Petrol prices and a tragedy in Birmingham along with a European triumph for Manchester United in the papers this morning.

The Express launches a crusade on the price of petrol

Stop Petrol tax robbery says its front page

The Daily Express today launches a crusade for the Government to end drivers’ pain at the pumps by slashing taxes on fuel.
Motorists and hauliers have suffered crippling price hikes of up to 30 per cent in petrol and diesel bills in the past year because of “painful” fuel levies.
The Treasury has enjoyed a £505million windfall since April 1 alone from oil prices which yesterday set a new record by soaring to $132 a barrel.

Price of petrol to stay high for 8 years is the lead in the Telegraph which says

As oil prices reached an all-time high, experts forecast the cost of petrol could hit an average of £1.21 per litre within months.
Over the next two years it could even climb as high as £1.46, they said.
Petrol currently costs an average of £1.13 per litre following a month of almost daily price rises.

So hungry she stole food for the birds says the Mail

It was a scene even experienced paramedics never expected to see in Britain in 2008.
Lying on mattresses in a squalid bedroom were six starving children, all seriously emaciated.
For one, seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, rescue came too late. She died in hospital hours later.

adding

Last night it emerged that Khyra, her brothers and sisters were so hungry they even stole bread put out for birds in nearby gardens.
Horrified neighbours in Handsworth, Birmingham, said the children had been taken out of school earlier this year after being bullied

The Mirror says

Her mother Angela Gordon, 33, and her partner Junaid Abuhamza, 29, were arrested and charged with causing or allowing her death by neglect. They were remanded in custody on Monday and will appear at Birmingham crown court on Wednesday.
Last night MP Khalid Mahmood called for a public inquiry into the case - and accused the city council of "gross dereliction of duty".

Schools told to take action on growing menace of gangs is the lead in the Guardian

Headteachers will today be advised to screen pupils' computer accounts and gather proof, including photographic evidence, where they suspect teenagers and even primary children of joining gangs.
Ministers have drawn up advice to schools on identifying and dealing with gang members amid growing evidence young pupils are drawn in by older siblings. They are concerned sexual abuse of girls is spreading through gang cultures

The Times has a similar lead

Police get new powers to wage war on gangs

Witnesses who give evidence against gang members will be guaranteed their anonymity as soon as they come forward so they can be free from fear of reprisals, The Times has learnt. Ministers are also exploring ways of giving police wider powers to restrict with court orders the movements of gang members.
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will address the issues today in a speech setting out ways to help police to tackle violent gangs and their intimidation of communities.

Now the unions turn on Brown is the lead in the Independent

The leader of the trade union movement accused Gordon Brown of lacking a vision for Britain on the eve of a by-election today which could trigger a crisis of confidence in the Prime Minister. Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, added to Mr Brown's problems last night by making a withering assault on his strategy. Calling on New Labour to "reconfigure its DNA", he said the party "has not been clear about what it wants to be – and where it now wants to go", adding that "the support base that Labour brought together in 1997 needs convincing that the party is on their side and fairness must once again be asserted".

Brown's looming Crewe and Nantwich by-election defeat just the start of his misery says the Telegraph

A win in what had long been considered a safe Labour seat would send shockwaves through the Government and put Mr Cameron on course for a probable victory at the next general election.
The Tories have not won a by-election from another party since 1982. A heavy defeat will add to the mounting pressure on Mr Brown's leadership just three weeks after he suffered a humiliating result in the local elections and lost London to the Conservatives.

The Mail meanwhile reports that

Police berate Home Secretary over pay 'betrayal' and cannabis admission

Jacqui Smith faced a humiliating barrage of criticism yesterday from rank-and-file police officers who accused her of "betrayal" over pay and mocked her past drug use.
The Home Secretary sat stony faced as Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said her handling of the pay deal was a matter "more for the Serious Fraud Office than the drug squad".
Mrs Berry said Miss Smith's actions on police pay had destroyed their trust in her

The Sun has Man U European victory on its front page,Van the Man says its headline

MAN United keeper Edwin van der Sar was the hero last night after clinching the Champions League trophy in a gripping penalty shoot-out win over Chelsea.
The Reds won it 6-5 on spot kicks after Blues captain John Terry MISSED the one that would have seen his side lift the European Cup for the first time

The Independent says

It was a truly remarkable night, one that will live in the pantheon forever and quite possibly scar the psyche of every Chelsea fan who witnessed it. In the Russian roulette of the penalty shootout, John Terry had only to beat Edwin van der Sar with the last penalty of 10 to bring the European Cup to the club he been at his entire career. When Terry slipped and shot wide, Roman Abramovich slumped back into his chair. £578m does not buy a man immunity to the cruelties of this game

The Guardian reports on

Exam cheating alert over brain drugs

Schools and universities could soon be facing a different kind of drug problem: a rise in students taking brain-enhancing pills to boost their exam results.
Government advisers warned yesterday that new drugs to treat conditions as varied as Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit disorder, and narcolepsy are in danger of being misused by students eager to bump up their grades.

