Wednesday's papers

According to the Independent this morning,the government wants to break up the banks

Government sources said ministers were "determined" to see more competition in the market, following the £1.2 trillion bailout of the sector which resulted in the loss of three independent banks and several building societies.

says the paper adding that

The European Union will today approve the split of Northern Rock into two sections, a "good", profitable, bank with no bad debt, and a "bad" bank. Ministers will begin exploring sale options at the start of next year when the split happens and a deal could be finalised before the general election

A different take on the story in the Guardian which says that

A tug of war has begun at the top of the government over the future of Northern Rock as senior figures argue that the Treasury's planned sell-off should be stopped so that the ailing bank can instead be turned into a building society owned by its customers.

The Telegraph leads with the news that MPs will be banned from claiming the cost of mortgages on their expenses and barred from employing members of their family under proposals in an official review of the system to be announced next week.

Sir Christopher Kelly’s inquiry into parliamentary expenses is expected to recommend that MPs should be allowed only to rent second homes in future. That would prevent politicians making windfall profits from their taxpayer-funded allowances.

The Times also leads with that story saying that MPs will be banned from claiming for a second home if their nearest railway station is within 60 minutes of the Houses of Parliament,the proposal it says

will provoke an outcry in the Commons. MPs claim that renting costs the taxpayer more than mortgage interest.

Another day,another government U turn

Gordon Brown bowed to intense pressure from MPs of all parties yesterday and personally intervened to cancel a proposal by the cash-strapped Ministry of Defence to impose a planned £20m cut in the Territorial Army's training budget,says the Guardian

The Independent reports that David Cameron claimed yesterday that some of Britain's unemployed are worse off when they accept a job,

Welfare reform was a central theme of the Tory leader's conference speech earlier this month, during which he said that some single mothers who choose to work would lose 96p in every pound they earned as a result of tax and the loss of benefits

finally appeared in the dock in the Hague and, says the Telegraph,was overheard on phone tap intercepts plotting to wipe Bosnian Muslims from the "face of the earth"

During one key telephone conversation, the former Bosnian Serb leader is said to have threatened to turn the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina into a killing zone.
"They will disappear. Sarajevo will be a black cauldron, where 300,000 Muslims will die. They are not right in the head. It is clear to everyone. It will be a real bloodbath," he said.

The Guardian leads with Iraq which the paper says goes nuclear with plans for new reactor programme

The Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war. The government has also contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations to seek ways around resolutions that ban Iraq's re-entry into the nuclear field.

Meanwhile the Independent reports how

The loss of eight more American soldiers yesterday, the resignation of a highly regarded US Foreign Service officer, and new tensions over next week's Afghan election run-off have combined to intensify pressure on Barack Obama as he edges towards a crucial decision on a major increase in US troop strength in Afghanistan.

There is much coverage of the hijacking of a British yacht by Somali pirates.The Times says

The last message that Paul and Rachel Chandler posted on their blog reads simply: “PLEASE RING SARAH”. Soon after, the British couple are believed to have triggered their yacht’s emergency-locator beacon in the Indian Ocean before being kidnapped by Somali pirates.

The Mail leads with the story that a predator on the Sex Offenders' Register killed a 17-year-old girl he met and groomed on Facebook after luring her to a secret meeting.

The 32-year-old posed as a 16-year-old boy to befriend Ashleigh Hall on the social networking site.But within hours of their first meeting, the teenager was dead.

As does the Sun which reports how

Murder cops were led to the body of missing Ashleigh after a driver nicked for minor motoring offences blurted out: "I've killed a girl.

Footballers have been told to stop spitting to stop the spread of swine flu

The message comes days after revelations of outbreaks of the virus at two Premier League clubs – Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers – and Sam Allardyce's warning that Chelsea could face their own outbreak. "Spitting is disgusting at all times," a spokesperson from the Health Protection Agency said.reports the Guardian

Finally the Independent reports how

A prehistoric sea monster with gigantic jaws that could swallow a man whole and snap a car in half has been unearthed by an amateur fossil hunter at the foot of a cliff on the Jurassic Coast of southern England.

adding how

it took several years for the collector, 62-year-old Kevan Sheehan, to carefully amass portions of the fossilised jawbones and skull as they emerged from the cliff-face after a succession of rock falls. His patience has been rewarded by selling the fossil to Dorset County Council for £20,000, using money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.