One story dominates the front pages this morning

Harry fighting the Taliban says the front page of the Telegraph

This is about as normal as I am ever going to get says the Times

Harry the secret hero says the Express describing how

Prince Harry displayed immense courage under fire in a front line clash with Taliban fighters.
He seized a powerful .50 calibre machine gun and sprayed them with bullets as they launched an attack on his post.
“They poke their heads up and that’s it,” he shouted during the terrifying encounter in which he finally lived his dream of fighting alongside his comrades and proving himself in the heat of battle.


One of our boys says the Sun

TALIBAN fanatics were last night feared to be hunting down Prince Harry after he secretly fought in the Afghan badlands for ten weeks.
The 23-year-old Household Cavalry lieutenant killed up to 30 of the enemy on his frontline tour by directing at least THREE air strikes.


My war says the Mirror

Prince Harry has been secretly fighting the Taliban for 10 weeks and has told how he is relishing life in the Afghan danger zone.
Harry, 23, speaking during a lull in fighting, said: "It's nice to be here with the guys and mucking in. All my wishes have come true."
And the prince, a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry, said he hoped he had been a credit to his mum Diana, adding: "Hopefully she'll be proud. She'll be looking down."

The Times describing that

On New Year’s Eve the battlefield air controller known to pilots as “Widow Six Seven” — but better known to the world as Prince Harry — called in his first airstrike on a Taleban position: Operation Purple.
At the Prince’s direction, two US F15 jets, their pilots quite unaware that they were acting on royal command, dropped two 500lb bombs on to a Taleban bunker system. A third exploded as Taleban fighters emerged from the position.
Working from a fortified position nearby, the 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer and third in line to the throne is formally known as a forward air controller (FAC) or joint tactical air controller (JTAC). In non-military parlance, he plans, rehearses and launches air attacks.


The Guardian shares the story on its front page with the news that

Afghanistan mission close to failing - US

After six years of US-led military support and billions of pounds in aid, security in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and President Hamid Karzai's government controls less than a third of the country, America's top intelligence official has admitted.
Mike McConnell testified in Washington that Karzai controls about 30% of Afghanistan and the Taliban 10%, and the remainder is under tribal control.
The Afghan government angrily denied the US director of national intelligence's assessment yesterday, insisting it controlled "over 360" of the country's 365 districts. "This is far from the facts and we completely deny it," said the defence ministry.

Prince's cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report reports the Independent

An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout yesterday by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for more than two months.
To the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the website announced a "world exclusive" and proclaimed: "They're calling him 'Harry the Hero!".
The article brought to an end an agreement with the media that the Prince's deployment to Helmand be kept quiet in the interests of his safety and that of the soldiers with him.


Only the Independent doesnt carry the story on its front page prefering

Failed! Political interference is damaging children's education, report claims

The biggest inquiry into primary education for 40 years concluded yesterday that Labour's tight, centralised control of England's primary schools has had a devastating impact on children's education. Micromanagement, meddling and a succession of ministerial edicts have killed the spontaneity in the nation's classrooms. Teachers have been stripped of their powers of discretion. And the net result of a decade of new Labour "reform" has almost certainly been a decline in the quality of education that the young receive

primary schools fail to teach basic literacy, says the Guardian

The government should increase primary school budgets to match those in secondary schools to pay for specialist teachers to tackle illiteracy, experts say. The multibillion pound investment in education since 1997 has been undermined by a failure to teach pupils the basics by the time they are 11, according to the biggest review of primary education in 40 years.

The Times reports that

Health plans will mean cuts, George Osborne says

However, he sought to calm a growing row within the Conservative Party over spending plans that was sparked by Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary.
Mr Lansley told The Times that health spending was bound to rise as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP). “We’re going to get probably to 11 [per cent] simply through the progress of rising health expenditure and life,” he said.
The Shadow Health Secretary denied that his words amounted to a pledge to fund the increase – equivalent to an extra £28 billion a year – insisting that he had been speaking about projections made by the Government’s own health adviser, Sir Derek Wanless. “I wasn’t talking about any projection for public spending and I wasn’t making any commitment beyond that which we have made, which is up to 2011,” he told the BBC Radio 4 programme World at One

The Telegraph follows up its lead yesterday with the news that

20 ministers fighting post office closures

20 of the 106 ministers and Labour whips are trying to keep their local post offices open. Some have organised petitions as part of a consultation process set up to allow local residents to try to save their branches.
It has also emerged that Patricia Hewitt, who as Trade and Industry Secretary presided over thousands of post office closures, has led a campaign to save two branches in her constituency.

The Mail continues with its campaign proudly announcing that

Gordon Brown gives supermarkets one year to start charging for plastic bags ... or else

The Prime Minister is lending his voice to the Daily Mail's campaign against the blight of "plastic poison".
Under an initiative to be introduced next month, stores will be given a year to match Marks & Spencer's pledge to slash the use of environmentally- damaging throwaway bags, by charging customers 5p for each one.
Retailers who do not do so voluntarily will be required to impose a levy of at least 5p.

As more news breaks from the former children's home in Jersey,the Sun reports that

A SEX abuse victim at the Jersey kids’ home where cops are searching for bodies told last night how two of his pals hanged themselves after being raped.
Carl Denning also chillingly recalled how a boy died mysteriously in a sick bay used by staff and their paedophile pals.

