Tuesday's papers

The election campaign well and truly kicked off yesterday if you believe the front pages

On a long day of claim and counter-claim, pre-buttals and rebuttals, spin and counter-spin, the two main parties traded insults amid a feverish atmosphere at Westminster. With Britain's public finances in a mess, it was clear that tax and spending would dominate the campaign and clear differences opened up between the parties. says Andrew Grice in the Independent

According to the Guardian,Labour today drew blood when David Cameron ran into trouble over his promise to offer tax breaks for married couples.

Whilst the Telegraph says that Labour’s attempt to launch their election campaign with an attack on Conservative spending plans backfired when it instead exposed divisions in their own economic policies.

The Times says in an exclusive that the Labour Party will be unable to return fire against the Conservatives’ pre-election advertising blitz for months, amid fears that it could emerge from the campaign bankrupt.

The Mail leads with the other top story of the day as it reports that Alan Johnson will support any request to ban a provocative march by Islamic extremists through Wootton Bassett, the town renowned for honouring Britain's war dead.

As the Guardian says a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march has attracted more than 120,000 members.

Meanwhile The Times has learnt that at least a dozen former Guantánamo Bay inmates have rejoined al-Qaeda to fight in Yemen,

According to the main lead in the Telegraph,Britain told American intelligence agents more than a year ago that the Detroit bomber had links to extremists

The prime minister's spokesman indicated that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was named in a file of people based in Britain who had made contact with radical Muslim preachers. The file was said to have been sent to the US authorities in 2008.

The Independent meanwhile reports that

The world reacted with a mixture of confusion and hostility yesterday to new US rules saying that people who come from any of the 14 nations on a "black list" of countries alleged to be hotbeds of terrorism must now undergo intense security screening at airports across the world.

and on that story the Guardian has learnt that the introduction of full body scanners at British airports threatens to breach child protection laws which ban the creation of indecent images of children,

According to the Express,a shivering Britain faces the prospect of gas supply shortages as the worst cold spell in 30 years keeps a stranglehold on the country.

The National Grid, responsible for meeting the country's energy requirements, issued a gas balancing alert on Monday to give warning that any further falls in supply could force big users like power plants to cut their consumption.

says the Telegraph

And more to come

Britain will be blanketed by up to six inches of snow today as the Arctic blast tightens its grip and brings more chaos to the roads, railways and schools.says the Mail

The South is expected to see the worst of the weather as heavy winter showers move south across England and Wales throughout the day.

Though spare a thoight for China and South Korea says the Guardian and the Alps where a total of 88 skiers were left dangling above the slopes when a chairlift broke in the Alps over the weekend.

The Times reports that University of Cambridge is planning to raise up to £400 million from its first bond issue

Andrew Reid, the university’s finance director, admitted that he was worried by the step into the relative unknown but insisted that it was the best way to secure the huge sums of money required for two one-off building projects.

Dubai has opened the world's tallest skycraper, renaming it the Burj Khalifa in honour of the man who bailed the financially troubled Gulf city-state out of its debts. reports the Telegraph

The Sun leads with an Eastenders story,

Strictly Come Dancing star Ricky Groves was in tears - and on the beers - last night after being DITCHED by his newly-slimline missus.

says the paper

Finally the Guardian reports that Warren Beatty may have notched up 12,775 sexual conquests

Peter Biskind, Beatty's new biographer, estimates that the famously seductive star of Bonnie and Clyde and Reds has notched up 12,775 sexual conquests, including Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton and Madonna. If true, that is impressive. Don Giovanni could only claim a lacklustre 2,065, according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte.