With the results of the Super Tuesday primaries still to come in,the papers choose a variety of headlines for their early editions.

The Times tells us

Cannabis dealers prey on hospitals

Drug dealers are preying on patients in mental health units by pretending that they are friends and selling them cannabis, a government health chief revealed last night.
Louis Appleby, national director for mental health at the Department of Health, told The Times it was “well known” that dealers found their way into mental health units and exploited patients who were seriously ill. Some hospitals have brought in sniffer dog patrols to scare dealers off but staff say that they have no rights to stop patients and friends coming in or out, or to search anyone who may be carrying drugs.

GPs told to use jab instead of the Pill is the front page of the Telegraph

A revolution in contraception will be signalled by ministers today, with women told to consider injections and implants instead of the Pill, in an attempt to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.adding that

The new policy represents a significant shift away from the Pill, which heralded the sexual freedom of the 1960s and was considered one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the last century


Extra firepower sent to Afghanistan as UK digs in reports the Guardian

A fresh British force with extra firepower is to be sent to Afghanistan as the US intensifies pressure on other European allies in an increasingly urgent attempt to prevent the country from collapsing into civil war. In what is being described as a "critical week" for Nato's role in Afghanistan, the British move, due to be announced today, shows that the government is prepared to maintain a significant military presence there despite severe pressure on its already overstretched army.

and staying in Afghanistan,the Indy tells us that

The condemned student journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh will not face execution, a senior government official in Afghanistan indicated yesterday.
A ministerial aide, Najib Manalai, insisted: "I am not worried for his life. I'm sure Afghanistan's justice system will find the best way to avoid this sentence."

Police farce says the front page of the Mail

Up to six million police hours a year are being wasted on bureaucracy, says a damning review.
Officers are "straitjacketed" by red tape and reduced to arresting the most minor of offenders to meet crime targets.
The withering verdict is passed by Sir Ronnie Flanagan in his bombshell review of the state of the police service.
His conclusions - due to be published tomorrow but leaked to the Daily Mail last night - are an indictment of Labour's record on policing and insistence on targets.

More bad news for Labour

Poll shows growing opposition to ID cards over data fears says the Guardian

The number of people strongly opposed to the introduction of a national identity card scheme has risen sharply, according to the results of an ICM poll to be published today.
Those campaigning against ID cards said last night that the poll, with results showing that 25% of the public are deeply opposed to the idea, raises the prospect that the potential number of those likely to refuse to register for the card has risen. If the poll's findings were reflected in the wider population, as many as 10 million people may be expected to refuse to comply.

Minister accused of wanting 'return to the workhouse' reports the Times

The Housing Minister was today accused of risking a "return to the workhouse" after saying the unemployed should have to seek work or lose their council homes.
Caroline Flint said that there was clear evidence that many of the long-term unemployed in social housing could find work with the right support.
She suggested that new council tenants who can work should have to sign "commitment contracts", agreeing to actively

AVOID RETURN TO WORKHOUSE writes Adam Sampson in the Mirror

Making council tenants look for work or face being thrown out on to the street smacks of a return to the workhouse.
In Victorian times, paupers were forced to live in the notorious sweatshops after relief payments to poor people were scrapped.
In a similar way, housing minister Caroline Flint's proposals would destroy families and wreak havoc in communities.

Jack Straw knew of MP's terror meetings says the Telegraph

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, knew two months ago that the MP at the centre of the bugging row had held meetings with a terrorist suspect.Mr Straw was facing calls to explain himself after he revealed that he had been told in December that Sadiq Khan had been meeting Babar Ahmad at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes in December.

Brown and Straw branded liars over bugging of Labour whip says the Independent

Gordon Brown and Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, have been accused of lying by David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, over assurances that ministers did not know about the bugging of a private conversation between the Labour MP Sadiq Khan and the suspected terrorist Babar Ahmad.




According to the Guardian

Officer told he would face trial if bugging was revealed

Scotland Yard officers threatened a former policeman with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if he divulged what he knew about a covert operation in which an MP's conversations were bugged, the Guardian has learned.
In an apparent attempt to conceal the existence of the bugging operation, the Yard told Mark Kearney, a former Thames Valley police detective, that he could be charged with a breach of the act if he discussed his role with anyone.

Four MP couples caught cashing in on taxpayer-funded housing allowances in latest expenses scandal reports the Mail

The couples - who include Cabinet duo Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper - are using a loophole which pays up to £22,000 a year to each of them to fund a second home.
The revelation added to calls for an end to the expenses gravy train.
And it came as Gordon Brown and David Cameron instructed their MPs to account publicly for every detail of their expenses, including naming family members on the payroll.

BROWN MIRED IN SLEAZE ROW AS HE CLAIMS £20K FOR LONDON FLAT says the Express

Mr Brown himself was dragged into the sleaze row after complaints about his own expenses.
Tory MP Greg Hands wrote to standards watchdogs about Mr Brown’s claims of up to £20,000 a year for a Westminster flat while he also had use of a grace-and-favour Downing Street apartment.
The Tory backbencher also raised questions about Mr Brown’s apparently undeclared rental income of over £3,000 a year from his constituency Labour Party in Kirkcaldy for use of office space in his Parliamentary advice centre. Mr Hands said: “These facts raise a series of questions that I believe need to be urgently investigated and clarified

The Sun reports that

The Army runs out of machine guns

The crisis is unlikely to be solved before JUNE, a leaked report reveals.
British troops “desperately” need 400 of the jumbo 0.5in calibre heavy machine guns – the weapon most acutely missed. Supply has collapsed partly because of a dispute with the manufacturers, Manroy – which also provides weapons to Saudi Arabia.
The leaked report – prepared for the Army’s command centre in Wilton, Wilts – reveals that generals have urged the Ministry of Defence “to prevent Manroy delivering Saudi weapons ahead of our requirement”.

