Doom and gloom on the front of many of the papers this morning and it's fuel that once again drives the fears

Petrol sales fall 20pc as drivers feel the pinch says the Telegraph

British motorists are shunning their cars following record rises in the price of fuel, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.The IEA, a widely respected body, said that "British motorists are clearly driving less" following a doubling in crude oil prices over the past year.

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Petrol retailers have disclosed that fuel sales dropped sharply over the past few weeks and the latest figures appear to show that demand for petrol in Britain has slumped by as much as 20 per cent over the past 12 months.

The Independent predicts that the price of oil will double

The chief executive of the world's largest energy company has issued the most dire warning yet about the soaring the price of oil, predicting that it will hit $250 per barrel "in the foreseeable future". The forecast from Alexey Miller, the head of the Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom, would herald the arrival of £2-per-litre petrol and send shockwaves through the economy.

More pressing fuel matters in the Mail and the Express

Don't panic at the pumps asks the former

Motorists were urged not to panic-buy last night as fuel tanker drivers prepared to launch a four-day strike from Friday.
Gordon Brown's spokesman said emergency plans were in place to minimise disruption and stressed: 'We want the public to buy as normal, to avoid creating problems.'

The Express thouugh predicts that we will run out of petrol

PETROL stations will run dry over the weekend causing havoc for motorists if a tanker drivers’ strike goes ahead.
About 1,000 Shell garages – one in 10 of all filling stations – will be hit by the four-day walkout due to start on Friday.

The Telegraph meanwhile reports that

The Governor of the Bank of England delivered a grim assessment on the economy yesterday as he warned that families face the "longest period of financial turmoil that most of us can remember".
In a speech to bankers, Mervyn King raised the spectre of "stagflation", saying that households are facing "rising inflation and falling economic growth".

Fuel has knocked the other main story for the day out of the headlines,none the less there is much coverage of today's vote in the Commons,the same paper reports

The YouGov survey found that almost three quarters of the public (69 per cent) support raising the detention limit from 28 days to 42 days "in exceptional circumstances". A quarter (24 per cent) oppose the plans

Brown enters the final 24 hours of his battle reports the Independent

The Prime Minister took personal charge of the last-minute arm-twisting in a desperate attempt to avert a defeat that would trigger a crisis of confidence in his leadership. With more than 40 Labour backbenchers threatening to vote against the Government, one close Brown ally claimed it was "looking grim".

The Times reports that

Lord Stevens backs 42-day detention

Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police who is an adviser to both Gordon Brown and David Cameron, said that the police needed to have the power “in their back pocket” to hold someone for up to 42 days in “exceedingly exceptional circumstances”.
“It is the duty of those of us who have been on the front line – losing sleep, working through the night on these cases to thwart attacks – to put forward the argument for this extra power,” said Lord Stevens, who has also investigated police corruption in Northern Ireland.

'It really is psychological torture'says the Guardian

"A minute goes like an hour and an hour like a day inside a cell … You lose all concept of day or night. There are no emotions: you can't cry, you can't laugh…Rizwaan Sabir, 23, a student at Nottingham University, found himself detained in a segregated and sealed-off prison wing last month, arrested and held under the Terrorism Act after arriving at university and catching up with a friend for coffee

The Times leads with an exclusive

Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war

President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran.
In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. “I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.”

Up. Up. Up. Child poverty, pensioner poverty, inequality is the headline in the Guardian

Gordon Brown's flagship anti-poverty campaign received a triple blow yesterday with news that a rise in both child and pensioner poverty had left Britain a more unequal country than when Labour came to power in 1997.
Ministers were last night putting a brave face on figures showing a widening gap between the richest and poorest families and a second successive 100,000 jump in the number of children living below the government's poverty threshold. They said extra money pledged to help the young and the elderly in this year's budget underlined the commitment to meet Tony Blair's 1999 pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020 and halve it by 2010

Dolphins continue to dominate the headlines,the front page of the Sun asks Was it the navy or killer whales?

