Friday's papers

Picture of Sir Fred Goodwin dominate the front pages this morning along with some damning headlines.

Obscene says the Express as it reports that Fred Goodwin last night vowed to cling on to an “obscene” pension deal worth nearly £700,000 a year in what the paper calls a deliberate snub to taxpayers.

The Mail headline I'm keeping every penny says that Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling spent the day threatening him with legal action.

But the broadsheets are quite adamant that the pay off was approved by the government.The payoff to the man who steered Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of collapse, was approved by Government ministers, says the Telegraph.

The Independent says that Lord Myners, Gordon Brown's minister for the City, personally agreed an £8m increase in the pension pot of Sir Fred Goodwin when the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland stood down last October, Sir Fred himself claimed last night.

The Guardian adds that

Goodwin insisted ministers had known of his £16m pension pot for months and accused Myners of threatening him with more bad publicity if he did not hand back some of the pension he was awarded when he left the loss-making bank last month.

The Times reports that the Prime Minister was under growing pressure to hold an independent inquiry into Britain’s complicity in torture last night after ministers admitted that terror suspects detained by British soldiers in Iraq were secretly flown by the US to Afghanistan.

The Guardian says that John Hutton said British forces in Iraq had undertaken operations "to capture individuals who were subsequently detained by the US".

Specifically, he revealed that in February 2004 British soldiers - known to be SAS troops - handed over two terrorist suspects captured outside the UK-controlled zone covering south-eastern Iraq.

The other big story of the day is the death of actress Wendy Richard.The Sun with its panache for headlines says Ender a legend

EASTENDERS legend Wendy Richard was hailed a “British institution” last night after losing her dogged fight with cancer.