The face of Gayle Williams stares out from many of the front pages this morning.

Killed for being a Christian says the Independent which says she

worked with the poorest and most unfortunate of the children in Afghanistan, young boys and girls who had lost limbs to landmines and bombs. She was dedicated to her task of teaching them the basic skills needed to survive in a harsh and violent land. Yesterday the 34-year-old British woman was murdered while walking along a quiet, tree-lined street in Kabul on her way to work

The Times reports that

A witness said that seven shots were fired. The Afghan Interior Ministry said: “Two armed men sitting on a motorbike shot her dead. Some bullets hit her body and some hit her leg and when police got there she was dead.”
Ms Williams, from London, had recently been pulled out from the charity’s office in Kandahar, in the south, because of security fears for foreign aid workers there. She is the first Western aid worker to be killed by the Taleban in Kabul.

The Telegraph leads with Energy firms 'failing to pass on falling oil prices to consumers’

The Prime Minister and Ed Mayo of Consumer First are putting public pressure on power companies to cut their gas and electricity prices in line with falling world oil prices.
A series of sharp price rises by the big energy suppliers earlier this year have left the average household facing an annual gas and electricity bill of more than £1,300.

The Guardian meanwhile reports that

Lloyds chief tells staff: you'll still get bonuses

The chief executive of Lloyds TSB, one of the banks participating in the £37bn bank bail-out, has promised staff they will receive bonuses this year despite Gordon Brown's promise of a crackdown on bankers' pay following the investment by taxpayers.
Eric Daniels has told employees that the historic government intervention will not change the behaviour of Lloyds, which is in the throes of the rescue takeover of HBOS brokered by the prime minister.

On another day of bad economic news the Independent asks,why is borrowing so high?

Gordon Brown sought to make a virtue out of record government borrowing yesterday as he declared that it would help Britain survive the economic downturn.
Official figures showed the Treasury borrowed £8.092bn last month, up from £4.775bn in the same period a year earlier, a record for September. A record £37.6bn has now been borrowed in the first half of the current financial year – more than the total amount last year

adding that

The Tories expressed concern that borrowing was on course to hit £64bn in the current year, way above the £42.5bn forecast in the March Budget. They accused Mr Brown of a "trick of the light", saying that borrowing has soared before the looming recession even starts to bite. In another worrying sign, gross mortgage lending was £17.7bn in September, down 10 per cent on August and 42 per cent on September last year.

The Times meanwhile reporting that

Britain's biggest companies may need to put aside up to £150 billion to repair the damage inflicted on their pension schemes by huge falls in share prices.
Experts suggested yesterday that the vast majority of company schemes would need more capital if they are to guarantee to meet their obligations to staff who have yet to retire.

The Mail reports that

Motorists face a 2p a litre fuel tax hike to help fill emptying Treasury coffers, it was claimed yesterday.
An announcement could be made before the end of the year, with the increase introduced by April.
Motoring industry leaders who met Treasury minister Angela Eagle said they were left 'in no doubt' that tax hikes at the pumps were back on the agenda, despite families bracing themselves for the fall-out from imminent recession.

Meanwhile the Express says that

PETROL prices have dropped to their lowest level in a year – with yet more cuts predicted within weeks.
A fierce price war broke out on supermarket forecourts across Britain yesterday, sending the cost of unleaded fuel plummeting to 97.9p a litre and diesel to 109.9p.

The Guardian reports that

China has fuelled fears over a global recession by warning that the financial crisis is damaging its economic growth.
Data released yesterday showed that China's gross domestic product expanded by 9% in the third quarter of 2008, down from 10.1% for the second quarter. Although this is still extremely healthy compared with other major economies, it is less than the figure expected by experts - and the first time the country's GDP growth has dipped below 10% in almost three years.

The Telegraph claims that

Centuries of British civil liberties risk being broken by the relentless pressure from the ‘security state’, the country’s top prosecutor has warned.Outgoing Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald warned that the expansion of technology by the state into everyday life could create a world future generations “can’t bear”.

