Alistair Darling makes the headlines this morning,both the Telegraph and the Times lead with his new initiative on the economy

Alistair Darling in £50bn gamble to aid banks says the former

Alistair Darling will unveil an unprecedented scheme to offer £50 billion in taxpayer-backed loans to high street mortgage lenders today in an attempt to solve the credit crisis.Under the controversial scheme, the Bank will loan money to banks and building societies in return for potentially risky mortgage debts. If the housing market fell and borrowers defaulted on their mortgages, taxpayers could be left nursing losses.

Alistair Darling plans unprecedented £50bn bank bailout says the Times adding

senior Treasury sources told The Times yesterday that further cash injections up to a total of £100 billion were possible.

Almost 60,000 families will have their homes repossessed this year,

says the Mirror.

Banks and mortgage lenders have put the numbers of houses to be taken back at around 45,000 as the credit crunch bites. But housing charity Shelter said the figures look only at people struggling to pay their mortgages.

Meanwhile the fall out from the 10p tax band abolition continues,the Guardian reports

Alistair Darling is to review taxation of the low-paid as the government moves to head off a damaging backbench rebellion against the abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax. As Labour whips warned Gordon Brown that ministers must intensify their efforts to explain their tax policy to MPs - or risk a serious Commons rebellion next Monday - the chancellor was understood to be drawing up plans to soften the blow of the tax change.

The Times says

Alistair Darling will call Labour rebels to a series of private meetings today over the 10p tax issue as he begins a week-long operation to spare Labour its most embarrassing Commons defeat since it came to power in 1997.

The Guardian leads on a different subject

Teachers' strike could shut 1,000 schools

Schools in the urban heartlands of the National Union of Teachers will be particularly affected but most parents have not yet been informed of closures because of school holidays.
The Guardian has surveyed 83 local authorities since Friday. Sixty-two responded and of those 25 could say how many schools would close, giving a total of 136. If the pattern is repeated across the country, nearly 2,000 schools could turn students away on Thursday

The papers are full of yesterday's revelations in the Times about John Prescott,the Mirror leads with

Bulimic John Prescott's secret Big Mac binges

Bulimic John Prescott used to gorge on Big Macs after attending lavish five-course state banquets.
The former Deputy Premier's late-night binge-eating emerged after he bravely admitted to battling bulimia for nearly 20 years.
A friend said: "He'd go to these state banquets with four or five courses, then nip over to McDonald's. It was pretty extraordinary.

The Independent says

John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, was praised by health experts yesterday after revealing that he had fought a secret battle for years against an eating disorder usually associated with young women.

The Mail adds

He kept it secret from his wife, colleagues and the world because of his shame at being a high-profile man with the illness.
"I never admitted to this out of the shame and embarrassment," he said.
"I found it difficult as a man like me to admit that I suffered from bulimia - the doctors told me that it was probably due to stress."

It leads with another medical story

New hope for women who face infertility as hundreds more eggs could be grown in lab

A major breakthrough by British scientists could bring new hope for women facing the heartbreak of infertility.
For the first time a team has managed to grow hundreds of eggs in the laboratory using a new technique which could help cancer patients whose treatment can leave them infertile

Family doctors are at risk, say Tories reports the Telegraph

David Cameron will begin a campaign to save the family doctor today as he warns that one in five GP surgeries in England is threatened by government proposals.
David Cameron wooes Tony Blair's inner circle
The Conservative leader will pledge to "fight Labour's plans to close GP surgeries" and claim the Government's intention to create a new generation of "polyclinics" will lead to the closure of about 1,700 family doctor surgeries

According to the Times

Drink-drive offenders could keep licences

Drink drivers would no longer automatically lose their licences under government plans to lower the alcohol limit for motorists to the equivalent of less than a pint of beer or glass of wine.
Those caught driving over the new limit would be subject to a “two strikes and you’re out” rule under which they would receive six penalty points for the first offence and only be disqualified from driving if they reoffended within five years.

Pope wraps up his US visit with prayers at Ground Zero reports the Guardian

The weekend festivities paused only once, early yesterday, as the pontiff made his way by limousine to the site of the former World Trade Centre. There, in the morning chill, construction work was halted while Benedict prayed for the victims of the September 11 attacks, and spoke to a handful of bereaved family members and emergency-service workers. He also prayed for the redemption of those "consumed with hatred", a reference to the hijackers that some had predicted would prove controversial.

Describing Ground Zero as "the scene of incredible violence and pain", he asked for peace for victims of the tragedy. After blessing the ground with holy water, he spoke to 24 survivors, firefighters, policemen and relatives of those who were killed

says the Telegraph

The Times reports of a

Fear in Sadr City as cleric threatens war

al-Sadr issued an ultimatum at the weekend giving warning of “open war” unless Iraqi and US forces halted their attacks against his fighters in Sadr City, the southern oil hub of Basra and elsewhere across the Shia-dominated south of Iraq.

