The papers have a number of topics this morning,

The Times leads this morning with

Police chief condemns judges on gun crime

The fight against gun crime is being undermined by judges who fail to ensure that tough penalties set down in law are imposed in the courts, a senior police chief has told The Times.
Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, said last night that the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for possession of a firearm was being ignored by some members of the judiciary.

The Mail asks

Why family bills 'have gone up by £1,400 in one year'

Household bills have soared by £27 a week in just a year, it was claimed last night.
Increases in food, housing, transport and taxes have easily outstripped pay rises and left many families struggling.
The figures, in a Tory report, piled more pressure on Gordon Brown.
They came as business leaders warned that economic growth is set to slow, hitting Government finances.

A theme also in the Telegraph

Car costs are soaring under Labour

The cost of running a family car has risen to almost £2,200 a year - a 56 per cent increase since Labour came to power, according to a comprehensive analysis of the rising expenses of everyday living.
It now costs an average of £2,197 to maintain, service, insure, tax and fuel most vehicles, compared with £1,409 in 1997. The prices of petrol and oil alone have risen by 52.6 per cent over a decade of Labour rule.

with its leader saying

For two years, this newspaper has been drawing attention to a curious fact. While the Government keeps assuring us that inflation is at record lows, costs seem to be rising fast.
A new survey shows quite how fast. The Conservatives have calculated the change in prices of a number of household items since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister nine months ago. For once, the phrase "bread and butter issues" applies literally.

Top scientists warn against rush to biofuel reports the Guardian

Gordon Brown is preparing for a battle with the European Union over biofuels after one of the government's leading scientists warned they could exacerbate climate change rather than combat it.
In an outspoken attack on a policy which comes into force next week, Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel before their effects had been properly assessed

.

The Independent reports that

'Jet-setting' government clocked up 300 million air miles last year

Ministers were accused of hypocrisy and extravagance after the Conservatives calculated that Whitehall departments and major public bodies clocked up more than 300 million "air miles" last year.
The Tories said the flights would have been enough to take politicians and civil servants to the moon 1,280 times or make 12,240 journeys around the world.

The paper leads with China

Missing: monks who defied Beijing

They were the 15 youthful Tibetan monks – three still in their teens – who sparked a rebellion by daring to speak out against China's repression of their homeland.
The group paraded peacefully down Barkhor Street in Lhasa old town on 10 March handing out leaflets, chanting pro-independence slogans and carrying the banned Tibetan flag. Their demand was that the Chinese government that has ruled Tibet since 1951 should ease a "patriotic re-education" campaign which forced them to denounce the Dalai Lama and subjected them to government propaganda

the paper continues

The group was detained on the spot, with eyewitnesses reporting that several of the monks suffered severe beatings as they were arrested and taken away. They have not been seen since.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

The Olympic flame yesterday began its 85,000-mile, meandering journey from rural Greece to Beijing for this summer's Olympic games amid embarrassing scenes, as protests by human rights activists over the turmoil in Tibet all but eclipsed the lighting ceremony.
The choreographed ceremony had barely started when Jean-François Julliard, a member of the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders breached a cordon and rushed onto the ancient site where the president of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, Liu Qi, was giving a rousing speech

The Express is concerned with a

PLAN TO TEACH KORAN IN SCHOOLS

STATE schools should be forced to open their doors to Islamic preachers teaching the Koran, the largest classroom union demanded yesterday.
The National Union of Teachers’ conference also said existing religious schools – almost all of them Christian – should have to admit pupils from other faiths.

Union calls for end to single-faith schools reports the Guardian

The National Union of Teachers proposals represent an attempt to rival faith schools. All schools should become practising multi-faith institutions, and faith schools should be stripped of their powers to control their own admissions and select pupils according to their faith, according to proposals in the union's annual report, backed at its conference in Manchester yesterday. The daily act of "mainly" Christian worship required of all schools by law should be liberalised to include any religion, the union says

The Telegraph meanwhile claims

Tories to end town hall grip on failing schools

In an audacious raid on the political territory Gordon Brown has long considered his own, the Tories will make support for the most disadvantaged children an education priority in the first year of a David Cameron government.

The Mirror reports that

Beat bobbies will be brought back to tackle the growing problem of boozed-up thugs terrorising our streets.
Gordon Brown is to flood every neighbourhood with officers dedicated to stamping out yob crime.
The scheme will be up and running next week.

The controversy over the Embryo laws continues,the Times reports

David Cameron issued a note of caution yesterday to critics of embryo research and predicted that Gordon Brown would be forced to offer a free vote to Labour backbenchers on government plans.
The Conservative leader said that voters would think the Prime Minister had “lost his way” if he forced Labour MPs to support him on an issue that many regarded as one of conscience.

The Guardian reports that

Scientists say Catholic clergy inflaming embryo debate

Leading stem cell scientists last night accused the Catholic church of deliberately targeting parts of embryology legislation that are amenable to "scary language". Their comments come after an Easter break when the human fertilisation and embryology bill was condemned in Catholic sermons across the country.