The Times has an exclusive,The Tories, oligarch Oleg Deripaska and a £50,000 question

Russia’s richest man entertained George Osborne and David Cameron’s chief fundraiser on his yacht in Corfu, leading to discussion of a £50,000 donation to the Conservative Party.
After the furore of Lord Mandelson’s stay on the same yacht, friends of the new Business Secretary have let it be known that he was not the only senior politician to enjoy the hospitality of Oleg Deripaska this summer.
In a letter to The Times, Nathaniel Rothschild, a mutual friend of Lord Mandelson and Mr Osborne, said that the Shadow Chancellor and Andrew Feldman, chief executive of the Tory party, spent time on the Queen K.

The state that won it for Bush in 2000 could doom McCain reports the Independent

Florida is the focus of some of the election's fiercest campaigning – and the Republicans are trailing

The Guardian reports that

They were once bitter rivals in Florida for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton hugged, kissed and joined forces in Orlando last night to launch a concerted three-day push to win over undecided voters in the key swing state.
The two made a rare joint appearance at a public rally attended by an estimated 30,000 wildly enthusiastic supporters to begin a frantic final two weeks of campaigning before the November 4 election.

The Telegraph meanwhile says that

Senator Barack Obama has pulled into the lead in several states that have not voted for a Democrat in decades, forcing his opponent John McCain to use his inferior financial resources in what were expected to be bankable Republican wins.

Back to the Uk and the Sun leads with the X Fatwa,the paper reporting that

RANTING Omar Bakri sparked a terror alert after claiming the X Factor was ANTI-MUSLIM for releasing a charity single for injured British troops.
The poisonous preacher hit out at Muslims who give out or wear Help For Heroes wristbands — or sell the show’s charity single Hero, released next Monday.
Last night anti-terror cops were in talks with producers to boost security at Fountain Studios in Wembley, North London, where the X Factor is filmed

You were a fool, judge tells millionaire father reports the Mail

A judge yesterday called a millionaire a 'fool' for allowing his seven-year-old daughter to drive a powerful quad bike on the road in the dark before she was killed by an oncoming car.
Lizzie Cooke was driving the 100cc quad behind her father Gary's car on a narrow country lane when she suddenly shot across the road into the path of the vehicle.

The Telegraph reports that

Police are questioning a man over the murder of a businessman who was shot dead at his workplace during an armed robbery.The 52-year-old man was arrested following an armed siege at his home in Rumney, Cardiff.
He was arrested over the murder of a middle-aged businessman who was shot dead at the officers of recruitment agency Driverline 247.
Three other people were injured in the raid.

Diabetes soars in Britain as obesity continues to rise reports the Times

The number of people who will die as a result of diabetes is forecast to rise from one in ten to one in seven in less than 20 years unless obesity rates can be reduced significantly.
Costs to the National Health Service of treating the disease are expected to rise by a third by 2025 as the number of people suffering from diabetes reaches a record level.
Patients needing treatment for conditions linked to diabetes already cost the NHS £9 billion annually, and the figure is forecast to rise to £12 billion, before inflation, by 2025

The Guardian says that

Harriet Harman is planning to block a series of Commons votes tomorrow to liberalise Britain's abortion laws, which could have overturned a ban in Northern Ireland, in a move that was condemned as "disgraceful". To the dismay of pro-choice MPs, Harman is planning to argue that Britain's liberal abortion laws could be threatened in the House of Lords if MPs tamper with any aspect of the law. It was last changed in 1990.

The Sun follows up an old story

MIGRANT family of eight were facing the boot from their rent-free mansion last night after ministers launched a housing benefit crackdown.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said it was “unacceptable” for taxpayers to pay for Toorpakai Saindi and her kids to live in a £1.2million home.
He promised an overhaul of housing allowance rules to stop jobless families living in properties they could not afford if they were in work.