Both the Independent and the Sun share the same story on their front pages this morning.

Drug nation says the former

Almost two million people take illegal drugs at least once a month, with cocaine growing in popularity among teenagers and young adults, the widest-ranging official investigation into Britain's drugs habit has discovered.
Research published by the Department of Health shows that more than one-third of the population has experimented with a banned substance at least once.

Out of our heads says the Sun

THE devastating toll of the nation’s drug addiction was revealed in a shocking report last night.
Annual deaths from drug abuse have soared 90 per cent. And the number of people taken to hospital with drug-related mental health problems has DOUBLED in ten years.
NHS chiefs reported a huge surge in cocaine use by children and an alarming rise in the number of druggie kids needing hospital treatment.

Meanwhile the Mail reports that

Obesity poses as big a threat to our nation as terrorism,

Public health expert Professor David Hunter criticised ministers for failing to take 'bold action' to tackle the growing crisis.
Experts have already warned that if trends continue, half the population will be obese within 25 years, causing life expectancy to fall for the first time in two centuries.

The Times reports that

Asda and Tesco put milk at centre of new price war

The pint of milk was at the centre of a ferocious supermarket price battle yesterday as Asda and Tesco vowed to cut millions of pounds from customers’ shopping bills this weekend.
Asda said that it was slashing the price of a two-pint bottle of milk from 80p to 50p - its lowest price since 2001. Angry farmers said that the battle could force them out of business.
Spiralling food prices have been blamed for the steepest rate of inflation in 16 years. The average weekly grocery bill for a family of four has risen by 25 per cent in a year to £127.

The Express also leads with the story

MAJOR supermarkets threw a lifeline to hard-pressed shoppers yesterday by slashing the price of many popular groceries.
Fierce competition is forcing the big chains to make thousands of everyday goods cheaper. The price war comes as welcome relief to cash-strapped householders hit by the credit crunch and rising bills.

The Georgia crisis is not far away in the headlines,the Guardian says that

Washington last night ruled out using military force in Georgia after putting the Pentagon in charge of the delivery of aid to the invaded Black Sea state and US non-combat troops on the ground. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, said he saw no prospect of the US engaging militarily in the Caucasus conflict, but warned that Russia's invasion of Georgia could set back its relations with the west for years

.

The Times says that US accuses Russia of campaign of scorched earth

As American military transport aircraft landed in Tbilisi to strong complaints from Moscow, the Russian Army undertook search-and-destroy missions on Georgian soil, defying the ceasefire agreement brokered by President Sarkozy of France.
Tanks and soldiers continued to occupy Gori despite promising to leave by yesterday. A Georgian military base in the city was destroyed and the Georgian Ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe accused the Russians of laying mines before a withdrawal.

Many stories on the A level results

A-level results published on Thursday reveal record numbers of sixth-formers gained top grades this year. Fewer than three in every 100 exams was failed as the pass rate rose for the 26th year in a row and for the first time more than half of entries were awarded A or B grades

says the Telegraph

The Independent says that

A glaring North-South divide in the performance of teenagers was exposed by this year's record-breaking A-level results.
The percentage of A-grade passes falls almost in direct relation to how far north the candidates sat the exam, the statistics show. In total, nearly 50 per cent more candidates achieved A-grade passes in the South-east than in the North-east. The number of A-grade passes has also increased three times as fast in London and the South-east than in the North-east

The Sun reports on

A GIRL who was kidnapped as a two-day-old baby 18 years ago achieved great A-levels yesterday – as the pass rate hit a record high.
Alex Griffiths made headlines around the world after being snatched from a maternity ward by a woman pretending to be a social worker.

The Guardian leads with Labour warned over limits to free expression

The government has been accused of creating laws that have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the UK in a sharply critical report from the United Nations' committee on human rights. The report calls for the reform of Britain's libel laws and controls introduced under recent terrorism laws.
The government's use of the Official Secrets Act to prevent issues of public interest being published is also condemned in an intervention from the UN which warns that public servants are being gagged even where national security is not at risk.

Underworld motive for Chinese graduates murder reports the Telegraph

Zhen Xing Yang and his girlfriend Xi Zhou, both 25, were found dead with horrific head injuries in their flat in Newcastle's West End on Saturday.
The killing at first appeared motiveless but now police believe the couple may have made underworld enemies.
Police are examining theories which have appeared on the internet suggesting Mr Yang was involved in betting scams and the arrangement of false travelling visas and professional qualifications.

The Mail tells us that

Two women were charged last night in connection with the murder of British honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany in Antigua.
The unnamed pair, aged 22 and 32, are accused of handling goods stolen from the couple's hotel room the night they were killed.
The women - who are thought to be locals on the Caribbean island - appeared yesterday at St John's Magistrates' Court after being questioned by detectives.

The Times reports that British combat troops to leave Iraq 'within a year'and adds

Details of the new British personnel structure are to be negotiated in the status-of-forces agreement to be signed with Baghdad. Yesterday The Times disclosed, after an interview with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, that all American combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq within three years.

On the same theme according to the Guardian

House prices have doubled in a matter of months. Restaurants are opening alongside the waterside corniche. Oil-rich Kuwaitis are beginning to move in, and trade at the port is booming.
Welcome to Basra.
This is the remarkably rosy picture of life in Iraq's second city outlined by a senior British military figure today.

The Independent says that Al-Qa'ida sends its warriors from Iraq to wage 'jihad' in Lebanon

The Telegraph says that

One in eight schoolchildren do not speak English as their first language, a Government survey shows.The Department for Children, Schools and Families said 240 languages are currently spoken in British schools with some schools having to cope with 50 different dialects.
And in areas like Tower Hamlets in east London, more than 70 per cent of pupils do not have English as their mother tongue.

On a similar theme,the Guardian reports that

The rapidly changing face of the American people is revealed in new census projections that predict that groups that are now labelled minorities will form the greater part of the country's population by 2042.
According to the US census bureau, the dominance of non-Hispanic white people, who today account for two-thirds of Americans, will be whittled away, falling steadily to less than half in 2042 and 46% by 2050. In the opposite trajectory, those who describe themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian and Native American will increase in proportion from about a third now to 54% by 2050.

The Independent reports that

Tories' favourite think-tank sued by Muslim group

The Independent has learnt that the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in west London has hired the law firm Carter Ruck to sue the think-tank for defamation. An initial complaint will be made "very soon", a source close to the case said.
Al-Manaar claims that Policy Exchange fabricated several receipts used as evidence of purchase. The North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, from which the jailed radical preacher Abu Hamza gave sermons, is also understood to be pursuing libel action against the think-tank through the solicitors' firm Dean and Dean.

Finally many of the papers report that

Council lets £100,000 executive work from home - in Australia

Mat Taylor, 44, executive director and chief finance officer of Fenland District Council, in Cambridgeshire, wanted to leave his £100,000 job to move to Adelaide with his family in October. However, he will continue to be paid £20,000 for one day's work a week for the next 12 months to manage Fenland's £18million budget from Australia via video link and e-mail.
The decision was condemned by the Taxpayers' Alliance, which said that there had to be a more efficient way to cover his role. “It's a bit worrying when ordinary families are struggling to make ends meet whilst council executives are sunning themselves in warmer climes,” a spokesman said.