The Times leads with the story that

Gordon Brown bounce fuelled by fears of recession

Days after Labour’s surprise win in the Glenrothes by-election, the Populus poll cuts the Conservative lead to six points, its lowest for months.Labour is on 35 per cent, up five points since early October. The Conservatives are down four points at 41 per cent, the smallest Tory lead since the March Budget. The Liberal Democrats are up one point at 16 per cent.
More than half the public thinks that Mr Brown is the right leader to deal with the economy in recession, against a third for Mr Cameron. Mr Brown’s personal rating is also at its highest since July 2007, when he became Prime Minister. However, Mr Cameron is seen as better able to lead Britain forward after the next election.

Politics dominates many of the papers

Labour U-turn on car tax rises says the Telegraph

Plans to charge millions of motorists increased vehicle duty will be delayed as part of the Government's tax-cutting package to revive the ailing economy, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.Changes announced in the Budget would have meant that from next year, all cars that had been on the road since 2001 would face above-inflation rises in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian.
Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and "recent events in the financial services" present an opportunity for the Post Office to take on a new range of tasks

The papers carry pictures of Barack Obama at the White House,

Less than than a week after he was elected the next president, Barack Obama and wife Michelle were welcomed to the White House yesterday by George and Laura Bush – a political rite of passage that has happened unusually early because of the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, and the general consensus that this will be one of the most important transitions in recent US history.

reports the Independent

The Telegraph reportng that

Posing side by side briefly for the cameras after a cordial handshake, the two couples brought into focus the dramatic change that Americans have voted for. A white, Southern couple in their 60s are making way for a young, big-city, black couple with children still in primary school.
In a sign of his supreme confidence it was Mr Obama, the visitor, who patted his host on the back as the two men began the short walk along the Rose Garden to the Oval Office.

According to the Independent

Banks have increased interest rates on credit and debit cards held by tens of millions of shoppers despite the cost of borrowing falling to its lowest level for more than 50 years, research for The Independent reveals today.
The Bank of England has almost halved its base rate from 5 to 3 per cent since May, but during the same period the average annual percentage rate for credit cards has climbed from 17.2 to 17.6 per cent. Store cards – already in the spotlight after being accused of carrying excessive rates – have hit a peak of 25 per cent, and the high street chains Principles, Karen Millen and Oasis have raised charges for their in-store cards by 4 percentage points – almost a sixth – to 28.9 per cent

Many of the papers carry the story of Captain David Hicks who

was hit by a Taliban rocket, he should have been evacuated straight to a field hospital. But despite excruciating injuries which would soon kill him, he demanded to be sent back into battle to continue leading his unit, an inquest heard yesterday.
A large piece of rocket shrapnel tore into his chest while he was directing the defence of his base in Helmand province, Afghanistan, on August 11 2007, as it faced a hail of rockets, mortar shells and small arms fire reports the Guardian

The Mail adds that

This year Sandhurst-trained Captain Hicks was posthumously awarded the Military Cross - the second highest award for military bravery - for the 'inspirational' manner in which he led his men in Helmand Province.
He was mortally wounded after he climbed on to an observation platform, known as a sangar, to locate enemy firing positions.
Yesterday his fellow soldiers paid tribute to the captain as they recalled the explosion that killed him

Dying girl Hannah Jones wins fight to turn down transplant reports the Times

At an age when most teenage girls are thinking about school, boys and pop music, Hannah Jones is hoping only to be allowed to die with dignity. Hannah, who is 13 and terminally ill, has persuaded a hospital to withdraw a High Court action that would have forced her to have a risky heart transplant against her will.
Although the operation should prolong her life, it would only provide temporary respite. Instead, Hannah said she would prefer to spend her remaining days in the care of her family rather than take the chance of dying in hospital. The decision to drop the action was taken after Hannah was interviewed by a child protection officer.

Pay the obese to take a walk is the lead in the Mail

Overweight parents will be paid to walk their children to school under plans to tackle the obesity epidemic.
Those who attend keep-fit classes, weight-loss clubs or even go for a run in the park would also be eligible for rewards.
They will collect points on supermarket-style loyalty cards which would be redeemed against healthy food, sports equipment or gym sessions.

The Express meanwhile reports on the story of the

A SINGLE mother of five on benefits is living in a £1million five-bedroom detached house – paid for by taxpayers.
The house, with two sitting rooms, a conservatory and a double garage, has an annual rent of £25,000 and is beyond the dreams of most hard-working families.

scientists discover gene for cocaine addiction reports the Guardian

It has become commonplace for people who are overweight to attribute their waistline to their DNA. Now, celebrities caught snorting cocaine might also be able to blame their parents.
Scientists reported yesterday the discovery of a gene that increases the chances of becoming hooked on the drug. Addicts were 25% more likely to carry the gene variant than people who did not use cocaine, a study found

The Sun meanwhile leads with how

THIRTY of the Premier League’s top footballers are to be placed on a new “hit-list” in a bid to combat drug-taking in the game.
A host of household names – including a number of England internationals – will be checked FIVE times a year in addition to existing post-match tests.
And they will be forced to provide details of their whereabouts for one hour of EVERY day, including during end-of-season holidays.

