Unions hit Brown with 130 demands is the lead in the Guardian this morning as the paper reports that

The full scale of the trade unions' call for a change of political course by the Brown government can be disclosed today, as general secretaries meet senior ministers and Downing Street officials to discuss 130 demands they have tabled.
The complete list, obtained by the Guardian, includes a right to take supportive strike action, scrapping NHS prescription charges, bringing all hospital cleaning back in-house, and a new agreement on public sector pay with the Treasury.

Meanwhile many of the papers pick up on the news that

Gordon Brown set to re-write his own borrowing rules

in order to avoid forcing up taxes

.says the Telegraph

The rule was laid down by Mr Brown when he became Chancellor in 1997 as a signal of Labour's intention for "prudence" in economic affairs.
The new, looser framework, which is set to be announced in the pre-Budget report this Autumn, would allow the Government to borrow more to avoid a £10bn hole in the public purse which would otherwise have to be made up by increased tax revenues.

Energy prices are on the front pages of the Times and the Mail

Sixteen million customers of British Gas will pay about a third more for gas and electricity from next month, with average bills rising to £1,300 a year.
The other five major energy companies - E.ON, EDF, Scottish and Southern Energy, ScottishPower and npower - are expected to announce similar increases. Centrica, which owns British Gas, issued a fresh warning that domestic gas bills will rise from about £600 now to more than £1,000 per year if oil prices remain high.

warns the Times

Families face 66 per cent rise in gas bills says the Mail

The alarm was sounded by analysts Eclipse Energy in a study commissioned by the power giant Centrica, parent company of British Gas. It blames the fact that the price of gas is tied to oil, which has spiralled to more than 140 dollars a barrel.
It says this link will take household energy bills to levels that will force millions to choose between heating and eating.

Meanwhile it reports that

Middle Britain will be hardest hit by falling house prices

research shows that on average almost £40,000, or more than £100 a day, will be wiped off the value of these homes this year.
A typical Middle Britain property will fall 18 per cent between January and December, according to the insurance firm AXA and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Crime is not far away from the headlines,Violent crime down but credit fraud is soaring says the Independent

The number of muggings and burglaries could soon start to rise again because of the economic downturn, the Home Office warned yesterday as it trumpeted sharp falls in overall crime rates. It also said credit card fraud is increasing rapidly as criminal gangs exploit the boom in internet shopping to produce cloned cards.
The first official police figures on knife crime disclosed that more than 22,000 attacks with blades were carried out last year, although separate statistics yesterday suggested the actual figure could be almost 130,000.

The Times reports meanwhile that

An 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death in London last night, becoming the 21st teenager to die violently in the capital this year.
Frederick Moody died after being attacked in Guildford Road, Lambeth, South London.
Residents told The Times that they tried to keep the teenager alive as he lay on the ground no more than 200 yards from where he is believed to live with his family. They are believed to be from Ghana.

The Sun reports that

A KNIFE attack is carried out every four minutes, shock figures revealed yesterday.
The new crime statistics showed 130,000 people were wounded or threatened with a blade last year.
And that does NOT include offences by under 16s.
The grim toll emerged as Gordon Brown promised to step up the war on crime by slashing bureaucracy to get bobbies on the beat

Bye Ben says the front page of the Mirror

Grieving Brooke Kinsella today makes a heart-rending plea to end knife crime as she lays murdered brother Ben to rest.
She says: "Enough is enough. Do something now to make sure your brother, sister, son, or best friend's life doesn't end the same awful way."

Day 4 0f the Ann Darwin trial and the Guardian reports that

Anne Darwin wished her husband had really disappeared at sea, and she contemplated suicide as the immense strain of living a double life became too much, a court heard yesterday. John Darwin faked his own death in March 2002 in a canoe accident at Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, and she went along with the scam for five years, hiding it from their sons, the police and insurance companies.

The Mirror adds that

Anne, 56, wept as she recalled how she vainly pleaded with him not to stage a canoe accident in a £250,000 insurance scam aimed at clearing their debts.
She told how her husband had had an affair with another woman early in their marriage - but he held such power over her she took him back.

Sat tests continue to attract the attention,Results Chaos says the Telegraph

One in five of all primary schools are still waiting for Sats results as the chaos over this year's exams threatens the credibility of the entire system of national testing for children.

The Independent asks Is an American firm to blame or are there just too many exams,reporting

There are 40,000 English teachers in secondary schools, said Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) – the Government's regulatory body for national curriculum assessments and tests.
Between them, they have to mark GCSE papers taken by 600,000 pupils, A-levels by 250,000, AS-level papers from 250,000 and national curriculum tests for 14-year-olds by a further 550,000.

It leads with an exclusive,Pilots ignore alerts over faulty planes

A survey of aircraft maintenance engineers, whose work covered flights to and from the UK, found many pilots only reported faults such as brake fluid leaks and loss of cabin pressure after their homebound flight or after the day's flights. The delay allowed airlines to fix faults at a more convenient time, avoiding extra expense

.

Sold out to Europe says the Express

GORDON Brown was last night accused of betraying Britain with a “grubby”surrender to Brussels.
Under a cloak of secrecy, the Government finally ratified the Lisbon Treaty earlier this week and committed the country to a new deluge of European meddling.
In a sign of the Prime Minister’s personal embarrassment over the betrayal, the historic step was only made public yesterday – 24 hours after the covert ceremony had taken place.

Many of the papers report that Nelson Mandela celebrates 90th birthday

Mandela, the anti-apartheid campaigner whose five-year tenure as South Africa's first black president came after three decades behind bars, has been promised a surprise by his family at a private party at his rural homestead in the Eastern Cape before a glittering event to be attended by 500 people on Saturday

says the Telegraph

A strictly African affair says the Independent

The acclaim for the man sometimes mooted as the world's leading moral authority has been such that some in South Africa have been left feeling that their icon has been appropriated by global showbiz celebrities. As a result, the African National Congress has said it will give ordinary South Africans the chance to celebrate his life.

The Guardian reports that McCain eclipsed as TV anchors follow Obama's foreign trip

Barack Obama's stock as a superstar candidate rose even further yesterday amid reports that the anchors of all three US television networks were planning to catch up with him on his first overseas trip as a presidential candidate.
The Obama camp has been besieged with requests from reporters to get aboard his plane for his swing through five countries in the Middle East and Europe and yesterday it was reported that the evening news anchors from ABC, NBC and CBS were planning to interview Obama during his trip.

India’s Government accused of buying votes reports the Times

In the run-up to Tuesday’s vote, Delhi has been gripped by a frenzy of mud-slinging, back-slapping and deal-making as the Congress Party and its main rivals try to make up the numbers. An MP said this week that the Government was offering to pay as much as 250 million rupees (£3 million) for each vote in parliament.

The Sun proclaims that

The McCanns are free

KATE and Gerry McCann’s torment as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance will end on Monday – but with the fresh hell of Portuguese cops scrapping the search for little Madeleine.
The couple will be officially told there is NOTHING to implicate them, The Sun can reveal.
Their status as “arguidos” – or suspects – will formally be lifted. But 14 months after Maddie vanished on holiday their greater nightmare will go on.

Finally many of the papers report that

A multi-millionaire businessman laid bare the financial details of his divorce for the world to see on the internet to stop "tittle-tattle" and malicious gossip about the breakdown of his 20-year marriage.

The Telegraph reports that

Gary Dean, who runs his own advertising company, publicised the fact that he had paid his ex-wife Helen a cash lump sum of £3.7 million, as well as financing her Mercedes and Audi convertible.