The teenage killer of Rhys Jones was jailed for a minimum of 22 years yesterday by a judge who expressed his disgust at the murderer’s “brutality” and “cowardice”.
Sean Mercer was only 16 when, hooded and on a mountain bike, he fired three shots across a crowded pub car park in an area of north Liverpool where gang turf wars are common. Rhys, who walked into the path of the second bullet while returning home from football practice, died in his mother’s arms.
Mercer, now 18, showed no remorse, merely pursing his lips in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court at the end of a ten-week trial.

reports the Times this morning

The Telegraph says that

The father of the 11-year-old schoolboy, murdered when he got caught in the cross-fire of a warring gang, said: "Finally justice has been done for Rhys." Mr Jones, accompanied by his wife Melanie, read a statement outside court expressing thanks for all the messages of support they have received.
He said: "From the day Rhys died, the kindness shown to us by the people of Liverpool has been immeasurable. For this, we will always thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

The Independent describes it as A life claimed by nihilistic violence and malign neglect

Like the murder of Baby P and the kidnap of Shannon Matthews, the killing of Rhys Jones has shone an unforgiving spotlight on parts of modern Britain. And what it reveals is not pretty.
The shooting of 11-year-old Rhys, as he cycled home from football practice near his home in Liverpool, in 2007, seemed to come out of a clear blue sky. Like the killing of the toddler, James Bulger, in the same part of the country in 1993, the death provoked national shock, as Rhys was named the youngest victim of gang violence in Britain. But the truth was that, unlike the Bulger killing, such a tragedy was long on the cards.

Meanwhile the Sun claims that

THE mum of Rhys Jones’s murderer worked as a £50-a-time hooker during his trial, The Sun can reveal.
Janette Mercer, 49, offered services as “Danielle” while evidence piled up against son Sean, 18.

Another trial came to an end yesterday,the Guardian reports that

An NHS doctor who was convicted yesterday of plotting massive car-bomb attacks in London and Glasgow had been on an MI5 watchlist before he launched the campaign, the Guardian has learned.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, who is due to be sentenced today for a series of plots including a failed attack on Glasgow airport last June, may have been on the list for 13 months.

The Mail reports that

After Bilal Abdulla was found guilty, Scotland Yard's anti-terror chief warned that a new breed of Islamic extremist is targeting Britain while working here in respectable professional jobs.

Glasgow bomber Bilal Abdulla was in Iraq terrorist cell says the Times

Bilal Abdulla came to Britain to open a “new front” in the Islamist jihad after he had been refused permission to carry out a suicide attack in Baghdad.
The car bombs he tried to detonate outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub and at Glasgow airport were the first terrorist attacks in Britain to have been inspired – but not directed — by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Previous Islamist plots have had connections to al-Qaeda and Kashmiri extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Guardian has the latest opinion poll,Tories' poll lead cut to five points as voters turn back to Labour

Today's poll is in line with other recent surveys, making it clear that the opposition has crashed back to reality after a triumphant summer, and David Cameron is not seen as the man to revive the economy. The results will inevitably fuel talk of an early election next February or in the spring, although Labour is still well short of the sort of support needed to retain its majority.

The Independent reports that

David Cameron will join rebel Labour MPs in opposing plans which would force single mothers to prepare for work when their youngest child reaches the age of one.
The Conservative leader yesterday denounced the Government's proposal as "shameful" and accused ministers of playing "macho" politics with vulnerable lone parents.

The papers carry the news that American interest rates have been slashed

America’s central bank has taken drastic steps to resuscitate the US economy out of its year-long recession, placing interest rates as low as zero - their lowest level in history - as it announced widespread plans to inject liquidity into the ailing financial markets.

says the Telegraph

The Guardian reports that

Unemployment is likely to rise above 3 million in the current recession, the Bank of England's labour market expert, David Blanchflower, warns today.
His comments come the morning after the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to 0.25%, their lowest ever, in a bid to lift the world's largest economy out of deepening recession

The Mail reports that As jobless toll soars, investment bank's bonuses for staff are cut to a MERE £4.3bn

Despite the financial crisis and the spectre of soaring unemployment, staff at the bank will get an average of £142,600 each.
The international group, which is estimated to have 5,400 employees in London, is already nicknamed ' Goldmine Sacks' for the large extra payouts it awards to its star performers.

The Independent reports that

The Premier League will "recession proof" its most important income stream – television money – by launching its own TV channel from the summer of 2010 if the value of bids for live rights plummets when the auction for 2010-13 opens in the next few weeks.

The Guardian is followibg the last days of Dick Cheney

The outgoing US vice-president, Dick Cheney, last night gave an unapologetic assessment of his eight years in office, defending the invasion of Iraq, the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, secret wiretapping and the extreme interrogation method known as waterboarding.

reports the paper

'Assassination attempt' on Mugabe henchman reports the Independent

President Robert Mugabe is planning to declare a state of emergency in Zimbabwe, the opposition said yesterday, after what the government claims was an assassination attempt on the head of the air force.
Perence Shiri, one of Mr Mugabe's inner circle, was shot in the arm on Saturday, claim state media reports that surfaced yesterday

Saved is the lead story in the Express

THE British pint, mile and ounce were saved yesterday as Brussels finally quit trying to kill them off.
Shops and pubs can now keep to imperial measures after Eurocrats were forced to accept that the British would never “go the extra kilometre” or “pop out for a quick litre”.

Many of the papers carry the story that

A PENSIONER was executed and decapitated on his doorstep — then his severed head was dumped in a wheelie bin.
Churchgoing Paddy McGee, 63, was yards from safety when the maniac lunged at him with a kitchen knife.

reports the Sun

Finally the Mail reports that

Scientists say they have discovered why London's wobbly bridge was so wobbly.
They believe the phenomenon - which forced the Millennium Bridge to close three days after it opened in 2000 - was not the result of pedestrians marching in step, as previously thought.
Instead, it was caused by users adjusting their balance subtly from left to right as the bridge was gently rocked by the wind and movement of people.

As Gordon Brown pays a visit to Afghanistan,the papers continue to report on the deaths of four British marines.

Courage of Afghan bomb Marines says the Telegraph

Three of the Marines died when a 13-year-old suicide bomber pushing a wheelbarrow blew himself up in the Sangin area of Helmand province. A fourth was killed after his vehicle was blown up by a suspected improvised explosive device. During a visit to Afghanistan yesterday, Gordon Brown paid tribute to the Marines and condemned the suicide attack as a cowardly act. The Prime Minister warned that a “chain of terror” stretched from Afghanistan to Britain.

Brown horror says the Observer

The Prime Minister arrived for what was planned as a morale-boosting Christmas visit - highlighting the deployment of hundreds of fresh troops in Helmand province - to find the British base in mourning after one of its blackest days.

The Express reports that

TWELVE more children are being groomed to carry out suicide attacks against British forces in an escalation of the Taliban’s new dirty war.
As Gordon Brown, in Afghanistan yesterday, praised the bravery of three Royal Marines killed by a 13-year-old
suicide bomber, we disclose that the attack is just the start of a concerted campaign to drive out British troops.

The Times meanwhile reports on the next destination

Tensions rise between Pakistan and India as Gordon Brown visits

Tensions between India and Pakistan were running high on Sunday morning as Delhi denied Islamabad's accusation that Indian planes had "inadvertently" violated Pakistani airspace yesterday.
The new dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbours came as Gordon Brown held talks with Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minsiter, in Delhi before flying to Islamabad to meet Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's President, later this morning.

Both the Independent and the Mail have the same lead

The head of the Government's exams watchdog dramatically quit his £180,000-a-year job last night – days before an official inquiry is due to deliver a damning report on how his organisation handled this summer's national curriculum tests fiasco says the former

How boss behind SATs fiasco enjoyed yacht club reports the Mail

The head of the Government exam agency behind the SATs marking fiasco resigned yesterday, hours after The Mail on Sunday uncovered details of his taxpayer-funded perks.The Mail on Sunday established that a clause in his employment contract promised that the authority would ‘pay for membership of your current yachting club’.

The Observer leads with the news that

The government is facing a growing backlash over its rescue package for the economy after the pound slumped to below parity with the euro on British high streets and at airports for the first time since the single European currency was launched a decade ago.Sterling's decline to a value of less than a euro, after commission charges, is seen by economists and opposition politicians as a pivotal 'psychological moment' - and evidence of declining faith in the British economy on global currency markets.

Cabinet split over proposed Heathrow third runway is the lead in the Times

Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, broke cabinet ranks yesterday to warn that Heathrow’s controversial expansion plans should be rejected unless noise and air pollution are dramatically cut.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Benn said Britain’s biggest airport had a “problem” with air quality even before the construction of the proposed third runway.

