The Telegraph leads this morning with the news that

Britian is on a credit binge,the paper reports

Consumer borrowing through credit cards, overdrafts and loans is rising at its fastest rate in five years, with the withdrawal of cheap mortgage deals forcing millions of home owners to take on personal debt to finance their everyday expenses.Borrowing through loans and overdrafts increased by £2 billion in February - the biggest monthly increase since the Bank of England began compiling the figures in 1993 - and outstanding debt on credit cards jumped by £350 million, almost three times the increase in January.

The Mail tells us of

The 3million families who 'will be plunged into negative equity within a year'

One in four households would find the size of their mortgage dwarfing the value of their home by next April, MPs said yesterday.
LibDem spokesman Vince Cable said the figure, based on expert City analysis, was not alarmist but "highly plausible". The warning came on a dramatic day which saw cheap mortgage offers scrapped in record numbers.

The tabloids are full of the arrest of Shannon Matthews's step father

The stepfather of Shannon Matthews has been arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, it was reported today.
Craig Meehan, 22, was today held by detectives probing the disappearance of the nine-year-old, who went missing for nearly four weeks.

says the Mirror

According to the Sun

Hundreds of images were said to be on the PC of Craig Meehan, 22. They were uncovered by cops during the 24-day hunt for nine-year-old Shannon in Dewsbury, West Yorks.

Johnson v Livingstone: it's now on a knife-edge is the lead in the Guardian

Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson are locked in an extraordinarily tight race to become London's next mayor, according to an exclusive Guardian/ICM poll of the city's voters published today.
The battle for the biggest directly elected job in British politics could hardly be more dramatic, with Johnson holding a wafer-thin advantage over his Labour opponent.
Today's poll - the only one to be carried out by a national newspaper using established techniques - suggests Johnson could pull off a sensational victory on May 1 over Livingstone, who was elected by comfortable margins in 2000 and 2004. But the outcome is far from decided.

Most of the papers report on the resignation of Bertie Ahern

Praised for his statesmanship, but scandal forces Ahern to step down says the Independent

Bertie Ahern's decade of domination of Dublin politics came to a sudden end yesterday when he dramatically announced his resignation as Irish Taoiseach and leader of the Fianna Fail party. He is to step down early next month as the financial sleaze controversies surrounding him show no sign of abating.

The Telegraph says

Despite presiding over the unprecedented economic growth of the Celtic Tiger and receiving plaudits for his role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, the career of the Irish Republic's most enduring modern politician ended in ignominy.

The Times reports that

Robert Mugabe is ready for last-ditch fight to hang on to presidency

Robert Mugabe lost control of Zimbabwe’s parliament yesterday for the first time since taking power 28 years ago, but as the Opposition also claimed victory in the presidential poll, speculation mounted that he would make a last desperate attempt to cling on.
According to the final results of Saturday’s elections announced last night, the opposition led by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has secured an absolute majority, winning 109 of parliament’s 210 seats

According to the Guardian

Britain is working on an unprecedented £1bn-a-year international emergency aid and development package to rescue the ruined Zimbabwean economy.
The scale of the programme - nearly triple the aid presently going to Zimbabwe - means it will be coordinated by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union and United Nations. It will be discussed at the IMF spring meeting on April 12 and 13 in Washington, at an EU general affairs council later in the month, and possibly at the margins of the Nato summit in Bucharest.

Schools are the main topic in both the Times and the Independent

Top state schools hit by cash for places row says the former

Yesterday the Government pledged to take action against the cash-for-places scandal, giving new powers to the independent schools adjudicator to enforce the admissions code. However, Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, came under immediate fire for waging a “witch-hunt” against faith schools, with local authorities, religious groups and opposition politicians disputing his findings

Faith schools, a law unto themselves says the Independent

The vast majority of faith schools are breaking the law when admitting pupils, according to Government research published yesterday. The study shows that some seek money from parents and fail to give priority to children in care.
A survey of 106 voluntary-aided schools by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) revealed that 96 are in breach of a new statutory code on admissions. Of those, 87 are faith schools

One child in four has a lone parent reports the Telegraph

The independent report by the Office for National Statistics states that the number of children in single-parent families has almost doubled in 20 years.It notes that 13 per cent of the population - 7.5million people - live alone.
"That is quite a striking feature of our society," said Joe Grice, an executive director at the ONS.

The Independent reports

Murdoch hosts London homage to Obama

The invitation list is typical of the star-studded soirees that have placed Elisabeth Murdoch at the pinnacle of London's most glamorous party circuit. Later this month, the Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow will rub shoulders at Ms Murdoch's home with, among others, a Swedish heiress, the fashion director of Vanity Fair and the River Café co-founder Ruthie Rogers .

The next test for John McCain: find a running mate says the Times

John McCain has begun to draw up a list of potential running mates as he seeks to transform his ragged primary operation into a general election machine capable of beating Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in November.Having wrapped up the Republican nomination, he is also mapping out a longer-term strategy to appeal to independents and moderate Democrats — a key to his past political fortunes — while uniting a fractious Republican party and mollifying rebellious conservatives; a tough challenge.

Reporters on Berlin paper admit they were Stasi informers reports the Guardian

The editorial team of a Berlin newspaper is to be investigated by historians after two of its senior journalists were identified as former Stasi informants.
The editor of the Berliner Zeitung, Joseph Depenbrock, called for an independent inquiry into the backgrounds of 120 editorial staff to "preserve the credibility of the newspaper".

Most of the papers report that our coins are changing,the Sun reports

THE design for the first new British coin series for 40 years was unveiled yesterday.
The reverse of the six coins from 1p to 50p form a complete image of the Royal shield of arms when put together.
The £1 piece features the whole shield, and the £2 remains unchanged.
Matthew Dent, 26, of Bangor, Wales, won a £35,000 national competition to “reinvigorate” the UK currency.

Finally the Telegraph reports that

Oliver Stone's biopic of President George W Bush is to show him as a hot-headed, once hard-drinking man whose relationship with his father influences much of his life, including an obsession with Iraq.
According to an early screenplay obtained by ABC News, the film, entitled W, will chart the President's journey from troubled alcoholic to world leader