Baby Brown makes the news

The arrival of a baby girl for Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah strikes a happy note across the newspapers on Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph leads with the announcement, along with the tabloids, saying the Chancellor disappointed a large gathering of reporters and photographers by not making a statement outside the hospital.

But it adds that Mr Brown was reported as saying he was reluctant to face the media immediately because he felt it was the hospital staff and his wife who had done all the work and deserved the praise.

According to the main story in The Times, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation was not only investigating the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, but had conducted preliminary experiments on rabbits.

Britons trained

The paper says the unnerving revelations are the conclusion of detailed examination of documents it discovered in abandoned al-Qaeda houses in Kabul.

A number of papers report that British intelligence has found evidence in Afghanistan that nearly 40 Britons have recently received training at al-Qaeda terrorist camps.

The Daily Mail says some are known to have stayed on to fight against America, but officials acknowledge that others have slipped back into Britain.

The return of the traditional Afghan sport of buzkashi, or goat grabbing, is featured in a striking picture on the front page of The Independent.

The game - described by the paper as a violent version of polo - has been played for centuries, but was banned during the years of Taleban rule.

Education shake-up

The Independent leads with a report that the government is to announce wholesale changes to the teaching of students aged between 14 and 19.

It quotes government sources as saying the shake-up will be about opening new routes into higher and further education.

The refusal of the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, to accept honorary membership of the Carlton Club because it doesn't allow women to become full members continues to generate interest.

The Times names two members of the Shadow Cabinet and a Tory front-bench spokeswoman in the Lords who it says have resigned from the club for the same reason.

But one female former member tells the Daily Telegraph she doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

Women welcome

Women, she says, are exempted from the joining fee and pay only half the annual rate.

She was made to feel welcome by staff and members alike, and the only room out of bounds to women had chairs which looked uncomfortable and an unpleasant draught. The men are welcome to it, she says.

A little girl who was born deaf has astonished doctors by regaining her hearing.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the parents of 14-month-old Emily Yeomans had been told they would need to learn sign language to communicate with her.

But, the paper goes on, she began to pick up sounds three months ago and doctors say she now has 100% hearing.

Emily's specialist tells the paper it's likely her hearing system had not been fully developed at birth, but had developed during the first year of her life.

The Daily Mail says the toddler has been making up for lost time with her favourite Christmas present - a toy drum.