The Independent meanwhile reports that

Penny-pinching and red tape are suffocating government plans for a rapid increase in the amount of renewable energy used in Britain.
The plans – a cornerstone of ministers' strategy to combat climate change – set out to multiply the proportion of the country's energy provided by renewables by an ambitious five times in just 12 years. But they have yet to make headway because of official foot-dragging.

According to the Mail

it seems that David Cameron worries his Shadow Cabinet may have a just little too much bottom – and not in a good way.
For many of the frontbench Tories are thought to look too well fed and prosperous to connect with the nation’s cash-strapped voters.

The Indy has the latest opinion poll.Labour cuts Tories' poll lead to a single point

David Cameron's double-digit lead has been whittled down to a single point in the space of a month, despite the first significant criticisms last week of the Prime Minister's £20bn "fiscal stimulus" rescue plan.
The ComRes survey shows that 37 per cent of those polled said they planned to vote Tory at the next election. The level of Tory support is six points down on the figure recorded in a similar survey a month ago.

Hundreds of homes flooded after heavy rains reports the Telegraph

Families had to be evacuated from their houses and dozens of drivers and passengers were rescued from cars after heavy rainfall overnight.
The worst-hit area was the south west where downpours left homes in up to 4ft of water and dual carriageways covered by 18in.
A 22-year-old woman from Poole, Dorset, died when her Vauxhall Astra went off the road and crashed on the A35 at Upton, Poole, during heavy rain.

Missing activist was 'collecting evidence' on Mugabe crimes reports the Observer

A prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist abducted 12 days ago was working on case files to be used as possible prosecution evidence against members of President Robert Mugabe's regime, The Observer has learnt.
Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), is the most prominent among 20 political and civil society activists who have disappeared in the past six weeks

Greek riots spark fear of Europe in flames reports the Times

The protests continued yesterday and more demonstrations are planned. Some see a foretaste of the next phase of the global financial crisis, sensing in the tear gas and chants a warning to European leaders of what may unfold elsewhere if they do not take into account the frustrations of their people.
Sympathy protests from Moscow to Madrid helped to fuel such concerns, as did Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who mentioned the Greek upheaval to justify his rejection of budget proposals that would have cushioned the wealthy from losses.

The Telegraph reports that

The City's “superwoman”, Nicola Horlick, has launched a scathing attack on US financial regulators following the emergence of a $50 billion (£33 billion) investment scam.The swindle allegedly perpetrated by one of Wall Street’s most celebrated traders is being called the biggest fraud in corporate history.
The roster of A-list victims of the scam allegedly run by Bernard Madoff, one of the most respected names on Wall Street until his arrest, reads like a Who’s Who of international business, high society and the philanthropic elite.

It was a busy night on the TV,Strictly disaster reports the News of the World

ALL three couples in Strictly Come Dancing will be in next week’s final—after reality TV’s biggest cock-up.
Viewers were left in confusion as the BBC1 show’s hosts Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly offered NO explanation after the dance-off was axed last night.
All yesterday’s millions of votes will be carried over to next week’s final—when Tom Chambers, Rachel Stevens and Lisa Snowdon and their pro dance partners will all compete in the final.

The winner of X factor is in many of the papers

Anadrenaline-charged three-hour final watched by 15million people, Alex – tears still streaming down her face – composed herself to belt out her debut single Hallelujah to a rapturous audience.
The star was mobbed by former contestants who hugged her as she sang – while proud mum Melissa Bell, 41, watched from the front row

reports the Mirror

More entertainment in the Mail which reports that

Today presenter Ed Stourton has lashed out at the BBC after he was sacked from the Radio 4 show – saying his family believe he has been treated worse than Jonathan Ross.
Stourton, who learned of his dismissal from a rival journalist, compared his ‘ten years’ unblemished service’ with that of Ross, who was suspended after making an obscene prank phone call.

Finally the News of the World reports that

Man United ace Cristiano is going Christmas crazy—turning his house into a GROTTO and dressing up as SANTA to hand out pressies.
The twinkle-toed star plans a lavish Christmas Day bash and has paid an events firm a whopping £6,000 to decorate his £4 million house — and provide a Father Christmas suit.

The papers carry thw story of the barrow boy bomber

Three Royal Marines were killed in Afghanistan yesterday by a 13-year-old boy who approached their patrol with a wheelbarrow packed with explosives.
One other Marine and a soldier died in separate incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan in what was the worst day for British Forces in six months.

reports the Times

The Telegraph adds that

The men from 45 Commando Royal Marines were on foot patrol when they were approached by the 13-year-old. As he drew closer, a bomb hidden under papers in the wheelbarrow was detonated, it is believed by a watching member of the Taliban using a remote-control device.

Both the Guardian and the Independent lead with the De Menezes verdict

Did the police lie asks the Independent

Jean Charles de Menezes was not lawfully killed as part of an anti-terrorist operation, a jury decided yesterday, rejecting the police account of how the Brazilian died as not to be trusted.
Returning an open verdict at the end of the 12-week inquest, the jurors contradicted evidence given by seven firearms and surveillance officers when they answered a series of 13 questions put to them by the coroner.

The Times says that

In one of the most important public examinations of police conduct, the jurors found the testimony of the officers who shot the young Brazilian to be unreliable and concluded that Metropolitan Police commanders failed their frontline colleagues.

According to the Guardian

Police who shot De Menezes will return to frontline duty

Scotland Yard will allow two firearms officers who shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes to return to frontline duties, even though an inquest jury fundamentally rejected their account of the shooting and criticised almost every aspect of the police operation, the Guardian has learned.
Yesterday's verdict plunged the Metropolitan police into further turmoil and drew a personal apology from the acting commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson. The force may yet face compensation claims from de Menezes' relatives, who were yesterday deeply critical of the coroner, Sir Michael Wright, over his decision not to allow the jurors to consider a verdict of unlawful killing.

The economy continues to grab the headlines,the Times reports that

A financial rescue package for Britain’s motor industry was being put together last night, mirroring efforts in Washington to save America’s three big carmakers from collapse.
Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, may offer bridging loans on commercial terms to vehicle and component manufacturers and wider guarantees for loans from banks.

Carmageddon! says the Mail

British car makers could be forced to beg the Government for a bail-out after the spectacular meltdown in the American motor industry put a million UK jobs at risk.
The U.S. Congress has ruled out a £9billion bail-out for the country's 'big three' car manufacturers - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - which have all been hit by a dramatic slump in sales of new cars.

More than four million still paying their credit card debt from last Christmas is the lead in the Telegraph

Ahead of one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, figures showed that one in 10 adults – the equivalent of 4.5 million – had still not paid off their credit card debts from a year ago despite the looming recession.
Experts warned that a further spending spree over the Christmas period would bring misery to thousands of borrowers in the New Year as they faced the task of paying off their credit cards while family finances are stretched by the economic crisis.

The Independent reports that

Britain has formally protested to the German government about the stinging attack on Gordon Brown by its Finance Minister, deepening the Anglo-German dispute over the Prime Minister's economic strategy.
Sir Michael Arthur, the British ambassador in Berlin, raised strong objections with the German Finance Ministry over the remarks by Peer Steinbrück, who branded Mr Brown's £20bn fiscal stimulus "crass" and "breathtaking".

Better Europena news in the Guardian which reports

EU leaders claim historic agreement on cutting pollution

A two-day summit of 27 government leaders in Brussels ended a two-year effort to agree mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and came as a triumph for President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in the closing days of his six-month presidency of the EU.
Not noted for his understatement, the French leader declared: "This council will go down in the history of Europe."

The Mail leads with a story of Xmas chaos

Millions of cards and presents could arrive too late for Christmas because of plans by postal workers to strike next Friday.
The cynical decision to walk out at the peak of the festive postal rush was condemned by Royal Mail and consumer groups yesterday.
Around 120million letters and parcels are sent every day in December. The strike organisers, the Communication Workers' Union, could not have chosen a more damaging date in the entire calendar.

Road pricing trials continue despite Manchester rejection reports the Telegraph

Within hours of the referendum results being declared, the Department for Transport said it would press ahead with development of the costly series of studies which would underpin a pay-as-you-drive scheme, which could see motorists paying up to £1.30 a mile to drive in the rush hour.
The results of the referendum appears to cast serious doubt on the Government's ability to deliver an acceptable road pricing scheme.

The Sun is still on the case of Haringey council £200k says its front page

THE new boss of the council department shamed by the Baby P case will earn nearly £200,000 a year, it has emerged.
Peter Lewis was yesterday named as Haringey’s head of children’s services.
The 54-year-old is being paid nearly twice the wage of predecessor Sharon Shoesmith, sacked over the catalogue of failures that led to Baby P’s death.

The Guardian reports that

The government found itself embroiled in another damaging row over crime figures yesterday after the head of the UK Statistics Authority accused the Home Office of releasing "selective" knife crime figures earlier this week.
Sir Michael Scholar said the figures, which showed a sharp decline in stabbings, had not been checked and were "premature, irregular and selective".

