Two stories dominate the headlines this morning,financial crisis and the settlement in the McCartney divorce case.

According to the Telegraph it's

worst financial crisis 'in decades'

The financial crisis engulfing the British economy has lurched to a new low as £51 billion was wiped off the value of the country's top companies.On a chaotic day in the City, the pound suffered its worst one-day fall since Black Wednesday in 1992 amidst fears of a growing global recession

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Dash for cash says the Times

High street banks went with begging bowls to the Bank of England yesterday, seeking more than £23 billion in emergency loans as fears over the global credit crunch deepened.
Shares in the banks lost more than £14 billion in a brutal day’s trading that pushed the FTSE 100 index to its lowest close in two and half years.
The sell-off was sparked by the emergency rescue of Bear Stearns, America’s fifth-biggest bank, which was snapped up by rival JPMorgan for only $240 million – 3 per cent of what it was worth last week.

How bad will the crisis get asks the Mail

Investors were reeling last night after one of the worst days in living memory on financial markets. Experts warned that world economies face their biggest challenge since the Second World War.
In an extraordinary day of turmoil, both George Bush and Gordon Brown were forced to make statements in a bid to cool the panic. As the U.S. – the world's largest economy – faced chaos, the president insisted he was "on top of the situation", a claim many experts fear is over-optimistic

Fear stalks the bear market says the Independent

The FTSE 100 is at a two-year low; the US Federal Reserve has announced an emergency cut in interest rates and taken over $30bn of Bear Stearns' assets; the dollar has flopped to an all-time low against the euro, and hit a 12-year low against the yen; the Bank of England saw fit to lend a further £5bn to the banks; the Mumbai stock market was down 6 per cent yesterday, Hong Kong fell 5 per cent and Frankfurt 4 per cent. Even President George Bush admitted: "We are in challenging times".

and asks

Is this the moment? The moment, that is, when the world economy slides into slump?

And the Guardian leads with the latest opinion polls which show

Labour has suffered a dramatic backlash from voters in the wake of Alistair Darling's do-nothing budget, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. Support for the party has fallen to its lowest since Gordon Brown took office, with the Conservative lead quadrupling to a scale not seen since Margaret Thatcher won her final landslide in June 1987.
The poll, carried out over the weekend, puts the Tories 13 points ahead of Labour - up 10 points from a narrow three-point lead in last month's Guardian poll. The lead is four points larger than in a second post-budget ICM poll published on Sunday, which also found rising Tory support.

Most of the papers carry pictures of Heather Mills on their front pages

Sir Paul McCartney triumphs at divorce court says the Telegraph

Sir Paul McCartney sealed an emphatic victory over his ex-wife Heather Mills after a judge awarded her a fraction of the money she demanded from their acrimonious divorce.

The Sun reports that

FURIOUS Heather Mills tipped a glass of water over Sir Paul McCartney’s solicitor yesterday as her divorce deal was sealed.
Heather, dubbed Mucca for her porn star past, was said to have lashed out after a court awarded her £24.3million of her ex-hubby’s fortune.

The Mirror adds

Heather, 40, who had demanded £125million, said the lawyer had been "baptised in court" for making "unpleasant comments".
Later she railed against Macca, 65, and Ms Shackleton in an astonishing 11-minute rant on the steps of the High Court. A source said: "She was very, very unhappy."

The Mail says

£700 for every hour of the marriage ... and Heather Mills is STILL moaning

She was less than four minutes into the rant when everyone started to pray for another gagging order.
Surely Heather Mills couldn't drag out much longer a simple statement to convey her joy that the case was over and that she was more than £24million richer?
Oh yes she could. She was centre stage now and she wasn't going to let the moment pass.

The Guardian reports from Tibet

Thousands of paramilitary police were massing in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas of unrest last night ahead of an ultimatum to protesters to hand themselves in.
Witnesses reported that arrests had begun long before a midnight deadline passed in the capital, and authorities in other provinces were cracking down both on protests and those who report them.
Hong Kong journalists were ordered to leave Lhasa, and foreign reporters have been turned away or ordered to leave Tibetan areas in the Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces in the past two days.