The final indignity is the front page of the Mirror as most of the papers report the story

The knife killer of teenage model Sally Anne Bowman admitted having sex with her as she lay dead, it was claimed yesterday.
But accused Mark Dixie denied murdering her, allegedly saying he only "took advantage of the situation" after stumbling across her body. The 37-year-old chef and father of three was also said to have carried out vicious attacks on two other women.

The Telegraph reporting

Aspiring teenage model Sally Anne Bowman was "savagely and brutally" murdered only yards from her home by a man purely motivated by sex, a court has heard.The 18-year-old, whose dream was to appear on the front page of Vogue, was repeatedly stabbed, bitten and then sexually assaulted both before and after she died.

Nurse'unlawfully killed' by epidural blunder in hospital reports the Times

Mayra Cabrera, 30, a Filipino theatre nurse, died shortly after giving birth to her son Zac at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, on May 11, 2004.
An inquest at Trowbridge Town Hall ruled today that Mrs Cabrera was wrongly killed when Bupivacaine, a potent epidural anaesthetic, which should have been administered into the space at the base of her spinal cord, was wrongly fed into a vein in her hand.

The Express claims a 14th person has committed suicide in Bridgend,

A PRETTY teenager has become the 14th youngster in one year to hang herself in a town dubbed the suicide capital of Britain.
Angie Fuller, 18, was found by her fiance hanging from a banister at their home in Bridgend, South Wales.
There were renewed fears last night of an internet death cult in the town after it emerged that Miss Fuller had visited a social networking website just hours before she died.


But the Times reports that

South Wales Police said that the latest death did not appear to be linked to the seven suicides.
However, such is the concern at the town's suicide problem that today it emerged that Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, has discussed the issue with Rhodri Morgan, the Welsh Assembly First Minister.


The Sun leads with the latest on Amy

Cops grill Amy over Coke Vid

AMY WINEHOUSE’s dream of singing at The Grammys this weekend could now be wrecked - after police quizzed her yesterday about smoking crack cocaine.The Back to Black star, 24, needs a US visa to go to Sunday’s glittering ceremony in Los Angeles, where she is nominated for six gongs.
Her chances of being allowed into America were ALREADY in doubt after being fined for cannabis possession last October.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to Beatles, dies reports the Telegraph

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru to the Beatles and millions of meditators, has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said.
"He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement which the Maharishi founded and which introduced the West to a Hindu practice of mind control, once dismissed as hippie mysticism but which gradually gained medical respectability.
Mr Roth said the cause of death was yet to be established but it appeared to be "natural causes, his age." The Maharishi was believed to be 91.

World news and the Times reports that

critic of Vladimir Putin, is sent to mental hospital

Roman Nikolaichik, a parliamentary candidate for The Other Russia, the chess champion Garry Kasparov's anti-Putin coalition, was sent to a psychiatric hospital after police questioned him about his political activities.
Mr Nikolaichik, 27, a lawyer, was detained in Tver, 100 miles (160km) north of Moscow, where he is head of the coalition's local branch. He is also a member of Ares, a monarchist movement in Russia.

Diamonds fail to take shine off India's political champion of the poor as earnings reach £7.7m reports the Guardian

India's so-called Dalit Queen, a former schoolteacher who has become the country's most powerful untouchable politician championing the poorest people, was yesterday revealed to be on track to earn 600m rupees (£7.7m) this year.
Income tax records show that Mayawati Kumari, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has amassed the fortune through political contributions from supporters in her Bahujan Samaj (Majority People's) Party. She has demanded gifts from loyal followers and elected politicians have been asked to donate a minimum of 300,000 rupees (£3,900) a year.

Simba Makoni to stand against Robert Mugabe reports the Telegraph

A new opposition leader emerged in Zimbabwe today when a former ally of Robert Mugabe said that he would challenge him for the presidency.
In a surprise announcement in Harare, Simba Makoni, 57, a former finance minister and member of the ruling Zanu-PF party’s politburo, said that he would stand as an independent candidate in the elections due on March 29.

Back to the Uk and the Mail tells us

Skunk overtakes cannabis resin in British drugs market

The health establishment has become "complacent" over the dangers of cannabis, the mental health tsar admitted yesterday.
Professor Louis Appleby, national director for mental health, spoke out as it emerged that the streets are awash with "skunk", a highly potent form of the drug.
The professor's admission came at the start of a hearing to decide if the Government's "softly softly" policy should be reversed.

Prince Andrew angers Palace with US attack reports the Telegraph

The duke's criticism, in a newspaper interview, of President Bush's post-war strategy for Iraq demolished the protocol that members of the Royal Family refrain from public comment on sensitive international and political issues.
In the interview, timed to mark the start of his 10-day mission to the US in his role as a British trade envoy, he said that there were "occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences".


Finally the Sun reports that

Laden Zeppelin goes Roamin'

OSAMA bin Laden’s son strolls with his British wife on holiday in Italy – looking like a Led Zeppelin rocker.
Omar, 27, and Jane Felix Browne, 52, wore matching leather jackets and black jeans as they walked around the Colosseum in Rome.
The scrap-metal dealer – fourth eldest of 19 kids fathered by the al-Qaeda warlord, married the Cheshire gran in 2006.
They’ve still got a Whole Lotta Love – but their stylist must be Dazed and Confused.