Saturday's papers

The row continues over the British hostage Peter Moore.

The Guardian contends that he was held in Iran with US genreal Petraues confirming the American assessment that Moore – seized with four bodyguards in Baghdad in 2007 – had "certainly" been taken across the border into Iran.

Peter Moore arrived back in Britain last night as criticism continued to grow of the Government’s handling of the Iraq hostage crisis. says the Times

The Middle East dominates the headlines as the Independent reports that

as many as 70 people when a car laden with explosives struck a volleyball tournament in a north-western Pakistan town which has a history of resisting the Taliban.

Police spokesman Shahid Hameed confirmed it was a suicide attack, while another police official said early reports suggested a man drove a car packed with explosives onto the field as people gathered to watch the match reports the Telegraph

Iraqi officials and relatives of 17 Iraqis who were killed in a crowded Baghdad square in September 2007 in an allegedly unprovoked shooting spree by Blackwater private security guards reacted with fury today to the decision by a US federal judge to dismiss all charges against five of the guards.

says the Guardian

Meanwhile the Independent asks whether

the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in eastern Afghanistan this week, sending shock waves through the US spy agency, masterminded by a warlord who was once one of the CIA's key allies?

The Telegraph says that Gordon Brown has called a high-level international meeting in London on January 28 to discuss countering radicalisation in Yemen in the wake of the Christmas Day airline bomb attack.

Green issues on the front pages of both the Times and The Indy.

According to the Times,

Twelve million low-energy light bulbs were posted to households over Christmas by N-power company as part of its legal obligation to cut carbon emissions, despite government advice that many would never be used.

Whilst the Independent reports that

Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds.

The Mail leads with the story that Motorists guilty of minor 'crimes' such as parking misdemeanours are to be hit with a £15 surcharge to help victims of domestic violence or sex attacks.

The amount will be added to fixed penalty tickets given out by police for breaking parking regulations, contravening a stop sign, speeding and even having dirty windows.

According to the Telegraph's lead,Top schools risk being branded inadequate by Government inspectors for failing to promote race relations, gender equality and human rights, it has been disclosed.

One of the government's key education advisers,Professor David Woods today attacks middle-class parents who refuse to send their children to the local secondary school because of "innate and uninformed" prejudices.says the Guardian

Politics, and the Independent reports that,David Cameron will use a major speech today to ask voters to make 2010 "the year for change", but has been hit by new claims the Conservatives remain the "nasty party" in Europe.

The Sun reports that David Cameron fires the starting gun for his General Election campaign today with an upbeat message of hope to Sun readers.
He calls 2010 "the year for change" and spells out his vision of a Britain full of promise.

Police officers have been accused by the Justice Secretary of preferring to sit around in a “warm police station” rather than going out on the streets to fight crime. says the Telegraph

New Year,same old binge drinking Britain says the Mail

The Noughties will be remembered for terrorist attacks, war, recession and the continued rise of binge drinking.The latter was all too evident on the streets of our cities as young drinkers ushered in a new decade in the only way they seem to know.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

The Russian government has set a minimum price for vodka that more than doubles the cost of the cheapest vodka on the market in an effort to fight rampant alcoholism.

The Express is angry,taxpayers are footing a £50million-a-year bill to fund appeals by relatives of immigrants barred from Britain.

The tabloids are full of the news that Jordan's lover Alex Reid thumped her ex Dane Bowers at a New Year's Eve party ,two days before the pair enter the Celebrity Big Brother house.

According to the Sun,

The cagefighter knocked out Bowers with a right hook after the Another Level singer flirted with Jordan and called Reid a "d***head".



Finally the Telegraph reports that,a tarantula owner was nearly blinded after getting some of his pet's tiny, barbed hairs in his eye.

The 29-year-old man was treated at St James's University Hospital, Leeds after the hairs embedded themselves in his cornea.