The Express leads with a new cancer drug

Tens of thousands of healthy women could slash the risk of getting breast cancer by taking a drug to prevent it, it was revealed yesterday.
Researchers have found that Tamoxifen, currently used to treat breast cancer, could cut the chances of women developing the disease by almost two thirds.

how Leonard Cohen became an X Factor winner without trying reports the Times

The mordant songwriter is set for a £1 million windfall after his classic song Hallelujah was chosen as the debut single by tonight’s winner.
The biblical epic, composed in 1984, has survived more than a hundred interpretations from artists including Bob Dylan, k. d. lang and Rufus Wainwright.

Finally the Guardian reports After 4,750 shows, Carol's drraepute

She was introduced in a characteristically cringe-making way as "our vital statistician" and "a pretty good figure". Twenty six years, 4,750 episodes, 320,000 letters and 57,000 dur-dur dur-dur dur-dur-dur-dum doo! of the Countdown clock later, Carol Vorderman left Channel 4's long-running quiz show in tears yesterday after a final conundrum spelled out "era closes".

There is a distinctly anti German feeling to this morning's papers.

Germans turn the screw on Brown is the lead in the Independent

Gordon Brown has been thrown on to the defensive over his economic strategy as his political opponents exploit a blistering German attack on his borrowing spree.
A furious Prime Minister hit back at Peer Steinbrück, Germany's Finance Minister, who accused him of making a spectacular U-turn since his years as a prudent chancellor by adopting a "crass" and "breathtaking" policy of "tossing around billions".

EU giant isolated as Merkel puts Germany first says the Guardian

The pastor's daughter from east Germany suddenly finds herself isolated on the biggest issues of the times - economic gloom and global warming. She is out of step with her partners on Nato expansion and Afghanistan. She disagrees with Gordon Brown over how to rescue economies facing recession. She is at odds with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy on everything from the EU's relations with non-Mediterranean countries to the single currency and the independence of the European Central Bank.

Don't mention the economy says the Mail

A blistering German attack on Gordon Brown plunged London and Berlin into a bitter diplomatic row last night.
The Prime Minister was publicly slated for his handling of the recession in an extraordinary outburst by a senior aide to chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was the second time in two days that a member of Germany's ruling coalition has broken with diplomatic convention to deliver a highly personal attack on Mr Brown's economic record.

The Times leads with the news that there are to be spending cuts in the armed servives

The Armed Forces yesterday became the first significant victims of government attempts to reduce spending in the face of the advancing recession.
Two programmes worth £20 billion will be cut and delayed after defence chiefs were told that there was not enough money to go ahead as planned.
The announcement throws into disarray the Army’s £16 billion update to armoured vehicles, while the Royal Navy’s £3.9 billion project for two new 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers is postponed for two years.

Cameron pledges support for elderly savers reports the Telegraph

Backing The Daily Telegraph's Justice for Pensioners campaign, the Conservative leader says elderly people who have saved for their retirement should be "rewarded", not "punished".
The campaign calls on the Treasury to suspend all taxes on the interest pensioners earn on their savings and on the cash dividends they are paid on their shares.

Many of the papers report the comments of Robert Mugabe who

has said the cholera crisis ravaging Zimbabwe has been stopped, even as the disease prompted South Africa to declare a disaster area on its northern border and the UN revealed that the death toll from the disease had risen again. In a televised address yesterday that showed the 83-year-old President to be in a complete state of denial over the epidemic, he said there was now "no cholera".

reports the Independent

The Guardian meanwhile reports that UK blocking European Congo force

Britain is refusing to take part in a proposed European armed intervention in eastern Congo despite a growing clamour for an EU force to help avoid a bigger humanitarian disaster.
At a summit of European leaders in Brussels last night, foreign ministers from the 27 countries discussed proposals to dispatch a force of up to 1,500 to North Kivu in eastern Congo.

The Telegraph reports that

Belgian police 'thwart imminent al-Qaeda attack'

The arrival of EU leaders and intelligence that a terror attack was on the way triggered a massive police operation, involving 242 officers, in overnight house raids in Brussels and Liege.
Police have arrested 14 suspects, three of whom, including the suspected suicide bomber, had just returned from Afghanistan, where it is thought they had received orders from al-Qaeda commanders.

There is much coverage of the economy,the Times reports that

Thousands of Britons face the unpalatable choice next year of taking a pay cut or losing their job.
Unions representing 25,000 steel-workers at the steelmaker Corus have offered, on their behalf, that they all take a 10 per cent pay cut. The move has been proposed as an alternative to the closure of the Llanwern steelworks at Newport, Gwent, where more than 1,000 people work.

50% off Bargain Britain reports the Express

Britain went bargain crazy yesterday as some of the High Street’s biggest names slashed 50 per cent off prices in a desperate attempt to boost trade.
Tesco sparked the unprecedented sales bonanza by announcing it was halving the price of 1,000 items, including food, drink, gifts and toys, until Christmas.

The Guardian maenwhile reports that

Hard-pressed staff behind the counters at Woolworths - had they a moment to spare from the lengthening queues - might have reflected that if their employer had generated such customer interest at any time over the last few years, the company might not have had to close down.
Yesterday, they served grimly on, well aware of their impending unemployment and under instructions not to share their views with the press.

The Sun leads with Mob kill Paedo

MURDERED pervert Andrew Cunningham was targeted by hate mobs who yelled “Die, paedo, die” at him.
And a police source said: “He was loathed by a large number of people so we have a lot of potential suspects.”
Cunningham, 52, died from multiple stab wounds to the head, neck and chest. And the source revealed: “Damage was caused to his genitals.”

Sark feels wrath of the Barclay brothers reports the Independent

Dismayed Sark islanders expressed their outrage last night after it emerged that the billionaire Barclay brothers had closed down all their business interests on the island, resulting in the loss of more than 100 jobs out of a total population of 600
Yesterday was supposed to have been a day of celebration as the islanders counted the results of their first fully democratic election. On Wednesday they went to the polls to turn Europe's last feudal state into a democracy.
Instead, more than 100 islanders face unemployment as a bitter feud between the billionaire newspaper magnates and the island's political establishment continued.

According to the Guardian

The global economic downturn has wiped at least £250m from the leading British universities' endowment funds, a Guardian survey has revealed.
The universities of Cambridge and Oxford, whose endowments were valued at £907m and £680m respectively in July, are understood to be the biggest losers

The Mail reports that

Thousands of air passengers faced chaos yesterday after airport operator BAA failed to anticipate cold weather in December.
More than a hundred planes were grounded and up to 2,000 passengers were left stranded after ice and light snow closed Gatwick's single runway for four hours in the morning.

Many of the papers report the case of

A mother of five died after drinking too much water three weeks after she had begun a water-based diet in an attempt to lose weight, an inquest was told.
Jacqueline Henson, 40, was determined to slim down from 14st (89kg) and was “over the moon” after losing nearly 12lb (5.4kg) in one week after starting the LighterLife diet plan, Huddersfield Coroner’s Court was told yesterday

reports the Times

Finally the face of Kate Winslett stares out from many of the papers,the Telegraph reports that she has been nominated for two golden globes

Winslet has two shots at glory: a best actress nomination for Revolutionary Road, the adaptation of Richard Yates' cult novel about a disaffected housewife in 1950s America, and a best supporting actress nomination for The Reader, in which she plays a Nazi concentration camp guard who embarks upon an affair with a teenage boy. She has been nominated for a Globe five times but never won.

One story seems to dominate this morning,the Independent leads with

Mary Ewert: 'Why I want the world to see my husband die'

As the final moments of a terminally ill man who committed suicide in a Zurich clinic are shown on television, his widow explains the reasons why

The Mail also leads with the story

The harrowing moment a retired university professor dies in an 'assisted suicide' will be shown on television tonight.
Craig Ewert, 59, is filmed turning off his ventilator and taking a lethal dose of drugs washed down with apple juice.
Just minutes before his death, Mary, his wife of 37 years asks him: 'Can I give you a big kiss?'

Suicide documentary: Euthanasia debate or sick ratings boost? asks the Mirror

Craig, 59, travelled from his home in Yorkshire to a Swiss suicide clinic because he did not want to be trapped in a body he described as “a living tomb.”
But yesterday a row was raging over whether Sky TV’s decision to film and show the suicide was designed to encourage a debate about euthanasia – or ghoulishly boost its ratings.

The Times leads with the same topic reporting that Prosecutors have washed their hands of the laws on assisted dying
The Guardian adds that

The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday effectively ruled out the prosecution of relatives who assist the terminally ill to commit suicide after announcing it would take no action against the family of rugby player Daniel James, despite having sufficient evidence to do so.
In his first decision as director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC stated he would not prosecute the parents and a family friend of the 23-year-old, who was paralysed in a training ground accident, for assisting his death.

