Northern Rock 'deal' leads papers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7198620.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The prime minister's possible approval of a plan to sell the ailing bank Northern Rock to the private sector dominates the Sunday papers.

A cartoon in the Sunday Telegraph captures the dilemma facing Gordon Brown over Northern Rock.

Depicted as the pilot of an aircraft hurtling towards disaster, he has just seconds to press the right button to steer a course towards economic safety.

Caught between "a rock and a hard place", is how The People views it.

'Slap in the face'

For the Sunday Express, it's a case of Sir Richard Branson's "Great Chinese Take-away".

It is among several papers concerned by the latest rescue plan for Northern Rock, which could see the bank sold at a knock-down rate to Sir Richard.

For the Sunday Times, it's a final "slap in the face to taxpayers".

The News of the World says Sir Richard may have secured the "business coup of a lifetime" - but insists taxpayers' "hard-earned cash" must be repaid.

After dark fears

The Observer leads with the news Home Secretary Jacqui Smith may announce airport-style metal detectors could be installed at hundreds of school gates.

The detectors would be installed in an effort to tackle teenage knife crime.

The Sunday Times takes Ms Smith to task for an interview in which she admits she would not feel comfortable going out alone after dark in London.

The home secretary should not just admit our streets are not safe - she should do something about it, it says.

'Momentum'

Photographs of a beaming Hillary Clinton, celebrating victory in Nevada, are carried on the front pages of some of the later editions of the papers.

The Independent on Sunday says her success in the Nevada caucus had given her the "all-important momentum" in the fight for the Democratic nomination.

"I guess this is how the West was won," The Sunday Times quotes Mrs Clinton as telling her jubilant supporters.

The Sunday Telegraph focuses on John McCain's victory in South Carolina.

'Abductor' drawing

Under an exclusive tag, the Sunday Mirror reports that 571 of the MoD's laptops have been lost in the past 10 years.

The disclosure comes as police search for a laptop, containing the names of thousands of potential recruits to the armed services.

The News of the World publishes a drawing which it says is the first detailed likeness of a man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann.

The suspect is shown with a distinctive handlebar moustache and sallow skin.