The papers offer up a mixture of stories this morning.

Both the Telegraph and the Mail lead with the story that

Britain 'a soft touch for home grown terrorists',the Telegraph reporting

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a body of the country's leading military and diplomatic figures, says the loss of British values and national identity caused by "flabby and bogus" Government thinking has made the country vulnerable to attack from Islamic extremists

Obsession with multiculturalism makes Britain a soft touch for terrorists says the Mail

It warns that a failure to "lay down the line" to immigrant populations is undermining the fight against domestic extremism.
It condemns the country's "fragmented" national identity and obsession with multiculturalism.
And it accuses ministers of a "piecemeal and erratic response" to urgent threats to the nation and of starving the armed forces of cash to the point of "chronic disrepair".

The Independent reports

Algerian cleared of training pilots for September 11 told he can sue

A man whose life was ruined after being wrongly imprisoned over allegations that he helped to train five of the 9/11 terrorists was exonerated by the Court of Appeal yesterday in a ruling that paves the way for a multimillion-pound compensation claim against the Government.


Staying on the terrorsim theme,the Guardian reports that

London bombs justify 'torture', says Bush

President George Bush cited the London July 7 bombings in an interview broadcast last night to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique widely regarded as torture.
In an interview with the BBC he said information obtained from alleged terrorists helped save lives, and the families of the July 7 victims would understand that. Bush said waterboarding, which simulates drowning, was not torture and is threatening to veto a congressional bill that would ban it.

The lead in the paper is a return to the Bae subject

secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.
Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.
Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

The Independent also follows up the story claiming

Blair used 'irresistible pressure' to halt investigation into BAE-Saudi arms deal

When he was Prime Minister, Mr Blair "stepped over the boundaries of what was permissible" and interfered in the highly sensitive criminal investigation because of threats by the Saudis, said the barrister representing two anti-corruption campaign groups challenging the decision to drop the case.

The Times reports that

Dead tycoon’s last contacts to be traced

Detectives are tracing everyone who met Badri Patarkatsishvili in his final 48 hours as toxicologists prepare to test samples to see whether the billionaire Georgian died from poisoning.
A post-mortem examination has suggested that death was caused by heart disease, with no clues yet pointing to an assassination.
But opposition leaders in Georgia are expected to claim that their one-time financial backer was murdered by the Georgian Government when they stage a protest in Tbilisi today.

Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat to the West reports the Telegraph

Addressing his last press conference as Russian president, Mr Putin mounted a defiant display that demonstrated more emphatically than ever the widening gulf between Moscow and its former Cold War rivals.In a vintage performance, the former KGB spy laced almost five hours of invective with crude insults, threats and admonitions often expressed in the argot of the Russian street.

Kosovo breakaway illegal, says Putin says the Guardian

President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused Europe and the United States of double standards over their support for an independent Kosovo, and warned that any declaration of statehood by Pristina would be "illegal, ill-conceived and immoral".
Putin said that Russia remained utterly opposed to Kosovo breaking away from Serbia. If Kosovo's Albanian leaders ignored Russian objections and announced independence this Sunday Moscow would be forced to act, he said.

The Independent leads with

The great wall of indifference following its lead yesterday

An international coalition of human rights activists has urged corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics to call the Chinese government to account over its support for Sudan or face a series of protests and consumer boycotts in the approach to this summer's Games.
As international condemnation mounted over China's reluctance to censure Khartoum for its conduct in Darfur, campaigners pressured multinational companies including Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Adidas, to end their "silent complicity" with the regime.

Shoppers to pay for superstore shake-up reports the Times on its front page

Supermarkets are to face public shaming and huge fines if they use their size to force down prices paid to their suppliers, the Competition Commission will announce today.
The commission will recommend the appointment of a statutory regulator to judge pricing disputes between retailers and farmers, dairy companies, abattoirs, food processors and packers, The Times has learnt. However, supermarkets have threatened to pass the cost of the new controls on to customers in higher prices, at a time when the cost of living is rising.

Binge drinking and violent Britain is still on the agenda of a number of papers,the Mirror leads with

Kid boozers are killing Britain

The mum of a 15-year-old girl locked up for drunkenly filming a "happy-slapping" killing last night said her daughter was ensnared by Britain's terrifying culture of teenage boozing.
The divorced 33-year-old, speaking after the girl admitted aiding and abetting the manslaughter of Gavin Waterhouse by two teenagers, said: "The whole country must fight this violent and horrific problem.
"Every town has youths drinking themselves senseless. My daughter wanted to fit in, so she joined in. If she'd not been drinking we wouldn't be in this tragic situation."

The Sun leads with a plea from Ricky Hatton under the headline

Sort it the paper says

BOXING hero Ricky Hatton last night called for Britain to stop pulling punches in the fight against street yobs.
Backing The Sun’s campaign to mend Broken Britain, Ricky said the violence can only be stopped by courts, schools and parents getting tougher.
He told us: “Things are terrible on our streets and seem to be getting worse. People are dying left, right and centre.
“It seems you can’t go out for a drink and walk home without someone setting on you.