It leads with the report that

Britain's six-year occupation of south Iraq will begin drawing to a close in March, and the last troops will leave Basra by June, a senior defence source disclosed yesterday.
But instead of handing over to Iraqi authorities, the British will be replaced at their Basra airport base by a large force of US troops, who will set up their own headquarters there, the source revealed.

The Telegraph says that

With the Americans formulating their final exit plans with the Iraqi Government, that will be finalised once the President-elect, Barack Obama, takes power, the British are expected to conclude the final state of their forces in Iraq in the coming weeks.

It leads with the story that

Contraceptive Pill to be available without doctor's prescription

Pilot sites are being set up in areas of London with the highest teenage pregnancy rates to see if the programme is feasible before being rolled out nationally.
Ministers said the aim is to increase access to contraception and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies although critics were concerned that relying on the Pill does not protect against sexually transmitted infections which are at epidemic proportions.

The continued violence in Greece is covered in many of the papers,

The streets of Athens resembled a battleground last night after the funeral of a teenager shot dead by police triggered a fourth consecutive day of rioting and violent clashes.
Amid the worst civil unrest since the fall of the military junta in 1974, pressure grew on the government of Costas Karamanlis: trade unions rejected the Prime Minister's appeal to call off a general strike planned for today and the main opposition demanded the government's resignation. Mr Karamanlis began emergency meetings with the Greek President, Karolos Papoulias, and party political leaders to explore ways to lower the temperature as he struggled to contain the crisis.

reports the Independent

The Telegraph adds that

Protesters threw whatever came to hand, even grabbing oranges off ornamental trees in the main square and lobbing them at lines of police.
They taunted the police by clutching their crotches in the traditional Greek gesture of contempt.
"It's not just young people throwing rocks, older people are fed up with this government as well," said Zeus Stellas, 23.

Governor tried to auction Obama's old seat, says FBI reports the Guardian

The day before the historic day in November that would hand Barack Obama the keys to the White House, the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, had a conversation with one of the candidate's advisers about who might replace Obama in the US Senate if he won the presidency.
Illinois law gives the governor sole authority to appoint a successor. Blagojevich left the aide in no doubt that his blessing would come at a price. A seat in the Senate, he explained, is "a fucking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing".

The Times adds that

The arrest of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, his chief of staff, cast a light on the home state of the President-elect, which has a history of endemic corruption.
The charges include allegations that the Democratic governor, who has served two-terms, conspired with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former friend and political donor of Mr Obama, in schemes requiring individuals and companies to pay kickbacks in return for state contracts.

Mumbai murderers are named reports the Independent

Police in Mumbai released what they said were the names of the nine men, along with images of eight of them. Several photographs were gruesome and apparently taken after death. One gunman had been so badly burnt no image was released. Officials said most of the attackers were from Punjab province and all were between 20 and 28. The sole surviving militant, 21-year-old Ajmal Amir Kasab, is also originally from a village in that province.

An exclusive in the Times

Teachers 'beat and abuse' Muslim children in British Koran classes

Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was “picked up by one leg and spun around” while another said a madrassa teacher was “kicking in my head - like a football”, says the report which was compiled by Irfan Chishti, a former government adviser on Islamic affairs.

The Mail reports on the case of Parents who locked up daughter and treated her like 'Dickensian slave' escape jail sentence

The 15-year-old was starved of food, love and attention and banned from playing with her younger siblings or reading books - her major passion.
For years, she was forced to use an outside toilet and her bedroom was regularly searched to make sure she had not hidden any school books, a court heard.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

Hundreds of children have disappeared from council care homes without a trace during the past 10 years, a damning report into the plight of child "runaways" has found.
A survey of 172 local authorities in England and Wales who care for 28,000 children found between 376 and 389 young people were missing and councils did not know where they were. The true figure is probably higher because six authorities said they did not keep records of missing children.

Almost a billion people go hungry each day after food price rises pushed 40 million more people around the world into the ranks of the undernourished, the UN food agency reported yesterday.

reports the Guardian

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food prices have more than halved from their historic peaks a few months ago, but the cost of basic staples measured by an FAO index is still high: 28% higher on average than two years ago.

Freak out reports the Sun

BUG-EYED beast Michael Donovan gets a taste of his own medicine yesterday as he is restrained by handcuffs and a chain. The 40-year-old oddball, who tethered kidnap victim Shannon Matthews with a noose during her 24 days in captivity, was manacled to a guard for a hospital visit.
Donovan, uncle of nine-year-old Shannon’s stepdad Craig Meehan, was let out of jail to have treatment on the jaw broken by a fellow prisoner during his trial.

Cameron wants election to decide recovery plan reports the Independent

Britain is at a "fork in the road" with a choice between Labour's "borrowing binge" and a Tory government that would try to halt Labour's tax rises, David Cameron said yesterday.
The Conservative leader tried to regain the initiative amid jitters in his party that Labour's claims the Opposition would "do nothing" about the recession have hurt his opinion poll ratings

The Guardian meanwhile reports that

The EU should offer the incoming administration of the US president-elect, Barack Obama, a transatlantic economic pact to combat the global recession, José Manuel Barroso, European commission president, said yesterday.
Calling for a joint EU-US stimulus programme, Barroso said: "That would be a good objective. Why not, after the new administration comes in, articulate a common transatlantic response to the economic crisis, which could be the basis for a global response?"

The Express reports that cheaper home loans are on the way

Rock bottom interest rates have forced loans down to their lowest level for two years and even cheaper deals are on the way

Benefits to be paid only to those who show they are looking hard for work reports the Times

Unemployed people will have to prove that they are taking practical steps to return to work in return for state benefits, under changes to the welfare state to be announced by ministers today.
The only exceptions will be carers, parents of very young children and anyone who is severely disabled. All other claimants will have to show that they are preparing for work with activities ranging from updating a CV or finding out about childcare through to full-time training or work experience

Finally the Sun continues its persuit of Sharon Shoesmith reporting that the

AXED Baby P boss smirks in the street yesterday — before heading off to a swish Italian restaurant.
The 55-year-old former head of Haringey children’s services was fired on Monday after overseeing catastrophic failures which saw the death of the abused tot.
But that didn’t stop her giggling as she made her way to the diner from her luxury mansion flat in Holborn, central London, along with three pals.

The Times leads with its latest opinion poll which shows that

Labour claws back over handling of economy

Labour’s natural supporters are returning to the fold, giving the party a nine-point lead over the Conservatives as the most trusted to deal with the recession, a poll for The Times reveals.
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are favoured over David Cameron and George Osborne by 40 per cent to 31 per cent — a six-point jump in their lead since the Pre-Budget Report was presented on November 24.
The boost has improved Labour’s position generally, with the overall Conservative poll lead narrowing to four points and the number of Labour voters who are considering switching to the Tories dropping markedly.

The Telegraph looks at the effects of the recession reporting that

Middle class professionals who lose their jobs during the recession will be helped with Government money to study for a Masters or business qualification while they are out of work.

The Express meanwhile tells us that a tank of petrol is now £18 cheaper

MILLIONS of motorists are now saving about £18 on every full tank of fuel thanks to plummeting pump prices since the summer.
Diesel crashed below the land landmark £1-a-litre price yesterday for the first time in a year, while the cost of unleaded petrol keeps on falling too.

Brown and Sarkozy nudge Germans towards fresh economic measures says the Guardian

Gordon Brown and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were yesterday holding out hopes of a fresh German economic package early next year to minimise the impact of the recession after an informal Franco-British summit in London again put the case for a European-wide reflation.

It leads though with the news that

Gordon Brown and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were yesterday holding out hopes of a fresh German economic package early next year to minimise the impact of the recession after an informal Franco-British summit in London again put the case for a European-wide reflation.

The Telegraph reports that the Alleged 9/11 mastermind wants to confess to plot

In an abrupt reversal of previous attempts to defend themselves, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants indicated to a judge in Guantánamo Bay they want to plead guilty.
The move is being seen as an apparent attempt to push through their prosecution and execution for multiple murder charges.

Make us martyrs, 9/11 suspects dare President Bush says the Times

In a letter to the judge, the five described how a decision had been taken on November 4, the day Barack Obama was elected, to abandon all efforts at defence and instead ask that their confessions be accepted in full with immediate effect. The request appeared to be designed to accelerate their trials and dare the US Government to impose the death sentence before President Bush leaves office.

There is much coverage of yesterday's Commons debate,the Independent reports that

The Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, suffered another blow last night when his proposal for an inquiry into the Damian Green affair descended into farce. Tories and Liberal Democrats vowed to boycott his plan for an MPs' investigation into the police raid on the office of Mr Green, the Tory Immigration spokesman.