On a lighter exam note the Telegraph reports that

Students taking their GCSEs were given a little help in their music exam - the answers were written on the back. A printing error meant that all the answers were given for the first part of the examination in schools in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
While a number of students flagged up the mistake, others are thought to have carried on and completed the test either without noticing, or without letting on

Damning report concludes Crown Prosecution files are in disarray reports the Times

The shoddy state of most Crown Prosecution Service case files is highlighted in a report today which finds most are incomplete and missing data such as whether a defendant is on bail, or the outcome of a hearing.
The damning report by inspectors finds that in more than one third, or 36 per cent, of magistrates’ and crown court cases, a defendant’s bail status was not recorded on the file.
In 16 per cent of magistrates’ court files and 35 per cent of crown court files, the need for follow-up action was not recorded or highlighted as it should have been.

News from abroad and the Guardian reports that

Israel and Syria admit the start of formal peace talks in Istanbul

Israel and Syria announced yesterday that they have begun indirect talks to reach a "comprehensive peace", in the first formal negotiations between the two mutual enemies for eight years.
Israeli and Syrian officials have been in Istanbul since Monday, holding meetings with Turkish officials who have shuttled between both sides. Officials said the process began after the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, visited Turkey in February.

Lebanon’s ‘wedding day’ snatches peace from the jaws of civil war reports the Times

Lebanon’s feuding leaders struck a deal yesterday to pave the way for the election of a new president and a national unity government designed to end 19 months of political turmoil which brought the country to the brink of civil war.
The agreement was reached only after the Western-backed Lebanese Government and its supporters made key concessions, underlining the stark fact that the militant Shia Hezbollah holds the balance of power in Lebanon, politically and militarily. It also exposes the limitations of Western support for the Government of Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister.

The Telegraph reports that Barack Obama juggernaut 'will crush John McCain'

Senator Barack Obama has established a battle-tested 50-state grassroots organisation and fundraising “juggernaut” that will crush John McCain in November, according to his senior advisers.With the Illinois senator declaring himself “within reach” of the Democratic nomination after achieving a majority of the pledged delegates - those allocated by vote - on Tuesday, his campaign has already pivoted to preparing for the general election against Mr McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee

On the same topic the Independent reports

Inching towards the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidential election, a beaming Barack Obama ignited rolling chants of "Yes we can" in a packed Tampa arena yesterday at the start of a three-day visit to Florida – a state that is nonetheless littered with potholes for his campaign.

The Telegraph says that 4,000 children orphaned in China

Chen Kefu, the deputy director for civil affairs in Sichuan province, warned that it will take time to determine the true number because so many people were still missing and displaced.
The May 12 quake has killed more than 41,000 people and left more than five million homeless.
Thousands of Chinese people have called government offices and posted pleas online volunteering to adopt an orphan

Thirty bone fragments and seven teeth.. police say it could be murder at Jersey children's home reports the Mirror

Kids whose teeth and bones were found at the Jersey orphanage may have been murdered, a police chief said.Thirty bits of bone and seven teeth, from at least two kids as young as 11, were discovered burnt in a fireplace in the cellars. The teeth, five milk ones, appeared to have been cut or sawn.

WORKING CLASS 'HAS LOWER IQ' reports the Express

The working classes have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed.
Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University, suggested that the low numbers of working-class students at elite universities was the "natural outcome" of IQ differences between classes

Fears of digital divide groundless as online access soars in rural areas reports the Guardian

A hunger for online shopping, internet banking, online entertainment and email has given rural Britain the lead in the race to install broadband, with the number of homes with high-speed connections in isolated areas overtaking those in urban areas for the first time.
Having lagged behind big cities for years, the countryside is now better connected. Some 59% of households in rural areas have broadband, compared with 57% of urban areas, according to a survey into television, radio, internet and telecoms habits by media watchdog Ofcom

The Mail reports on

Harry and William's anger over Hello! pictures of Queen at Peter Phillips' wedding

Bitter recriminations were sweeping the Royal Family last night as the extent of Hello! magazine's royal wedding coverage became clear.
Despite refusing to pose for magazine photographers, the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall all feature in a two-page private family group portrait supplied by Peter Phillips and his Canadian bride Autumn Kelly.

Most of the papers report that

One of Britain's leading cosmetic surgeons, Martin Kelly, known as the "surgeon to the stars", has been found dead after a suspected heart attack at the age of 42.
Mr Kelly, who was married to the Hollywood actress Natascha McElhone, was discovered by a friend on the doorstep of the family home in Fulham, west London, on Tuesday night. He was dead on arrival at the nearby Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where he was a consultant.

says the Independent


Finally we end on another fuel story from the Telegraph which reports

Discarded frying oil from fish and chip shops is fuelling an environmentally-friendly journey around Australia by a British woman and her Australian husband.Corporate lawyer Rachel Mimmo, 28, and her civil engineer husband Gerard, 36, plan to drive 18,000 miles around the country in a specially converted four-wheel drive.
The Toyota Landcruiser, nicknamed the Battered Fish due to the pungent smell of its exhaust fumes, runs off vegetable oil as well as diesel.