Friday's papers

Aged 10 and 11 these brothers were already known to be sadistic thugs. So, why were they free to torture two innocent boys? asks the Mail

The pair subjected two innocent children to a savage torture and beating ordeal involving bricks, lit cigarettes and a noose that left one of the victims barely alive.

says the paper

According to the Sun they

snarled at their blood-soaked victims: "We can't leave you - you are not dead yet."

The Independent leads with the resignation of Eric Joyce,the Defence Secretary's right-hand man who resigned in protest about the handling of the Afghanistan war.

He attacked the treatment of UK forces and protested that Nato allies were doing "far too little", leaving British troops to shoulder more of the strain of combat.

The Telegraph adds that

He warned Mr Brown that the public were growing weary of his claim that the war in Afghanistan was being fought to protect Britons from terrorism at home.

It leads with a warning from the Government’s drug watchdog that popular painkillers taken by millions of people can cause addiction in just three days,

The drugs, which contain codeine and include brand names such as Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine Plus, are sold over the counter and are routinely used to ease headaches, back problems and period pain.

The Times has learnt that

Jack Straw was personally lobbied by BP over Britain’s prisoner transfer agreement with Libya just before he abandoned efforts to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from the deal.

adding that

Having signed a $900 million oil exploration deal with Libya earlier that year, BP feared that its commercial interests could be damaged if Britain delayed the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) through which the Gaddafi regime hoped to secure the return home of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi.

Britain's two most senior police officers rounded on Boris Johnson's London administration tonight and vowed to fight for their independence from political interference in response to Tory claims that they had seized control of Scotland Yard. says the Guardian

The article adds that

Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, and Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, reacted angrily after the London mayor's deputy told the Guardian that the Conservatives in the capital now had their "hands on the tiller" of Britain's biggest force

Meanwhile the Independent reports that a leading international body warned yesterday that Britain will emerge last from recession among the world's advanced economies,

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the UK would lag behind France, Germany, Japan and the US, among others, pouring scorn on hopes for a strong British recovery.
The OECD said that the UK would not see any growth in its economy until 2010, at least six months after most of her competitors.

An Guardian/Observer investigation has revealed that

A breakdown in communications at the highest level between the US and the UK led to the shock collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers in September last year

adding that

In London, the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority all believed that the US government would step in with a financial guarantee for the troubled Wall Street bank