Various headlines in this morning's papers, the Independent warns of a flu pandemic

The world is failing to guard against the inevitable spread of a devastating flu pandemic which could kill 50 million people and wreak massive disruption around the globe, the Government has warned.
In evidence to a House of Lords committee, ministers said that early warning systems for spotting emerging diseases were "poorly co-ordinated" and lacked "vision" and "clarity". They said that more needed to be done to improve detection and surveillance for potential pandemics and called for urgent improvement in rapid-response strategies.

says the former

Changes in lifestyle are leading to new infections and providing them with opportunities to spread rapidly, the report warns
An outbreak in Britain will cause "massive" disruption, it concludes. More should be done to provide early warnings.

says the Telegraph

It leads with another medical study reporting

Tens of thousands of arthritis sufferers will be denied powerful drugs on the NHS under a controversial decision by the Government's rationing body. Patients' groups have reacted angrily to new guidelines which will mean 40,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis will have possible treatments withdrawn.

As does the Express which reports that

ALARMING new health warnings are to be issued over cholesterol-lowering wonderdrugs taken daily by more than four million patients.
In some cases, users of statins have suffered a rare form of lung disease.
More commonly, patients prescribed statins have suffered depression, sleep disturbance, memory loss and sexual problems.

The Guardian leads with

£35bn revamp will produce generation of mediocre schools

The biggest school building programme in a generation is on course to produce billions of pounds worth of "mediocre" facilities, an audit conducted by the government's own architecture watchdog has revealed.
An estimated eight out of 10 designs for secondary schools proposed under the £35bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative are "mediocre" or "not yet good enough" and less than a fifth are considered to be "good" or "excellent".

says the paper

The Times reports that,Forces face training cuts as fuel bill rockets

The cost of fuelling Britain’s Armed Forces is due to rise by more than £500 million next year as a result of soaring oil prices, forcing military chiefs to consider broad cuts to air force and combat training.
Ministry of Defence calculations of projected fuel bills, seen byThe Times, show a dramatic increase in operating costs, with fuel for aircraft, naval and ground vehicles up by more than 20 per cent on last year.

The Mail says that

Last call for happy hour

Happy hours and 'supersize' wine glasses could be banned in an admission that the 24-hour drinking experiment is failing.
Labour's hopes of creating a Continental-style cafe culture have not materialised since licensing laws were relaxed nearly three years ago.
Instead, booze-fuelled violence and alcohol-related deaths, injuries and illnesses have surged.

The latest report on the economy features in many papers,the Telegraph says that Unemployment is to hit 2m

The number of people out of work will reach two million for the first time in a decade of Labour rule, as the housing market downturn leads to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the wider economy, an influential analysis warns.Estate agents, house builders, mortgage brokers and other workers in the financial services sector will lose their jobs, with total unemployment rising by 25 per cent to its highest level since July 1997

The Guardian reports

Britain's economy is tipping headlong into a recession that could last more than a year and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, warns Professor David Blanchflower, a member of the Bank of England's interest rate committee, in an interview with the Guardian today.
Blanchflower says the Bank must cut interest rates rapidly to prevent the downturn being too painful, and thinks the UK could be in for a worse time than even the United States, where interest rates have already been slashed and taxes cut to stimulate the economy.

The Mail says House prices plunge £18,000 in just two months

Images of the latest kidnappers video from Iraq are in many of the papers,the Independent reports that

A rescue team came came within hours of freeing five British hostages being held in Iraq during a series of raids carried out during the last few months as part of a secret military mission.
Details of the searches by British, American and Iraqi forces emerged as the kidnappers issued a videotaped statement claiming that one of the abducted Britons had killed himself

Brown urges Iraqi kidnappers to release Britons says the Guardian

As is Gordon's Brown's Middle Eastern trip,the Times reports that

Gordon Brown yesterday called on the kidnappers who have held five British men hostage in Iraq for more than a year to free the captives, following claims that one of the men had killed himself. A video passed to a British Sunday newspaper reported that a hostage identified as a security guard called Jason had become severely depressed and taken his own life. The kidnappers said they would provide proof of the man's death only if the British government began negotiating over the release of Iraqi prisoners.