KILLER whales could be to blame for the shocking death of 26 stranded dolphins, experts revealed last night.
But the Royal Navy was also under suspicion as the Ministry of Defence admitted it had been carrying out submarine and weapons firing exercises.
It is believed the pod of common dolphins panicked and swam into the Percuil River near Falmouth, Cornwall, after being frightened by something in the sea

Why we must learn from this before it's too late says the Mail

We find such scenes upsetting, not just because these are beautiful animals, beloved by everybody, but because we know that dolphins are also highly intelligent. There is something about their sinuous, hydrodynamic shape, their bright inquisitive eyes, and their apparently ever-smiling mouths that endears them to us.

Rumour and suspicion that threatens Afghan aid reports the Times

When Hamid Karzai swept on to the international stage at a donors' meeting in Tokyo in 2002, he was fêted as the saviour of Afghanistan - the only man who could reunite and rebuild the nation after three decades of war.
As Western leaders lauded his political skills, fashion editors gushed over his trademark Uzbek coat and Karakul lambswool hat. Gucci's Tom Ford hailed him as the most chic man in the world.
But whatever Mr Karzai says - or wears - when he attends the next donors' meeting, beginning in Paris tomorrow, he is losing some of his lustre in the eyes of Afghans and Western allies alike.

Unity government talks offer hope to Zimbabwe reports the Independent

Emergency talks have begun between the Zimbabwean government and opposition, suggesting that leading figures on both sides may be ready to accept that the presidential run-off on 27 June cannot bring peace to the country.

The Guardian reports that

At least 120 people were feared dead last night after a Sudan Airways plane carrying more than 200 passengers burst into flames shortly after landing at Khartoum airport. The flight, which had stopped at Amman en route from Damascus apparently veered off the runway after touching down in bad weather

The Telegraph reports that the Japan stabbing suspect believed he was 'ugly and lonely'

Kato told police that he was mentally ill and prosecutors planned mental examinations to decide if he can be held accountable for the crime, the Yomiuri Shimbun evening paper said.
A police spokesman declined comment on the report but said Kato was "responding calmly" to questioning

Grief of Para's tragic girl reports the Sun

THE girlfriend of a young soldier told last night how she returned from holiday to be told on her mobile phone the devastating news that he had been killed in Afghanistan. Heartbroken Tammy Renwick, 19, wept as she said of hero Private Daniel Gamble, 22: "He was perfection.
"A week before he left he told me he loved me for the first time. I was on top of the world."

The Mail reports that

Myra Hindley pleaded to be hypnotised to help police find victim's missing body

She said she hoped it would relieve Keith's mother of 'some of her grief' and allow police to close their file on the case.
But the request was turned down by the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd because he did not believe it would help.

STRESS CATCHES UP WITH 'TIRED' FERN reports the Express

FERN Britton cried off co-presenting the This Morning show yesterday, blaming stress caused by the row over her gastric-band operation.
But her ITV bosses insisted last night she would be back again today after being given some time off.

I care about the environment, says Trump (and not just the greens)reports the Independent

The US billionaire was giving evidence at the opening day of a public inquiry into his plan to develop a site that includes sand dunes that are home to a rich variety of wildlife, on the Menie estate near Aberdeen. Mr Trump presented himself as an ecologically concerned entrepreneur, but when he described himself as "an environmentalist", the reaction from the public gallery was so loud that the inquiry chairman, James McCulloch, demanded silence

Welcome to Thanet Earth: is this a taste of future for UK agriculture? asks the Guardian

From the A299 Thanet Way there is not a great deal to be seen - just some low white structures on the brow of the hill, and a discreet little sign. But that is because fewer than 15 of the 80 football pitches' worth of greenhouse have so far been constructed. Once this development is fully operational it will be rather harder to ignore.
The low hill on the Isle of Thanet in Kent will be home to 1.3 million plants, growing in seven greenhouses, each up to 140m in length and fed by its own reservoir.

Finally the Sun has a pig tale

WELLY I never! A piglet called Cinders trotters round in a pair of rubber boots – because she’s afraid to put her feet in MUD.
Farmers Debbie and Andrew Keeble had them specially made for the six-week-old saddleback after she refused to go into bogs with fellow hogs.

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Debbie, 40, said at Thirsk, North Yorks: “She just stood at the edge shaking. If we moved her to where there was no mud, she happily roamed about.”