The raid on Stansted is also wdely reported,Heathrow next, warn activists who caused Stansted chaos says the Guardian

Environmental campaigners last night vowed to step up direct action against British airports after protesters breached the security fence at Stansted airport and closed its runway, resulting in scores of cancelled flights and disruption for thousands of passengers.
Members of a group called Plane Stupid, which campaigns against climate change and air travel, chained themselves to a makeshift barrier close to the airport's runway after cutting through the perimeter fence in the early hours of yesterday.

The Mail says that

A runway invasion by protesters yesterday left passengers at Stansted Airport facing three miserable days of uncertainty and delays.
Armed police were forced to restore order after check-in desks were surrounded by thousands of passengers demanding information about more than 150 disrupted flights.
Chiefly affected were Ryanair customers, who were advised to re-book online and told that services would be limited well into the week after the budget airline cancelled 52 flights. A further 100-plus flights were held up for hours as 30 other airlines were caught up in the disruption.

The Times reports that Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross quits in disgrace over secret share deals

David Ross failed to tell the company — run by his lifelong friend Charles Dunstone — that he had pledged the core of his fortune as collateral to support struggling commercial property investments.
The 43-year-old tycoon, who holds a 20 per cent stake in Carphone Warehouse, could face a criminal investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) because he broke City rules on disclosure.
Mr Ross was also forced to disclose that he had covertly mortgaged shareholdings in three other companies.

The Sun is happy this morning,At Last is its headline as it reports that

SHAMELESS Baby P bungler Sharon Shoesmith was finally given the boot over a “fundamental loss of trust and confidence” in her ability, it was revealed last night.The decision to axe her as director of children’s services at Haringey, North London, was taken by councillors after she dug her heels in and refused to quit or apologise.

The Independent leads with a tirade against credit card companies

Credit card companies are facing an investigation by competition watchdogs after defying government warnings to improve their lending practices.
An analysis by The Independent has found that the cost of card borrowing has risen over the past three months despite three cuts to the Bank of England base rate. Cardholders are now facing average interest rates of 17.7 per cent on credit cards, up from 16.6 per cent 12 months ago.

Now Labour makes it even HARDER to sell your home is the lead in the Mail

In a move which triggered a furious backlash, Ministers have tightened the rules on the widely-condemned Home Information Packs.
They will now have to be available on the very first day a house goes on sale, rather than 28 days later.

The Guardian has the latest from the Greek rioting

Greek police are braced for more violence around the funeral today of a teenage boy shot dead by police, after rioting youths brought a third night of chaos to Greek cities.
The government denied reports it would declare a state of emergency, but last night the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, signalled the authorities will take a firmer stance against rioters in the worst disturbances to hit the country since the collapse of military rule in 1974.

The Times reports that

International efforts to end Zimbabwe's misery by forcing President Mugabe out of office were blunted yesterday when a key African leader urged further mediation despite the power-sharing impasse in Harare.
As President Sarkozy of France called for a swift end to the Mugabe regime, Jacob Zuma, the head of South Africa's ruling ANC party, insisted that dialogue was still the best way forward.

The Independent reports that

Two die as Top Gun pilot crashes into San Diego suburbs

A US F-18 military jet crashed into a San Diego suburban neighbourhood yesterday, killing two people on the ground, while attempting to land at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Neighbours saw the jet wobble overhead before it crashed in a ball of fire. The pilot, who managed to eject before the crash, was seen wandering around in a daze. He parachuted out of the jet and came down in the baseball field of a school. The pilot was on a training mission and officials said he attempted to aim the plane at a deserted canyon to avoid coming down on houses or the 805 Freeway.

Mother arrested as 'yuppie-flu' daughter is found dead after 16 years in bed reports the Mail

A mother who nursed her daughter for 17 years with the disease ME has been arrested on suspicion of her murder following what is believed to have been a 'mercy killing'.
Police sources revealed that Lynn Gilderdale, 31, died from a massive overdose of morphine after attempting suicide with the same drug at least twice during her battle with the debilitating condition.
Detectives arrested her mother Kay, 54, over suspicions that she helped administer the fatal dose after watching her daughter suffer since she was 14.

Finally the Sun reports that

THE beach-sex Brit who dodged jail in Dubai makes a drunken t** of himself — at the SAME bar where the scandal began.
Romeo IT boss Vince Acors planted a smacker on a busty brunette and grinned gormlessly as he gave a scantily-clad blonde a lift in his arms

The Hunt for Irish pork is uppermost on the thoughts of many papers this morning

Rush to get Irish pork off the shelves says the Times

The Telegraph reports that

Consumers across the UK have been warned not to eat Irish pork after contaminated animal feed was traced to farms in Northern Ireland. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued the advice after it emerged that nine farms in Northern Ireland have used the same feed substance that prompted a recall of all pork products processed in the Republic following its discovery in pig farms south of the border.

The Guardian leads with child labour used to make NHS instruments

British hospitals are buying surgical instruments produced in dangerous working conditions in Pakistan using child workers as young as eight, the NHS has admitted. In some workshops, products such as scalpels, clamps and scissors to be used in NHS operations are made by workers paid as little as 170 rupees (£1.40) a day

Schools told reading is top priority reports the Independent

A drive to improve reading standards which includes encouraging parents to read to children will be outlined today in the most far-reaching review of primary schooling in 20 years.
Evidence shows that children from the poorest homes hear only 13 million words by the time they are aged four, 32 million words less than children from affluent households.

The Guardian reports that

Traditional lessons in history, geography and science should be removed from the primary curriculum and children taught their essential content through cross-curricular themed classes, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation will report today

Straw to get tough and reform 'villains charter' is the lead in the Mail

Jack Straw plans to overhaul the Human Rights Act amidst concerns that it has become a charter for criminals.
The Justice Secretary wants to reflect complaints that the act protects rights but says nothing about responsibilities.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, he says he is 'frustrated' by the way the legislation he introduced ten years ago has sometimes been interpreted by the courts. He blames 'nervous' judges for refusing to deport extremists and terrorist suspects despite assurances by ministers that their removal is in the national interest.

There is much speculation about the speaker,the Telegraph reveals a plot by Labour MP's to remove him adding that

The position of the Commons Speaker Michael Martin is looking increasingly precarious after a poll of MPs found more than 30 backbenchers say they have lost confidence in him.

The Independent says that

Senior MPs expressed profound concerns about Mr Martin's position as some warned that backbenchers would move to block his reappointment if he attempted to carry on beyond the next election

Taliban destroy 100 trucks reports the Guardian

Gunmen mounted the biggest attack yet on Nato supplies going to Afghanistan yesterday, torching more than 100 trucks carrying equipment at a depot in north-west Pakistan, the main route for supplies to troops in land-locked Afghanistan.
Security guards at two depots in Peshawar were outnumbered by more than 200 militants at around 3am. About 70 Humvees, which were loaded on some of the trucks, were destroyed. Most of the vehicles were reduced to charred hulks of metal. "They fired rockets, hurled hand grenades and then set ablaze 96 trucks," said a senior police officer in Peshawar, Azeem Khan.

Pakistan to swoop on militant leaders reports the Independent

Pakistan's security forces were poised last night to arrest the leaders, dismantle the infrastructure and close the training camps of Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Islamic militant group held responsible by India for the killings of 171 people in Mumbai, government sources said

The Telegraph reports that

Thousands of protesters battled police in central Athens, smashing the windows of shops and banks with Molotov cocktails, and sending three officers to hospital, said police, who used tear gas to disperse the rioters.
Police said more than 34 people had been injured, including one woman with a serious head wound, while 20 were detained.

It follows

Two Greek police officers were arrested Sunday over the killing of a 15-year-old boy

According to the Mail

Jobless could hit 3.5m in two years as service sector tipped to slash hotel, travel and retail staff

The middle classes are facing a jobs bloodbath as the recession hits service industries, business leaders say.
Their warning comes after a leading economist predicted that around 3.5million people could be out of work by the end of 2010.
The Confederation of British Industry says hotels, restaurants, shops and travel firms are all predicted to slash their staff as consumers tighten their belts.

The Sun meanwhile reports

STORES are braced for a manic Monday — as Christmas shoppers flock to their computers in a £13BILLION online spree.
The scramble for bargains will begin around noon today — when office workers log on during their lunchbreaks.
Despite the credit crunch, experts were last night predicting a frenzy to top last year — when the second to last Monday before Christmas set a record for internet sales.

more questions for council that failed Baby P reports the Guardian

Police are investigating allegations of serious abuse of a five-year-old victim of child trafficking while he was in the care of Haringey, the London council that failed to prevent the death of Baby P.
The Metropolitan police child abuse team launched the investigation last month after claims that the child was being beaten while in the care of his adoptive family. Concerns were raised by Dr Hamish Cameron, a consultant child psychiatrist, after the boy was taken to hospital

First Briton to die at Swiss euthanasia clinic had fled Nazis reports the Independent

The 90-year-old Briton, who only wanted to be known in reports by his first name, Chris, died on Friday afternoon in the company of his wife and a close friend after being cleared by British and Swiss doctors to fly to Switzerland to take a lethal dose of barbiturates.