Police discover shackles in Jersey abuse case home reports the Guardian

The Independent reports on the latest outbreak of fighting in Gaza

Killed while they played football, the child victims of Israel's revenge on Gaza

Four boys playing football have been killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes, according to Palestinian officials, as Israel responded to the death of a man from a barrage of rocket attacks with a bloody escalation of violence.
At least 16 Palestinians – including the four children – were killed yesterday as Israel responded to the deadly attacks the previous day.
While the Israeli military said it had been targeting militants and rocket-launching squads, the officials said the boys were playing football close to their homes in Jabalya, northern Gaza.


The Telegraph reports that

Kenya's rival parties reach coalition agreement

President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, agreed a deal that splits control of the government between them, creating a role for the latter as prime minister.
The accord came after a month of talks mediated by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, to end the country's worst crisis since independence in 1963

Bring on the girls: China offers hope of sisters for generation of only children says the Times

China's little emperors, the adored only children born out of the one-child family planning policy, are set to disappear after a single generation.
Anxious about the burden of a greying population and a widening gender imbalance, family planning authorities are considering scrapping a policy that they fear could become a demographic timebomb.

The Gaurdian reports that

Deposed Thai PM returns home to rapturous welcome - and arrest

The deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra flew home yesterday for the first time since being ousted by a coup 17 months ago and immediately surrendered to police who arrested him on corruption charges.
Within minutes of stepping off a Thai Airways flight from Hong Kong the billionaire tycoon emerged from Bangkok airport's VIP reception area, knelt down and placed his forehead on the ground.
Thousands of supporters who had gathered at the airport - some waiting overnight - cheered, sang and waved placards proclaiming: "We Love Thaksin". Looking emotional, he offered a traditional Thai bow of respect, hands clasped in prayer.

£10,000 fines for employing illegal migrant without check reports the Times

Employers who hire illegal immigrants can be fined £10,000 per worker from today in cases involving negligence, compared with a previous figure of £5,000.
If the employer acts knowingly, the penalty could be an unlimited fine or jail. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, described the moves, which include a points-based immigration system for people from outside the European Union, as “the biggest changes to British immigration policy in a generation”.
Highly skilled migrants who wish to extend their stay will have to have suitable employment. The points-based system, based on a system already in place in Australia, will be tested for highly skilled migrants applying from India in April, and extended to the rest of the world by the summer.

The Mail reports that

Hospital superbug deaths rise 72 per cent in just one year, killing 6,500

Deaths from the hospital superbug C. diff have soared to record levels in a damning indictment of hygiene levels in the Health Service.
The Clostridium difficile stomach bug killed or hastened the death of almost 6,500 patients in 2006 - a staggering 72 per cent rise on the previous year.
And since 1990 the number of people infected by the bug has risen almost 50-fold. It is a bigger killer than MRSA

Pregnancies rise among middle-aged women reports the Telegraph

Conceptions among women in their 40s are rising faster than in any other age group, as fertility treatment makes it easier for them to start a family. In 2006, there were 25,400 pregnancies in women aged 40 or over - the highest on record.

The Express reports that

'TAXPAYERS' FINED £14M FOR NETWORK RAIL SHAMBLES

THE taxpayer was effectively fined a record £14m today - because of Network Rail's disastrous failure to complete engineering works on time.
The rail infrastructure company - which is owned by the Government - was hit by the huge penalty for serious overruns in the New Year.
But critics on all sides immediately slammed the fine as 'pointless' because taxpayers' money will simply be returned to the Treasury - meaning there'll be less cash for rail improvements.

DAD FED ABORTION PILL TO THE MOTHER OF HIS BABY reports the Mirror

A mum told yesterday how her lover fed her abortion drugs to try to get rid of their baby.
The woman - whose child survived despite being born three months early - told the Mirror: "I will never forgive him for what he did."
Now Gil Magira, 35, could face life in jail when he is sentenced today.
He used his brother's credit cards on the internet to buy drugs used by medics for abortions and ground them into sandwiches and a yoghurt.

Most of the papers report

Housewife given 30-year jail sentence for trying to kill husband with anti-freeze

A judge yesterday jailed a wife who attempted to murder her husband with anti-freeze for 30 years to deter others from choosing a means of death more “lethal and cruel than a bullet”.
Kate Knight, 28, described as a bored and lonely housewife living in her own fantasy world, rocked backwards and forwards in shock at Stafford Crown Court as she realised that she will have to spend the next 15 to 20 years behind bars

Finally the Guardian reports on

Underground art: how Banksy gave Swiss embassy an image makeover

Switzerland's ambassador knew his country had an image problem. It was in the headlines for the wrong reasons, with the banks being accused of hanging on to Nazi gold, and he wanted to do something positive.
So Bruno Spinner invited some young graffiti artists into the embassy's underground car park and let them do what they wanted. They could even have a rave there a few days later, he decided.
The ambassador's rebranding exercise has had an extraordinary unintended consequence: one of the car park graffiti kids went on to become an artist collected by the rich and famous whose works command eye-popping prices at auction. The works at the embassy in London are by Banksy and are worth more than £1m.