Most of the papers report on

'Disgusting racists' vandalise Stephen Lawrence memorial one week after it opens.the Mail saying

Racist vandals yesterday attacked a building dedicated to the memory of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, only a week after it was officially opened.

They hurled bricks through six large windows - worth £15,000 each - at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, South-East London.
The centre was unveiled by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Stephen's mother Doreen last Thursday in memory of the student, who was stabbed to death by a racist gang 15 years ago.
The Lawrence family have been "devastated" by the attack, which Scotland Yard is treating as racially motivated

Cash bonuses for problem families reports the Telegraph

Gordon Brown is to unveil radical plans that could see problem families given large cash bonuses if parents return to work, ensure their children attend school and take steps to improve their health.Families will be offered the generous payments, which could be worth more than £1,000 a year for up to three years, if they meet conditions laid out in new "out of poverty contracts.

9k for being a good parent says the Sun


Four students shot dead by gunman in Illinois university reports the Guardian

A gunman dressed in black and carrying handguns and a shotgun opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University yesterday killing four students and injuring 14 others, some critically, before turning the weapon on himself.
The gunman, described by one student survivor as a "skinny white guy with a stocking cap on" and wearing a black trenchcoat entered Cole Hall, a theatre-style auditorium on campus, at about 3pm. He began shooting into the crowd of about 150 students in the lecture hall at the time, 10 minutes before the end of class. As many as 20 shots are thought to have been fired. The gunman is thought not to have been a student at the university, but may have come from a different university.

Hizbollah's 'open war' threat to Israel reports the Telegraph

The leader of Hizbollah threatened Israel with "open war" during a fiery and emotional speech broadcast at the funeral of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's top military commander who was assassinated in a car bomb attack. Hassan Nasrallah, the bespectacled Lebanese Shia cleric who co-ordinated Hizbollah's war with Israel in the summer of 2006, blamed the Jewish State for Mughniyeh's death.

McCain is our man Romney tells America reports the Times

Mitt Romney gave John McCain a Valentine’s Day endorsement yesterday, declaring his one-time Republican presidential rival to be a man “capable of leading our country at a dangerous hour”.
His public backing, just days after he dropped out of the race for the candidacy, brings an end to the rancour that often characterised their relationship in bitterly fought primaries this year.
“Even when the contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the calibre of the man was apparent,” the former Massachusetts Governor said.

To election battles in the UK and the Indy reports

Boris's manifesto? He'll teach Ken how to ride a bike

Boris Johnson has unveiled his green transport policy – free cycling lessons. Not for all Londoners, but for Ken Livingstone, the man he is trying to oust as Mayor of London, who admits he can't ride a bike.
The Tory candidate, a keen cyclist, praised Mr Livingstone's plans for a Paris-style scheme to hire out 6,000 bikes from street corner stands in central London but could not resist drawing attention to the Mayor's wobbly credentials as a cyclist at the first hustings of the Mayoral election campaign

SOARING COSTS CRIPPLE 95 PER CENT OF FAMILIES is the lead in the Express

ALMOST every household in Britain is feeling the pinch as the cost of living continues to soar.
Six months of increasing bills have left 95 per cent of adults struggling, a survey has found.
Big rises in gas, electricity, food and petrol prices combined with a raft of Government stealth taxes mean that already hard-up families are now barely able to make ends meet.


The Mirror reports

Runaway garbage truck kills British couple on Valentine break in New York

A British couple on a romantic Valentine break in New York have been killed by a runaway garbage truck.
Mum-of-four Jacqueline Timmins, 47, and partner Andrew Hardie, 48, were walking hand in hand on the pavement when the truck driver blacked out at the wheel.
The vehicle mounted the kerb, ploughed into the lovers then hit a lamppost before careering into a deli. A man of 23 was also seriously injured.

Compulsive gambler sues William Hill 'for letting him lose £2million' reports the Mail

A compulsive gambler plans to sue bookmaker William Hill for £2.1million claiming the chain should have stopped him placing bets.
Graham Calvert, 28, says the firm ignored his pleas to bar him from using its telephone betting service.
The greyhound trainer claims it allowed him to gamble £3.5million in a matter of months.
In a landmark case due to be heard at the High Court next week, he claims William Hill negligently allowed him to amass losses of £2.1million

Finally the Telegraph reports that

Crowds 'pick leaders to follow'

People in crowds behave just like sheep, scientists claim, by blindly following one or two people who seem to know where they are going.Researchers at Leeds University believe their findings could have important applications, notably in the management of disasters.The team, led by Prof Jens Krause, conducted a series of experiments in which volunteers were told to walk randomly around a large hall without talking to each other. A select few were then given more detailed instructions