Now a tax on Tree Houses says the Express

HOME owners who put a tree house in their garden will see their council tax bills rocket under Labour’s latest stealth tax on struggling families.
In an attempt to squeeze households for ever more cash, the Government will classify a tree house as a home improvement which adds value to a property.

The Sun leads with Vinnie's rage

RAGING Vinnie Jones rains punches on a 26-stone pool player — after being glassed in the face in a bar brawl.
The soccer hardman turned Hollywood star — captured on CCTV — was later arrested in hospital. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted of assault.
The shocked drinker told last night how he emerged from a bar’s loo — and was beaten up by a crazed Jones, his face pouring with blood.

Finally the Independent reports that

A collection of letters and manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, seemingly lost for more than 50 years have been rediscovered by academics.
The nine manuscripts and four letters that illuminate the life and work of the celebrated writer, dramatist, wit, and self-proclaimed "lord of language", were donated to The Morgan Library in New York. Among the pages is the earliest surviving letter from Wilde to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he called Bosie, which documents the start of his doomed gay relationship with the Magdalen College undergraduate in the early 1890s

The Sunday Times leads with the news that the Speaker is to seek a third term in office.

The paper reports that

MICHAEL MARTIN, the Commons Speaker, is preparing to defy his critics by seeking to stand for a third term.
The Glasgow MP has made it clear that he hopes to continue in the £78,575 post after the next general election, despite the furore over his handling of the police raid on the offices of Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister. With his MP’s salary Martin earns a total of £141,866.

The Independent says that

The vow by Commons Speaker Michael Martin to prevent "unauthorised" raids on MPs' offices in the wake of the Damian Green affair was seriously undermined last night as it emerged that the Government is preparing new laws to allow investigators to mount parliamentary searches without a warrant.

The Observer reports that

A formal complaint about Boris Johnson's involvement in the controversial Scotland Yard raid on the Houses of Parliament could lead to his suspension or removal as Mayor of London. He is accused of 'potentially corrupting' the Metropolitan Police investigation into leaks from the Home Office, which led to the arrest of the shadow immigration minister, Damian Green

Meanwhile the Mail says that

The Queen has dropped the wife of Commons Speaker Michael Martin from Buckingham Palace’s invitation list after she repeatedly failed to accept offers to attend State banquets.
Mary Martin has not accompanied her husband on any of the nine State banquets he has attended since becoming Speaker eight years ago.
Mrs Martin’s snub has led the Queen to take the extraordinary step of removing her from her invitation list.

The Observer leads with Mugabe must be toppled now - Archbishop of York

In an extraordinary and passionate outburst, the Archbishop of York is calling for President Robert Mugabe to be toppled from power and face trial for crimes against humanity,
Dr John Sentamu, writing in The Observer, said the world must recognise that the time for talks was over and Mugabe should be forced out. 'The time has come for Robert Mugabe to answer for his crimes against humanity, against his countrymen and women and for justice to be done. The winds of change that once brought hope to Zimbabwe and its neighbours have become a hurricane of destruction, with the outbreak of cholera, destitution, starvation and systemic abuse of power by the state,' he says.

The Independent feports that

Half a million people in Zimbabwe will go without food handouts this month, the UN agency responsible for feeding more than two-fifths of the country's population warned yesterday, as shortages of funds force further cuts in rations.

It leads with the story that London doctor is held as forced marriage hostage

British lawyers were this weekend working frantically to rescue a London doctor who has been beaten and held captive in Bangladesh in an attempt to force her into marriage. Dr Humayra Abedin, known as Dorothy to her friends, this weekend faces being forced to marry a complete stranger, unless efforts by lawyers to free her, using new powers, succeed.

Ministers fight to keep late abortions secret is the lead in the Telegraph

The Information Commissioner has ordered the release of the figures, but the Department of Health is resisting, claiming that disclosing the data could lead to women who have late abortions being identified.
While abortion is only legal in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy if carried out on social grounds, "Ground E" of the 1967 Abortion Act makes it legal to abort a foetus which has a serious risk of physical or mental abnormality, right up to birth. There are continuing concerns that the law is being flouted to weed out "less than perfect" babies.

The Times meanwhile reports that

ALMOST all benefit claimants will be forced either to look for a job or prepare for work if they want to continue to receive state handouts, under a shake-up of the welfare state.
Single mothers of children as young as one and people registered unfit for work will be compelled to go on training courses and work experience or risk cuts to their benefits.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, said: “Virtually everyone will be doing something in return for their benefits.”

Hit squads tackle high-risk hospitals says the Observer

As the first healthcare system in the world to operate such a system, investigators from the Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog for England, will monitor hospitals using official data and 'soft intelligence' from complainants and whistleblowers. If high readings are determined they will send in the rapid intervention teams

The Telegraph says that

Ministers will this week launch a radical shake-up of social services across the country in the wake of the death of Baby P.

The lead story in the Mail concerns Northern Rock,reporting that

The bank that precipitated the credit collapse and was taken over by the Government has been accused of selling off job lots of repossessed homes at knockdown prices.
Northern Rock properties are being offered for sale with ‘get rich quick’ profits for fat-cat property developers based on exactly the same deals that triggered the banking system meltdown in the first place.

According to the front of the Express

SHOPPERS went on a recession-busting spending spree yesterday to lift the economic gloom.
Stores across the country took more than £1billion and sales figures in the run-up to Christmas now look set to top last year’s £13billion total.
Millions of families decided to take advantage of the reduction in VAT, lower interest rates and dramatic High Street price cuts to spend, spend spend. In London, two million shoppers flocked to the West End and shopping malls elsewhere reported frenetic trading.

Mumbai terrorist came from Pakistan, local villagers confirm reports the Observer

An Observer investigation has established that the lone surviving gunman caught by Indian police during last week's terrorist attacks on Mumbai came from a village in the Okara district of the Pakistani Punjab.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, interrogated in custody after last month's attacks, which killed 163 people, reportedly told Indian security officials that he came from a place called Faridkot in the Punjab province. His father was named as Mohammed Amir, married to a woman named Noor. During the past week, Pakistani sources have cast doubt on the authenticity of the leaked information, which has had a predictably explosive impact on relations between the two countries

The Times says that

THE 10 terrorist commandos who shot dead more than 160 people in Mumbai last month were among 500 trained to elite standards by Pakistan army and navy instructors, according to an Indian intelligence report seen by The Sunday Times.
Details were leaked as Indian officials accused Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) of directly supporting the attack. They claimed to have the names of the gunmen’s ISI trainers and handlers and to have intercepted internet phone calls between them.

Pakistan on full military alert after hoax call says the Independent

The call, to the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, was purportedly from India's Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. Made late on 28 November, at the height of the crisis between the two countries over Mumbai, the call was put through by Mr Zardari's staff without the usual checks on its authenticity. During the conversation Mr Mukherjee appeared to threaten Pakistan with war unless it acted against those who attacked Mumbai.

The Telegraph reports that

George W Bush would not have ordered the invasion of Iraq if the intelligence had shown that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, according to his former chief adviser and closest confidant.Karl Rove made the claim as the president's inner circle launched an unofficial "Bush legacy project", with their old boss preparing to leave the White House next month.

Many of the papers carry the story that Deadly contaminant found in Irish pork

CONSUMERS were warned last night to check the origin of all pork products after high levels of toxins were found in pigs slaughtered in Ireland. Last night the Irish government advised the public to destroy all pork products bought since September 1 and ordered an emergency recall

reports the Times

Another story that features is Sunny von Bulow dies after years in coma

After almost three decades in a coma, the wife of British society figure Claus von Bulow died yesterday aged 76. The heiress Martha von Bulow, who was also known as 'Sunny', died at a nursing home in New York.
Her estranged husband, who currently lives in London and writes arts reviews, was accused of inducing his late wife's vegetative state 28 years ago with two unsuccessful murder attempts

The Telegraph adds that

Despite strains in their marriage, the von Bulow's had been celebrating the start of Christmas on Dec 21, 1980, with relatives at her mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, when she was put to bed in an apparently confused and uncoordinated state.

The News of the World reports that

EVIL Karen Matthews had a sick SECRET AFFAIR with the misfit who helped kidnap her daughter Shannon, we can reveal today.
The twisted mum seduced sinister Michael Donovan at the FUNERAL of her pervert partner Craig Meehan’s dad.

Hardman Vinnie Jones's nose is 'cut to the bone' in bar brawl reports the Mail

Former football hardman Vinnie Jones had his nose ‘cut down to the bone’ in a vicious bar-room brawl that erupted after he was taunted about being a tough guy.
Jones, 43, who has starred in films such as Snatch, Gone In 60 Seconds and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, was smashed in the face with a beer glass during the fight late on Thursday night at Wiley’s Tavern in remote Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
He was arrested and charged with simple assault.