To the recession and the Telegraph reports that

Estate agents struggling to sell even one home a week

The financial crisis, which has led to mortgages drying up, coupled with mounting fears about unemployment have left the property market "virtually paralysed", the leading trade body for chartered surveyors and estate agents said.
Houses are changing hands at their lowest rate since the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors started their respected monthly survey in 1978.
Sales per surveyor over the last three months fell from 11.5 to 10.9, compared with a month ago.

The Independent reports that

Abu Qatada back in jail 'after plotting to flee to Middle East'

Abu Qatada, 47, is due before an immigration court tomorrow morning after being arrested on suspicion of breaking his bail conditions. The latest development comes just five months after the fundamentalist preacher was controversially released from prison. The Palestinian-Jordanian, who was jailed in a clampdown on terror suspects in 2002 but not charged during six years in custody, was granted bail under a strict 22-hour curfew

The Guardian reports that

Top aide to Rwandan president agrees to stand trial in France over genocide claims

Rose Kabuye, Kagame's chief of protocol and a former officer in the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which ended the killing of about 800,000 Tutsis by Hutu extremists, was arrested Sunday at a German airport on a French warrant.
Kabuye is one of nine senior Rwandan officials indicted two years ago by France's leading anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière. He accused them of assassinating the then Hutu president, Juvénal Habyarimana, thus marking the start of the systematic slaughter of Tutsis. A more widely accepted version is that it was Hutu extremists who killed Habyarimana prior to seizing power and overseeing the genocide

and the Times tells us that

A former SS trooper accused of being a concentration camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” may finally face justice as Germany prepares to stage what would probably be its last Nazi war crimes trial.
State prosecutors say that they can finally conduct the trial of John Demjanjuk, 88, who was for decades one of the world’s most wanted war crime suspects. “There is sufficient evidence from our point of view,” Kurt Schrimm, head of the Ludwigsburg Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, said. A dossier has been handed to the state prosecutor in Munich, where Mr Demjanjuk had his last known address in Germany, who can then recommend his extradition from the United States.

Nine schoolboy rapists facing jail for punishment attack says the Mail

Nine schoolboys are facing years behind bars for a 'punishment' gang-rape on a 14-year-old girl who had 'disrespected' the gang's leader.
The boys were aged as young as 13 when they took it in turns to attack their victim.
The youngster was walking home when she was confronted by the gang in Hackney, East London.
The group's 16-year-old leader started an argument with her over a comment she had apparently made to his girlfriend.

Lawyers' riposte to Mail editor: this act protects everybody reports the Guardian

Senior lawyers hit back yesterday at the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, after he railed against the "wretched" Human Rights Act and a high court judge whose judgments he described as "arrogant and amoral".
In a speech on Sunday night, also published in yesterday's Guardian, Dacre said that, "inexorably and insidiously", the British press was having a privacy law imposed upon it. He blamed in particular the successive rulings of Mr Justice Eady, a high court judge who frequently presides over privacy disputes.

Financier 'robbed from the rich to pay the Liberal Democrats' reports the Independent

A Scottish financier who was the single biggest donor to the Liberal Democrats after giving the party £2.3m used money fraudulently obtained from a former chief executive of Manchester United, a court heard yesterday.
Michael Brown, 42, promised annual returns of up to 50 per cent to rich clients who invested in his bond-trading business based in Mayfair, London. Instead, it is alleged, their money was used to fund the lavish lifestyle of a multimillionaire – and Britain's third largest political party.

According to the Times

Drivers who spot hidden speed cameras will be able to alert other vehicles within three seconds with the help of a dashboard gadget. They will no longer need to flash their headlights to oncoming drivers but will simply press a button on a satellite-positioning device.
The device, which exploits a loophole in the law, transmits the location of the speedtrap to a processing centre. The information is relayed to other drivers who have installed the same equipment. A car travelling 300 yards behind the driver who first spots the trap would receive the warning in time to slow down before the camera.

Finally the Telegraph reports that

Half of Britons struggle with the apostrophe

The apostrophe has emerged in an independent poll of nearly 2,000 people as the punctuation mark that causes the most problems. Nearly half of UK adults tested were unable to use it properly.
The most common mistake was not knowing how to punctuate a possessive plural.
Nearly half (46 per cent) of those that sat the test thought that, in the context set, "people's choice" was wrong – whereas it is, of course, correct