More on Shannon,Post office closures,and a Easter freeze on the way this Monday morning.

The Tabloids continue to focus on the Shannon Matthews case,

SHANNON MAN: NEW ABUSE QUIZ says the Mirror

Shannon Matthews' kidnap suspect sexually abused two boys, they claimed last night.
Mick Donovan, 39, is said to have made the brothers, aged six and 12, fondle each other. He now faces a new quiz. The younger boy said: "He shouldn't be let near a child ever again. When I saw his picture on TV it brought the dreadful memories flooding back."
Oddball Donovan - himself a dad of two - ruthlessly preyed on them while living with their unsuspecting family.

Stalker says the Sun

THE weirdo held for snatching nine-year-old Shannon Matthews had spied on her for MONTHS from the house next door, The Sun can reveal.Mick Donovan, 39, visited Shannon’s aunt Amanda Hyett up to four times a week to “comfort” her after her father died

The suffering of Shannon says the Mail

Disturbing details of Shannon Matthews's 24-day ordeal began to emerge last night.
Police were coaxing out an account from the nine-year-old which is thought to have confirmed their fears about how she was treated.
Detectives said Shannon initially appeared to be "uninjured" and healthy when officers rescued her from a dingy flat on Friday.But they are now "very concerned" about her treatment at the hands of her abductor

The Times leads with the suffering in Tibet,

Midnight ultimatum for Tibet showdown

Rubble and burnt-out vehicles littered the streets, but few people dared to set foot in the narrow and winding alleyways, fearful of turning a blind corner and running into an army patrol. Only the occasional gunshot rang out over the city, the whoops and cheers of the rioters silenced. Amid claims that many people have been killed in the most dramatic backlash against Chinese rule for almost 20 years, a showdown looms tonight. The rioters must turn themselves in by midnight or face the consequences

.

The Independent reports that

Dalai Lama attacks 'cultural genocide'

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, accused China of "cultural genocide" after a violent crackdown on Buddhist monks and Tibetan citizens in the capital Lhasa and other Tibetan centres left at least 100 people dead.
With the Beijing Olympic Games five months away, the Communist government is defending its actions by accusing the Dalai Lama of organised insurgency and insisting its security forces acted with restraint against angry mobs

The paper though leads with

There will be a public inquiry into Iraq, says Brown

Gordon Brown has promised that the Government will hold a full-scale inquiry into the mistakes made in Iraq before and since the invasion five years ago.
His concession marks a significant break from his predecessor, Tony Blair, who steadfastly refused to hold a wide-ranging inquiry into the war.

1000 village shops may close with post offices is the top story in the Telegraph

More than a thousand village shops are facing the threat of closure over "draconian rules" that will ban them from offering rival postal services after their own Post Office sections are shut down.About half of the 2,500 post offices earmarked for closure double as local shops. Most want to carry on in business after the nationwide closure programme is complete

The Times reports that

Northern Rock set to lose thousands of jobs

Northern Rock faces being shrunk to half its present size, with big job losses, under plans drawn up to satisfy European Union competition rules, The Times was told last night.
Alistair Darling will tell Brussels today that he wants to continue giving state aid to the bank, which was nationalised last month after ministers decided it was the only way to get it through its troubles. But the radical slimming down, which could mean that thousands of the bank’s 6,500 jobs will go, is judged by the Treasury to be necessary to meet the EU’s stringent rules for helping firms.

Sold for just $2 a share - the bank worth $140bn last week reports the Guardian

America's fifth largest bank last night became the biggest casualty so far of the global credit crunch - sold off to a rival at a knockdown $2 a share, a discount of 94% on last week when it was valued at $140bn.
The board of Bear Stearns bank approved the buyout by JP Morgan Chase for $236m after a weekend of frantic negotiations. Had the deal not been done, the bank would almost certainly have gone bankrupt

The Telegraph reports on

'baby Asbos' for 10-year olds

Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, will tomorrow announce a £218 million expansion of Family Intervention Projects - a scheme which tackles potential troublemakers by signing them up to good behaviour contracts.
The orders will be issued to about 1,000 of the country's worst-behaved children. Failure to stick to the contract could lead to a criminal record.