It's official: Men really are the weaker sex reports the Independent

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.
The research – to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published – shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people

Finally the papers were rushing to the opening of the 2nd Lapland experience,the Times reports that

THERE should have been huskies, real snow and an ice rink, but yesterday the families turning up to the opening of a Lapland theme park were met by empty marquees, a muddy field and trading standards officers.
Lapland West Midlands, based in a field close to one of Britain’s busiest motorway junctions, had been abandoned not just by Santa and his elves but by its organisers, too.
It was the second such debacle in the space of a few days, following the collapse of a similar venture in the New Forest in Hampshire

.

The front page of the Times this morning reveals that Vauxhall in secret cash plea to save 5,000 jobs

The paper

has learnt that the vehicle manufacturer, which employs around 5,000 workers at plants in Merseyside and Luton, approached Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, last week along with other carmakers, to urge the Government to give guarantees offering financial comfort to its car-part suppliers and dealerships. The move marks the first time that a company outside the banking sector has approached the Government for financial help since the credit crisis erupted 18 months ago.

The Telegraph leads with the news that premium bonds are the new victims of the crisis

More than 20 million savers have seen their chances of making money on Premium Bonds drastically reduced as interest rate cuts hit Britain's most popular investment.


Fleeced by the power giants: Gas, electricity and oil prices plunge - but your energy bills are STILL higher than ever says the Mail

Power companies are under increasing pressure to pass on the benefit of the plummeting price of oil.
Watchdogs are angry that domestic energy bills have continued to rise sharply since the summer even though wholesale prices have nearly halved.
Millions of families are desperate for gas, electricity and heating oil bills to fall as their household incomes are squeezed elsewhere.

OJ Simpson is pictured in many of the papers.The Independent leads with

O J finally goes to jail

A career that had touched the heights of Hollywood fame and sporting stardom ended in all-American disgrace yesterday, with O J Simpson sobbing uncontrollably in a Las Vegas court as he was sentenced to up to 33 years behind bars for organising a bungled armed robbery at a casino hotel.

The Guardian reports that

Dressed in blue prison fatigues, his hands bound in chains, Simpson visibly sagged as Judge Jackie Glass handed down the sentence.
Behind him, his daughter stared at the ground, while Ron and Kim Goldman, the father and sister of one of the people Simpson was cleared of murdering in the 1995 "trial of the century", wiped their eyes.

The Mail reports that

The father of Ronald Goldman, who has accused Simpson of murdering his son in June 1994, said he was thrilled with the verdict although it was a bittersweet occasion.
Fred Goldman said: 'There's never closure. Ron is always gone.
'What we have is satisfaction that this monster is where he belongs, behind bars. That SOB is going to be in jail for a very long time.'

The Guardian leads with the Ofsted report into Haringey

The head of Ofsted has acknowledged that local councils whose child protection agencies have been rated "good" by the agency could in fact be systematically failing children because the assessment method used by inspectors was open to manipulation.
In her first major interview since the verdict on Baby P's death was returned, Christine Gilbert admitted to failings in Ofsted's oversight of Haringey council, acknowledging that officials in the local authority where Baby P died were able to "hide behind" false data last year to earn themselves a good rating from inspectors just weeks after his death.

According to the Times

Security on the River Thames has been stepped up to try to prevent a Mumbai-style terrorist attack on London, Boris Johnson says in an interview with The Times today.
The Mayor of London says that the Royal Navy and the Special Boat Service are guarding the capital against the threat of an assault from the river.
The Times has also been told that measures are already being intensified in readiness for the London Olympics in 2012 and are being studied further as part of the review of strategy that has followed the attacks in India.

The Telegraph reports that

John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, is ready to pull UK troops out of Iraq at the end of this month unless the Iraqi government agrees a new immunity deal for British soldiers who shoot to kill, A legal wrangle between the Ministry of Defence and the Baghdad governments means British involvement in Iraq could end sooner than expected.

and adds

Mr Hutton is privately furious that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has not yet agreed a deal to give British troops "copper-bottomed" legal protection from prosecution when their existing United Nations mandate expires at midnight on 31 December

The Guardian returmns to an old theme BAE accused of £100m secret payments to seal South Africa arms deal

More than £ 100m was secretly paid by the arms company BAE to sell warplanes to South Africa, according to allegations in a detailed police dossier seen by the Guardian yesterday.
The leaked evidence from South African police and the British Serious Fraud Office quotes a BAE agent recommending "financially incentivising" politicians

The Sun reports on a scrounger sensation

EVIL mum Karen Matthews has her first ever job — as a cleaner in prison.
The benefits-scrounging slob kidnapped her daughter Shannon to claim reward money — and had never done a day’s work before in her life.

The Mirror leads on the same topic reporting that

The sister of evil mum Karen Matthews said last night: “I hope she rots in jail.”
Outraged Julie Poskitt said she could never forgive the mother of seven for putting daughter Shannon, nine, through her traumatic ordeal.
Julie, 37, said: “What my sister did shocked me. It shocked my family and it shocked the whole country. Words cannot begin to describe my anger.

The Telegraph meanwhile reports that

Kirklees Council said the independent review would study social workers' involvement with the family and look at why Shannon Matthews was removed from the at-risk register five years before her kidnapping against the recommendations of experts

There is plenty of celebrity in the papers

Boy George faces jail term after guilty verdict in escort case reports the Independent

The eighties pop icon Boy George has been told to expect a prison sentence after being found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort.
The former Culture Club singer handcuffed the Norwegian Audun Carlsen to a wall before beating him with a metal chain when he tried to escape after a naked photo shoot.

Selina Scott wins £250,000 in Channel Five ageism row reports the Telegraph

The 57-year-old accused the broadcaster of ageism after it offered her a high-profile role but then gave the job to two younger broadcasters.
In a victory for older female stars, many of whom have complained that they are treated unfairly by the television industry, she has now received an apology from Channel Five and a financial settlement estimated at up to £250,000.

The Express leads with the story adding that

The veteran presenter had expected to be taking over from Five’s news anchorwoman Natasha Kaplinsky when she went on maternity leave earlier this year but was overlooked for younger presenters.
Natasha – who gave birth to a boy in September – was eventually replaced by the much younger Isla Traquair, 28, and Matt Barbet, 32.

The Guardian reports that

Armed men in wigs pull off £70m robbery at top Paris jewellery store

Four men, some wearing wigs and female clothing, made a rapid getaway from the exclusive Harry Winston store in Paris after stealing almost every piece of jewellery on display and emptying two backdoor storage cases.
Police put the estimated total value of the haul at €80m (£70m), making it by far the largest jewel robbery carried out in France. "This is certainly a record," said Doron Levy, a spokesman for the French union of jewellers. "It exceeds anything we've seen here going back years."

One of the running stories of the week is updated in the Sun

FAMILIES were last night warned to beware of a SECOND dodgy Lapland — 24 hours after the one where fuming punters attacked Santa shut in shame.
The new theme park — due to open at noon today — remained little more than a few tents in a muddy field last night.
Its website, parts of which are identical to the Lapland New Forest rip-off, makes the same promise of “Christmas magic for everyone.”

A different Xmas theme in the Mail which reports

Panic in the High Street as every shop starts a sale

Stores are delivering a half-price Christmas amid a desperate High Street 'battle of the bargains'.
Woolworths yesterday launched the biggest closing down sale ever seen, promising to slash prices by up to 50 per cent across 813 outlets.
A few prices came down by more than 80 per cent.

Formula one heading for a crash reports the Independent

the snows of Formula One's winter of discontent deepened yesterday, amid fears that Honda may not be the only team in trouble in the economic blizzard.
As the Japanese team outlined in Tokyo the reasons for their shock withdrawal, fears increased of a scenario from Agatha Christie's novel, Ten Little Indians, and a domino effect sweeping through the sport.

Finally the Guardian reveals Bushes to swap White House for Dallas pad

As their eight years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come to a close, George and Laura Bush have revealed their plans to move on, with the announcement that they have bought a house back home in Texas.
The post-presidential house, a single-storey red-brick building, is in the Preston Hollow section of Dallas, the same neighbourhood where the family lived before Bush entered politics. It is one of the wealthiest sections of the city.

Two topics dominate the front pages this morning,the conviction of Karen Matthews and the economy.

Pure Evil says the front of the Sun

VILE Karen Matthews was branded the world’s worst mother yesterday — by her own family.
The fathers of her children also queued up to condemn her as a foul-mouthed drunken slob unfit to look after kids.
She cared so little about them she even FORGOT how many she had.

Mother of Pure Evil

says the Mirror which says that

Little Shannon Matthews may have been just minutes from being murdered when she was rescued, senior detectives revealed last night.
They believe Michael Donovan was poised to kill her and flee when officers burst into the flat where he had been holding the nine-year-old captive for 24 days.
Supt Andy Brennan, who led the massive hunt for the youngster said: “I am convinced Donovan was planning to take Shannon’s life rather than face justice.”