Gordon Brown will today increase the pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear programme by condemning as “totally abhorrent” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel.
Tehran faces a series of sanctions against its oil and gas industries unless it halts attempts to develop its atomic capability within two weeks, senior British diplomats said last night.

Another Middle Easterm tour is also well covered,the Independent says Sun shines on Obama's Iraq debut

Barack Obama arrives in Iraq just as the political situation there is turning in his favour. The Iraqi government is for the first time asking for a timetable for a military withdrawal of United States forces.
This is in keeping with the Democratic presidential nominee's plan for a pull-out of American combat troops over 16 months and makes the strategy of his Republican rival, John McCain, to retain US troops in Iraq until all America's opponents are vanquished, look out of date.

The front page of the Sun reports from Afghanistan,who dares Winalot says its headline as the paper reports

DOGS will lead the way in SAS raids after being parachuted in to spy out rebels for troops, The Sun can reveal.
Fearless German Shepherds are being trained to jump from aircraft at 25,000ft wearing their own oxygen masks and strapped to special forces assault teams.
Once down in hostile terrain in Iraq or Afghanistan, the dogs will be sent in first to seek out insurgents’ hideouts with tiny cameras fixed to their heads.

According to the Mirror

SatNav danger revealed: Navigation device blamed for causing 300,000 crashes and

Around 1.5 million drivers have suddenly veered dangerously or illegally in busy traffic while following its directions.
And five million have been sent the wrong way down a one-way street.
Katie Shephard of safety charity Brake warned lives were in danger and said: "Anyone buying a satnav must consider whether they can be safe on the road."

Staying on the transport theme,the Telegraph reports that

Network Rail chiefs condemned by MPs

Network Rail chiefs took "quite extraordinary" bonuses despite an "entire catalogue of management failings" which caused misery for passengers, according to a scathing parliamentary report.

and continues

The heads of the infrastructure company were condemned for their "widespread complacency" and for sharing more than £700,000 in bonuses that added "insult to injury" for "long-suffering passengers who had to struggle with the consequences of the company's failings

The Independent reports that Conran staff basic pay is less than £2 per hour

One of Britain's most exclusive restaurant groups pays some of its waiting staff a basic wage of less than £2 per hour, The Independent has discovered.
D&D London, which posted revenues of £71m this year and is half owned by Sir Terence Conran, joins a growing list of establishments using service charges to top up pay to the national minimum wage.

The Express has looked at the small clauses in the latest EU drafts and finds that

THE acre is set to be banned after the EU announced that Labour has agreed to the abolition of yet another part of the British way of life.
The traditional unit of land size will go the way of the pound, gallon and inch in the list of forbidden units of measurement

.

The Sun reports on more beaurocracy

HOMEOWNERS must let council inspectors in to check for DANCING BEARS after they were handed 1,043 powers to pry.
Armies of clipboard-touting officials can demand entry to check on everything from pot plants to fridges.
Details of the vast array of laws were quietly slipped out to MPs last Tuesday by the Home Office

Finally the smiling face of Padraig Harrington stares out from most of the pages,the Guardian reports

On a day at Royal Birkdale when the game of golf never seemed tougher, the toughest competitor in the field prevailed to win his second successive Open championship. Padraig Harrington, who had almost withdrawn from the tournament with injury before a ball was struck, added his name yesterday to the elite roll of golfers who have defended the game's most famous trophy, beating Ian Poulter by a margin of four shots and the galleries' romantic favourite, Greg Norman, by six.

I'm on another level now - Special one Harrington insists retaining Open crown is even better than winning it first time

says the Mail

He said: ‘Winning a major puts you in select company but defending an Open places you in a special club. This is a different feeling to the first one. Last year was a thrilling win and I was on top of the world when I won. But this year is more satisfying.
'I feel more accomplished this year and it will probably give me more confidence