Mugabe minister accused of gun threats says the Guardian

Zimbabwe's health minister armed himself with a Kalashnikov and threatened to kill opposition supporters forced to attend a political meeting unless they voted for President Robert Mugabe in a second round of the presidential election, according to witnesses.

The Independent reports that

Zimbabwe opposition pleads for international intervention

Zimbabwe resembles a war zone, with thousands of people displaced, hundreds injured, and 10 killed in postelection violence, an opposition leader said yesterday.
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said violence since the 29 March election had forced 3,000 families out of their homes. Hundreds of people had been injured and 10 people killed, he said.
Mr Biti appealed for international intervention and said humanitarian agencies in Zimbabwe must be mobilised "as a matter of urgency because Zimbabwe is a war zone", he told a news conference in Johannesburg.

The Express predicts Energy bills will rocket 25% on its front page

FAMILIES are facing another crippling hike in energy prices, with bills set to soar by £250 for every household.
Fears over gas supplies and the rocketing cost of oil have driven up wholesale power prices, which will hit homes this summer, experts are warning.
The impending 25 per cent increase for gas and electricity could push annual bills beyond £1,250, with industry analysts predicting the credit crisis will be overtaken by an energy crunch.

Meanwhile according to the Telegraph

Britain is becoming a 'why bother country'

because its benefits culture, high taxes and poor education system leave many people lacking the motivation or capability to succeed, according to a report.
The cost to the economy of low social mobility is £32 billion a year, or £1,300 to the average family, claims Reform, the independent think tank.
This comes despite higher spending on benefits and public services that have served only to reinforce privilege, it says.

Many of the papers report

RAF fury over Prince William's £30,000 helicopter stunt in Kate Middleton's backyard

The head of the RAF has "erupted" with rage over revelations Prince William landed a £10million RAF helicopter in girlfriend Kate Middleton's backyard during a military exercise.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy is said to have been furious at the 'sheer stupidity' of the situation and demanded a "line-by-line" explanation from subordinates.
Details of the angry reaction emerged as the young royal came under fire for using a RAF Chinook for a second time to fit in a personal visit.

says the Mail

Murder at the match headlines the Sun

A MAN was being held on suspicion of murder last night after an Aston Villa fan was run over following their 5-1 defeat of Birmingham.
The 26-year-old man was “sent flying” by a car — said to be driven by a fan of their Premier League rivals — outside Villa’s ground.

The Express reports that

A BRIDGEND teenager was found hanged yesterday, the 19th young suicide tragedy to hit the town.
Sean Rees, 19, went missing during a night out with friends in the town. It is understood he argued with them before storming off.
His body was found by his family in a lane at the back of a friend’s house on the Bettws estate early yesterday morning.

The Mirror reports that

UK in danger of an ethnic 'cold war', warns Trevor Phillips

Britain is in danger of a "cold war" between ethnic communities, race watchdog chief Trevor Phillips warned yesterday.
He said Enoch Powell warned of "a 'hot' conflict and violence" in his notorious "rivers of blood" speech 40 years ago yesterday

.


The Independent is concerned over wildlife.It leads this morning with

The great migration crisis

Many of the birds that migrate to Britain and Europe from Africa every spring, from the willow warbler to the cuckoo, are undergoing alarming declines, new research shows.
The falls in numbers are so sharp and widespread that ornithologists are waking up to a major new environmental problem – the possibility that the whole system of bird migration between Africa and Europe is running into trouble.

The papers report last nights Baftas

Comedies have the last laugh says the Guardian

For seven years he has mercilessly, if affectionately, reheated the leftovers of the TV week to hilarious effect. Last night Harry Hill's TV Burp was rewarded with two Bafta television awards, reflecting the ITV programme's evolution from cult favourite to mainstream hit.
But there was disappointment for BBC1's period drama Cranford, which received four nominations but went home with only one Bafta, for Dame Eileen Atkins, 73, who played Deborah Jenkyns.

The Times reports

Frustration for authors as students hog British Library reading rooms

When Karl Marx created the tenets of Marxism in the British Library’s Reading Room and Charles Dickens worked at one of its desks, they did not have to endure queues, a lack of chairs and tables, and rooms closed by crowd control.
Two years after one of the world’s greatest libraries opened its doors to undergraduates and anyone working on research, high-profile writers and academics say that the struggle to find a desk is now intolerable. Library directors stand accused of increasing visitor numbers to boost funds and performance bonuses.

Finally the Telegraph reports

'Men drivers behave like cavemen'

Professor Geoffrey Beattie of Manchester University says the way in which men and women drive is a legacy of their primitive past.
In a report for the Commons transport committee, he uncovered deep-rooted reasons for their different behaviour.
He concluded: "Our 21st-century skulls contain essentially 'stone-age' brains and this can help to explain the differences between the sexes in terms of their risk-proneness while driving."