There is much coverage in the broadsheets too,the Telegraph reports that

Social workers wrote a report about Karen Matthews highlighting her "inability to successfully place the children's needs above her own" three years before Shannon went missing.For at least 20 months before she disappeared in February, Shannon was being secretly doped with at least five different drugs, including sedatives, painkillers and antidepressants

The Times says that

Shannon was removed from the at-risk register even though social workers knew of reports that the Matthews children were being left alone at night, were not attending school and that there were problems with violence, alcohol and drug abuse in the home.

The Guardian reports

Outside court, neighbours and police condemned the cruelty and waste of resources caused by a scam aimed at stealing £50,000 in reward money for finding Shannon. Julie Bushby, chair of the residents and tenants association on the Moorside estate where Matthews lived with her partner, Craig Meehan, said: "She's let us down. The tears she cried when she did those appeals on TV and when she gave evidence in court were crocodile tears. As for Michael Donovan, he's just weird."

The economy though takes many of the headlines following the drop in interest rates yesterday

Rates cut again as recession deepens says the Times

The economy is plunging deeper into recession despite emergency tax cuts and the multibillion-pound bank bailout, the Bank of England said yesterday.
Cutting the base rate to its lowest level in more than 50 years, the Bank said the outlook now was worse than a month ago, with manufacturing and consumer spending in sharp decline.

The Independent says that

Despite intense pressure from the Government and the Bank of England to pass on cuts in the cost of borrowing in full, many mortgage lenders were slow to respond yesterday to the Bank's latest dramatic move.
Only four lenders said they would pass on the 1 percentage point reduction by the Bank in full to their standard variable rate borrowers. HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Woolwich (owned by Barclays) and Bristol & West (a brand of Bank of Ireland) all said they would be reducing SVR by at least the full 1 per cent, while other lenders continued to keep their rates under review.

The Telegraph reports that

Lenders defied Gordon Brown on Thursday by failing to pass on the full one percentage point cut, which left the Bank's rate at two per cent - as low as at any time in its 300-year history.
Halifax, the country's biggest mortgage lender - which recently received £11.5 billion in taxpayers' money in a Government bail-out - said its customers would only enjoy a quarter-point cut to its standard variable rate.
Nationwide, the biggest building society, said it would only pass on two-thirds of the cut. Of Britain's eight biggest banks, just three promised to pass on the cut in full to their customers.

Savers sacrificed as interest rates are slashed to lowest level since 1939 says the Mail

Millions of savers are staring at a desperate future after the Bank of England slashed interest rates yesterday for the third time in three months.
The biggest losers will be the elderly who rely on income from their savings to top up their measly pensions.
Terrifyingly, they could get as little as £4 a year for every £5,000 they have put aside.

Zero interest rates are on the way says the Express

....But don’t expect cheaper loans, just less for savers
Interest rates were slashed to the lowest level in banking history yesterday amid warnings they could plunge to zero per cent.
After months of cautious inactivity, the Bank of England followed last month’s surprise 1.5 per cent cut with a further one per cent reduction yesterday to leave the base rate at two per cent.

17 judges, one ruling - and 857,000 records must be now wiped clear reports the Guardian

The fingerprints and DNA samples of more than 857,000 innocent citizens who have been arrested or charged but never convicted of a criminal offence now face deletion from the national DNA database after a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.
In one of their most strongly worded judgments in recent years, the unanimous ruling from the 17 judges, including a British judge, Nicolas Bratza, condemned the "blanket and indiscriminate" nature of the powers given to the police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to retain the DNA samples and fingerprints of suspects who have been released or cleared.

The Mail adds that

Nearly a million innocent citizens could see their profiles deleted from the DNA database following a landmark court ruling.
European judges said it was unlawful for police to store swabs and fingerprints from suspects later cleared of wrongdoing.
In a damning verdict, the 17-strong panel said keeping the records 'could not be regarded as necessary in a democracy'.

The Damien Green affair continues to rumble on,the Telegraph says that

The position of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons looked increasingly untenable after the Metropolitan Police contradicted his official account of the raid on Damian Green's Parliamentary office

The end for Mr Speaker? says the Mail

The future of Commons Speaker Michael Martin is in growing doubt today after a war of words broke out between him and Scotland Yard over the arrest of senior Tory MP Damian Green.
A poll suggested two-thirds of MPs think Mr Martin should quit after police were allowed to trample centuries of Parliamentary privilege by raiding the Commons without even being asked for a search warrant.

The Independent reports that

Police mole hunts have begun into other Whitehall leaks in addition to the Damian Green investigation, the Home Office disclosed yesterday as in-fighting intensified between Scotland Yard and the Commons authorities over the raid on the Tory MP's office.
Jacqui Smith, who was forced to make an emergency statement to MPs on the affair, suffered the embarrassment of hearing her predecessor as Home Secretary criticising her handling of Mr Green's arrest

School accused of Mumbai terror role opens its doors reports the Guardian

At first sight, they could be the grounds of an English public school, with neatly trimmed lawns and earnest young pupils walking between classes. But this is the site that India believes is the headquarters of the terrorist group responsible for last week's Mumbai attacks.
Boarding houses provide spartan accommodation, and orderly rows of trees line the sprawling site, just outside the eastern city of Lahore. Smartly turned-out pupils perform science experiments in the classrooms, peering into microscopes and connecting electric circuits. There is a farm, a swimming pool and a hospital.

Indian operative 'helped Pakistani militants' says the Telegraph

The discovery is a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.
As investigators sought to unravel the attack on Mumbai, stepping up questioning of the lone captured gunman, airports across India were put on high alert amid fresh warnings that terrorists planned to hijack an aircraft.

Israeli forces drag illegal settlers from Hebron house reports the Independent

Furious Jewish settlers went on a violent rampage last night after security forces unexpectedly stormed and evacuated a house the settlers had commandeered in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Fire officers said that three Palestinian houses and nine cars were alight, while the Israeli human rights organisation Btselem released a video apparently showing a settler shooting and wounding a Palestinian at close range and other Palestinians retaliating by pelting the gunman with stones.

Meanwhile the Times reports that

Robert Mugabe’s regime declared a national emergency and appealed for international help to combat rampant cholera yesterday in an unprecedented acknowledgement of its failings.
With the official death toll from the cholera epidemic reaching 570 and 13,000 people infected, the Government admitted that Zimbabwe’s once-proud medical system had collapsed and appealed for help even from Britain, which Mr Mugabe has blamed repeatedly for his country’s many problems.

The Telegraph reports that

British missionaries held in Gambia on sedition charge

David and Fiona Fulton, originally from Troon, Scotland, appeared in court accused of attempting the undermine the country's government.
The Christian couple, who are connected with a pentecostal church in Bolton, moved to Africa 12 years ago and have a two-year-old adopted daughter who is also being detained

The Mail reports that

A gifted teenager killed himself with an overdose of painkillers after his comprehensive school sidelined Christianity in favour of 'alternative religions', an inquest heard today.
Tragic Harry Tucker, 15, read the Bible at home because he believed his religious studies teachers focused on the teaching of Islam and Sikhism.
Straight-A student Harry, was also troubled by his own sexuality and what he saw as unfair detentions.

The Sun reports that

A BOSS earning £70k at disgraced Haringey Council worked for the body that ignored warnings of bad practice before Baby P’s death.
MPs were furious last night after ‘independent’ Margaret Allen got a £20,000 pay rise to leave the Commission for Social Care Inspection to take the role.
Whistleblower Nevres Kemal wrote to the CSCI to say out-of-control social workers were putting lives of Haringey kids at risk — six months before tortured Baby P died.

Many of the papers report on the return of JK Rowling

Booksellers hoping Beedle the Bard will bail them out says the Times

J.K. Rowling has returned to sprinkle much-needed magic over Christmas book sales. Year-on-year book sales registered a decline for the first time in seven years last week and a report from the Booksellers Association in November cautioned that its British members were locked in a “vicious circle” of discounting, shrinking growth and smaller profits.
The publication of The Tales of Beedle The Bard yesterday offers a gleam of hope. A year and a half on from the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last book in the series, bookshops all over the world opened from midnight as Harry Potter mania enjoyed a revival

Finally the Independent reports how

In the US they are going to party like it's 1933

In selected watering holes across America, it's party time tonight. In Washington, the festivities will centre on the venerable City Tavern in Georgetown; for $90 (£61), you can taste the cocktail offerings of the capital's most expert bartenders (or "mixologists" as they like to term themselves), listen to a jazz band and, in the words of the invitation, "party like it's 1933".By now the reason for these goings-on will be plain. Tonight is the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition – of 5 December 1933 when Utah became the deciding 36th state to ratify the 21st amendment to the constitution, and restore to the country's citizens the basic human right to go out and have a drink.