'Embryo research may be my son's only hope, but I still believe MPs should follow their conscience'

Like any mother, Linda Ball would do anything if it meant a few more years with her dying seven-year-old son, Daniel.
He has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and is not expected to live past his 20th birthday.
The fatal wasting disease has already started to eat away at his muscles. He has to climb the stairs on all fours and is helped in and out of the bath. Soon he will be unable to walk.
His mother is acutely aware that time is running out and his only hope may be embryo research.

Bakri slur on Amir is the lead in the Sun this morning

EXILED hate preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed sparked outrage last night by branding boxing hero Amir Khan an “ignorant deviant”.
Bakri, 49, also said devout Muslim Amir was a BAD role model for youngsters because he drapes himself in the Union flag.
Pals of proud Brit Amir, 21, said he was “shocked and hurt” by the rant.
And warped cleric Bakri was last night challenged to repeat his slur on Amir — face to face in a BOXING RING

.

The papers find great amusement in the problems of Tessa Jowell,

Revenge of Romanies says the Mail

Although the gipsies claimed yesterday to be unaware she has a home so near until after they moved in, there is an undoubted irony in their choice of location. For Miss Jowell was involved in the controversial eviction of gipsies from Newham and Hackney, East London, to prepare for the 2012 Olympics.

The Sun reporting that

GIPSIES were digging in yesterday just yards from government minister Tessa Jowell’s £1million house – and said: “It’s our home now.”
The 64 travellers ignored protests from horrified local residents and began putting up fences round the 2½acre field.

The Times reports

Outrage at Miss Bimbo website describing an

internet game, aimed at girls aged 9 to 16, gives users 'bimbo dollars' to buy lingerie, diet pills and nightclub outfits. It has attracted 200,000 members in Britain

News from abroad and the Times reports

US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000 as roadside bomb claims another four soldiers

The number of US troops to die in Iraq since the invasion began five years ago has reached 4,000, after an attack in southern Baghdad killed four soldiers. The milestone is likely to strengthen calls for US forces to be withdrawn from the country.
The roadside bomb — the single most deadly weapon deployed by insurgents against US forces — tipped the balance of American deaths over the 4,000 mark, a week after the conflict entered its sixth year.

Staying in Iraq and the Telegraph says

Heavy fighting breaks out in Basra

Rival factions from Iraq's Shia Muslim majority and criminal gangs have been competing for control of Basra.
An Iraqi military official said Iraqi forces had launched operations to "cleanse" the southern Iraqi city of armed groups. The country's prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is personally overseeing the operation. British troops are not participating in the crackdown

The Guardian reports that

New Pakistani prime minister frees judges

Pakistan's new prime minister ordered the release from house arrest of the country's former chief justice within minutes of coming to power yesterday, driving home how rapidly President Pervez Musharraf's authority is ebbing.
Shortly after he was elected by a thumping majority by the new parliament, Yousaf Raza Gilani ordered the release of about 10 judges, headed by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who have been illegally detained at home since November 3.

The Independent reports on the up and cominy Italian elections

Berlusconi boosted by pessimism of young

The youth of Italy are increasingly gloomy about the future, according to a newspaper poll, and their despondency is helping Silvio Berlusconi consolidate his grip on the general election, due in less than three weeks

A year on, and Lindsay Ann Hawker's killer is still free reports the Times

The family of a British teacher murdered in Tokyo a year ago have arrived in Japan to urge detectives to step up the hunt for her killer.
However, as relatives of Lindsay Ann Hawker prepared to mark the first anniversary of her death with a candlelit vigil and a pilgrimage to the scene of her murder, Japanese investigators had only grim news.
The trail of the prime suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, 29, who is thought to have bound the 22-year-old teacher in tape and buried her naked in a bath of sand, has gone cold

Skippers of small boats fear ruin as EU quota limits bite says the Guardian

Skippers of fishing boats at some of England's most famous ports are facing ruin over strict EU quotas, the Guardian can reveal. Three-quarters of the fleet is chasing just 3% of the allowed catch of the most valuable species of fish, such as cod, hake and monkfish. And last week, WWF UK called for five areas of the North Sea to be permanently closed, insisting that current quotas are dangerously generous.

The Sun reports that

THOUSANDS of passengers are being forced to hop off buses midway through journeys to comply with barmy EU laws.
A Brussels ruling has banned local services longer than 30 miles to ensure drivers don’t spend too long at the wheel.
As a result, drivers have to pull in as they hit that limit and order everyone OFF their bus.
They then change the route number on the front and invite passengers to jump back ON before resuming the trip.

Finally most of the papers report on the death of the "fifth Beatle"

Paul McCartney in mourning as "Fifth Beatle" Neil Aspinall passes away says the Mirror

Grief-stricken Macca was last night mourning childhood friend Neil Aspinall - the man dubbed the Fifth Beatle.
Neil, 66, a schoolmate of Sir Paul and George Harrison who started out as The Beatles' van driver and ended up their financial guru, died of cancer.
Macca, 65, flew to New York on Sunday to say a tearful farewell at his dying mate's bedside. A close friend said: "He's completely heartbroken - he was always very close to Neil."

Beatles fixer and friend takes secrets to the grave says the Guardian,Hunter Davies writing

Neil knew everything, everybody, and now, alas, has taken it all to the grave. Unless there is a posthumous memoir, waiting to be released, which I doubt. I asked him countless times, saying he should get it all down, before it's too late, if just for his children.