Free children from national curriculum, says watchdog reports the Independent

The head of the body responsible for monitoring teaching standards will make an impassioned plea today for ministers to release pupils from the stranglehold of the national curriculum and give teachers the freedom to decide what should be taught.
Keith Bartley, chief executive of the General Teaching Council (GTC), will warn that the current primary school timetable presents pupils with lessons that are "too formal, too early".

Many of the papers feature the gatecrashed party

Mayhem at the Manor says the Mail

Thousands of revellers mill around outside a country manor as police tackle a scene of mass disorder.
Inside, windows have been smashed, carpets ripped up, chandeliers destroyed and doors ripped off their hinges.
It seems fair to assume that Sarah Ruscoe won't forget her 18th birthday party in a hurry.

The Guardian reports

Initially blamed on BBC Radio 1, which featured the private function on a "shout-out" - where listeners tell the world about cool things going on - the chaos proved yesterday to have snowballed from an ill-advised poster at Torquay grammar school. It was pinned up by Sarah Ruscoe who light-heartedly invited one and all to her 18th birthday fancy dress bash, which she presided over dressed as a dominatrix.

There is much coverage on

Murdered schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling was leading a wild lifestyle of drugs, drink and sex, her diary has revealed.

The 15-year-old wrote about her bingeing days before she was raped and killed on a beach in Goa.
One diary entry revealed how she met boyfriend Julio Lobo, 25 - who mum Fiona MacKeown left her to stay with while she went travelling.
It said: "At a party I was pretty messed up, like I'd taken a pill and drunk a lot of vodka. I don't remember a lot but apparently we had sex." reports the Mirror




According to the Sun,

Madge's marriage hangs by a thread

POP queen MADONNA and hubby GUY RITCHIE have been living separate lives as their marriage hits the rocks, pals revealed yesterday.
The troubled couple have even divided their homes into his and hers quarters – so they avoid each other, it was claimed.
They have shocked friends by spending months behaving as flatmates “who pass in the night” rather than husband and wife.

The front page of the Guardian is dominated by the first installment of Jonathan Powell's book

Blair's offer to meet masked IRA leaders

Tony Blair offered to take the unprecedented step of holding secret masked meetings with the IRA leadership as he fought to save the Northern Ireland peace process from collapse over the contentious issue of illegal weapons, a senior aide reveals today.
In a sign of the extraordinary lengths the former prime minister was prepared to go to during his decade-long quest for a settlement, he tried repeatedly to meet the IRA's eight-strong Army Council to persuade them to disarm and sign up to the peace deal.

The Independent reports

Hero of Glasgow terror attack 'did not land a blow'

John Smeaton, one of the "have-a-go-heroes" who helped police subdue two would-be suicide bombers at Glasgow airport last year, rejected claims yesterday that he had exaggerated his role in the incident.
The former baggage handler shot to fame after helping police stop two men who tried to drive a burning jeep into the airport last June. After the incident, he gave a series of interviews to the international media, warning terrorists off attempting similar attacks in his own colourful brogue. "This is Glasgow – We'll just set aboot ye," he said.

Easter approaches and the Mail reports

Row over BBC drama which shows Jesus crucified in a foetal position

The BBC is facing accusations of rewriting the Easter story by claiming Christ was nailed to the cross in a foetal position.
The corporation is accused of "misleading" the public by ditching the traditional image of Jesus with arms outstretched, legs straight and hands nailed.
Makers of lavish new drama The Passion, which started last night, say they are challenging this image, because new historical evidence shows he probably did not die this way.

And finally the Express reports

EASTER ARCTIC FREEZE ON WAY

BRITAIN was last night warned to prepare for Easter chaos as an Arctic blast threatened heavy snow.Emergency services and transport chiefs are on alert for travel mayhem over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Motorists were told to expect treacherous roads as temperatures plunge to -8C, while rail bosses added to the predicted misery by preparing to close a large part of the train network for engineering work. Tens of thousands of passengers are likely to be hit by disruption to both west and east coast mainlines, wrecking Easter holiday plans for thousands of families.

The only Western journalist in Lhasa reports from a city gripped by fear