Tibetan prisoners are paraded on trucks as China tightens its grip says the Times

Dozens of Tibetan prisoners were paraded on military trucks in Lhasa yesterday, with their heads bent and wrists handcuffed behind their backs, as soldiers from China’s People’s Liberation Army tightened their grip on the Tibetan capital

The Telegraph reports that

UN and Nato forces attacked in Kosovo

Kosovo has suffered its worst day of violence since declaring independence a month ago, as ethnic Serbs in the north of the new country attacked Nato and United Nations forces with grenades and automatic weapons.Dozens of UN police and Nato troops, mostly from Poland and France, were injured after coming under fire in the town of Mitrovica.
Explosives were detonated and UN vehicles set ablaze in the fighting, which left more than 80 civilians injured and 30 troops in need of treatment in Nato military hospitals.

The Independent reports

Outrage over airlines' empty 'ghost flights'

Airlines that run empty "ghost flights", needlessly pumping hundreds of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, should face heavy fines, environmentalists have demanded.
The Government was being urged to clamp down on the practice after it emerged that British Airways had flown three long-haul services between London, Hong Kong and Mumbai last week, even though staff illness meant there were no passengers on board

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Watchdog investigates abnormal death rates at NHS trust reports the Guardian

Health inspectors will launch an official investigation today into abnormally high death rates at an NHS hospital trust that gained foundation status last month after persuading regulators it was safe and well managed.
The Healthcare Commission said the mortality rate at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust was higher than at any comparable hospitals in England, particularly among patients admitted in an emergency

.

The Mail reports that

Defence Secretary wants to gag coroners accusing MoD of 'serious failings' over soldiers' deaths

Ministers launched a legal battle yesterday to curb coroners' criticisms of the Ministry of Defence at inquests on British troops.
The move follows outspoken verdicts on deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan from Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner Andrew Walker.
Lawyers for the MoD yesterday asked the High Court to stop Mr Walker accusing it of "serious failures".

£100BILLION OF SICKIES reports the Mirror

Bad health costs Britain £100billion a year, a shock Government report revealed yesterday.
It showed one in 10 people are off work at any one time, adding up to 175 million lost days a year.
And the cost in benefits, lost taxes and lost productivity totals more than the annual NHS budget.

The Telegraph reports on

CCTV in class spies on teachers, says union

Schools are becoming "Orwellian" societies where CCTV cameras in classrooms monitor pupil behaviour and staff performance, teachers will warn today.They are relying on "Big Brother-style" tactics to crack down on assaults on staff and fellow children, it is claimed.
Many of the Government's semi-independent academies have installed cameras and two-way mirrors to let senior staff monitor pupils, they say.

The Express returns to the Diana enquiry

'BURRELL TOOK RING FROM DIANA’S BODY’

PRINCESS Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell, took an engagement ring off her bloody finger after she died, a court heard yesterday.
The inquest into her death was told that he then hid it with other plundered possessions.
Michael Faux, who spent a year working as Burrell’s bodyguard, personal assistant and agent, said the former royal servant stashed the ring and other items belonging to Diana in a flat next door to his home in Farndon, Cheshire.

More royal news in the Sun,

Zara's Mike in M4 booze arrest

THE rugby star boyfriend of Zara Phillips was arrested for drink-driving – allegedly after boozing it up at the Cheltenham Racing Festival.
World Cup hero Mike Tindall was stopped on the M4 the next MORNING as he drove to Twickenham for England’s game against Ireland.
Witnesses said Mike, 29, was quaffing bubbly with Zara at the races on Friday. And they claimed the pair were the worse for wear in a nearby bar that night – with Mike THROWING UP and 26-year-old Zara FALLING OFF her chair.

Finally the Telegraph reports on the story of

£150,000 for a pickled fish

A pickled fish by Damien Hirst that was hung up in a Yorkshire chippy for nearly a decade is expected to fetch up to £150,000 when sold at auction later this year.Before he became famous, Hirst gave the fish - thought to be a trevally - to the shop in Farsely, Leeds, because his younger brother, Bradley, was working there.
For eight years it was mounted without a label beside the counter, largely unremarked upon by customers.
Darren Walker, a childhood friend of the Hirst brothers, ran the shop until it closed in 2002 when the rent doubled. He hopes to clear his mortgage by selling the artwork