Monday's papers

The Times continues to focus on the case of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi as it reports that a key decision that could have paved the way for the terrorist to serve his sentence in Libya was approved by Downing Street.

A source close to Jack Straw told The Times that the move to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007 was a government decision and was not made at the sole discretion of the Justice Secretary. “It wasn’t just Jack who decided this. It was a Government decision. Jack did not act unilaterally.”

The Independent turns its attention to Afghnanisatn where it says

Lal Mohammed was determined to exercise his right to have a say in his country's future and vote in the election. It was a decision for which he paid a horrific price. On his way to the polling station he was held by Taliban fighters, beaten brutally, and then had his nose and ears slashed off.

It adds that

This chilling account is the first from a victim of retribution taken by insurgents on someone who had defied their order to boycott the polls. And it helps to explain why so many people throughout the country were simply too afraid to vote.

Ministers were facing accusations today that hundreds of children are being held unnecessarily in immigration detention centres as official figures revealed, for the first time, that 470 minors were being detained with their families.report the Guardian adding that

The UK has one of the worst records in Europe for detaining children, but accurate figures on how many are held, or for how long, have remained elusive.

Pills are on the front pages of three of the papers.

Healthy people who take aspirin to prevent a heart attack are doing themselves more harm than good, researchers have said. says the Telegraph

Healthy people who take aspirin as an ‘insurance policy’ against heart attacks could be doing more harm than good.
A British study has found that daily use of aspirin almost doubled the risk of dangerous internal bleeding, while having no effect on heart attacks or strokes.

reports the Mail

The Express reports that

A DAILY pill that slashes the risk of stroke by more than a third has been developed by scientists.
Millions are set to benefit from the ­revolutionary blood-thinning drug, the first new treatment in 55 years.

The Sun asks whether Phillip Garrido could have killed three more children on its front page

The girls, who have never been found, are Michaela Garecht, nine, Ilene Misheloff, 13, and four-year-old Amanda Campbell. They were all snatched off the street in daylight - just like Jaycee.

Police from Antioch, the town near San Francisco where Jaycee Dugard was held hostage for 18 years by a sex offender until her dramatic release last week, will meet tomorrow to discuss reopening more than 10 cases concerning murdered and missing women in the area.says the Guardian

Whilst many of the papers report the case of a girl of nine who was found strangled inside the cab of a grocery delivery lorry on the side of a busy road. The driver of the lorry, her mother's partner, was found hanging from a tree nearby.

Last night the tragedy - believed to be a murder-suicide - was being investigated by Northamptonshire Police. The grieving family of the girl, who has not yet been named, were struggling to come to terms with their loss.

says the Mail

A change of government in Japan makes most of the papers

Japan's Democratic Party has won a resounding general election victory, surpassing the 241 seats required for a majority less than two-and-a-half hours after polling stations closed. says the Telegraph

bringing to an end an era of political domination that had endured almost unbroken for 54 years. says the Independent

The Chancellor writes in this morning's Guardian

Labour plans to win the economic debate ahead of the coming election by contrasting the Conservatives' commitment to "swingeing cuts" in public services with the government's own willingness to spend "whatever we can" to keep people in work during the recession,

Thousands of children starting school next week will be denied a place in any of their chosen primary schools, says the Times

Competition for reception places is so fierce this year that in some areas more than one in ten children were turned down from all of their preferred primary schools.