to Mr Benn's father Tony, after they were ripped off by the tide.
But at the same time the Environment Agency decided to abandon to the sea the harbour at Southwold and parts of the nearby village of Walberswick, 70 miles up the coast on the Blyth estuary in Suffolk

The Telegraph reports that

Future of NHS services at risk, say dentists

Contract changes that have seen more than 1,000 dentists leave the health service threaten to bring about the end of NHS dentistry, MPs will be warned next week.
The introduction of financial penalties for missing targets has already seen twice as many dentists leave the NHS as the Government estimated.
Thousands more are questioning their future in the NHS because of the uncertainty surrounding their earnings, the British Dental Association (BDA) said.

According to the Guardian

prison gang wars force fearful inmates to plead for segregation

The segregation units in Britain's high security prisons used to be full of prisoners being punished for breaking the rules or being held in solitary because they were too dangerous to mix with others.
But now the "seg units" at institutions such as Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire are packed with a different kind of prisoner: those so fearful for their safety that they have asked to be isolated for their own protection.
Jail watchdogs have warned that an influx of rival gang members from Britain's inner cities has fuelled a new wave of fear and violence at the five maximum security prisons.

The Sun's front page reveals an exclusive claiming

SHAMEFUL Paul Burrell has sensationally confessed he LIED to the Princess Diana inquest – and could now face arrest.The Sun has uncovered a bombshell video tape on which Di’s former butler Burrell brags of committing perjury.
Slippery Burrell freely admitted he KNEW he broke the law by lying to the Princess Diana inquest — and added: “I was very naughty.”

Meanwhile the Express looks forward to

AL FAYED TO ADDRESS DIANA INQUEST

It will be the first time the Harrods owner personally tells the inquest jury of his theories surrounding the fatal crash.
He is convinced the crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31 1997 was not an accident but an assassination plot orchestrated by MI6 at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Mirror's front apge goes showbiz

RICHARD & JUDY IN SECRET £4M TALKS

Richard and Judy have pledged to save their chat show - just four months after announcing they were quitting.
The Channel 4 hosts are in secret talks with rival stations over a £4million deal to keep the popular programme alive.
A source at makers Cactus Television said of the U-turn: "We are talking to various broadcasters."

The Sun reports on Red End Street

SOCCER ace Wayne Rooney is getting two Man United teammates as neighbours in a millionaire’s row.
Defender Wes Brown, 28, has splashed out £4million on a luxury home just yards from 22-year-old Wayne’s £4.5million mansion.
And now their midfielder colleague Owen Hargreaves, 27, is after a £4.2million gaff in the same road in posh Prestbury, Cheshire. Then to complete the lineup, Man U striker Carlos Tevez, 24, has moved into a £3million home 500 yards away

Back to more serious matters and the Independent reports

Anti-English sentiment 'as big a threat to Scots as sectarianism'

The leader of the Church of Scotland has criticised anti-English sentiment north of the border saying it is just as big a threat to the well-being of Scottish society as sectarianism.
The Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has also said that the anti-English feeling is not conducive to a "healthy society" and that "banter" between the Scots and the English during sporting events could be harmful and lead to more sinister behaviour. "There is a thin line between banter and something which is more sinister," the Kirk leader said in a Lenten address on race relations in the UK.

The Times says

Parents to get power to check on paedophiles

A watered-down form of "Megan's law" is to be trialled in four police areas, giving parents the power to check with police whether people given regular unsupervised access to their children have convictions for paedophile offences.
The scheme will be introduced in Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Cleveland and Warwickshire, and if successful could be rolled out across England and Wales, said Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.

Finally the Telegraph reveals that

Abbey body identified as gay lover of Edward II

A mutilated body found in an abbey graveyard has been identified as that of a notorious medieval villain rumoured to have been the gay lover of Edward II.
The remains, which bear the hallmarks of having been hanged, drawn and quartered, are thought to be those of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was executed as a traitor in 1326.Sir Hugh had been favourite of Edward II - who was widely believed to have been homosexual - but was brutally executed before a mob after the king was ousted from the throne