Papers give rail safety warning

According to The Observer, Britain's railways are on the brink of "catastrophic breakdown" with senior executives warning that much of the network is worn out and the most basic maintenance is not being done.

Similar concerns are raised by The Sunday Times, which says that an official rail safety report, kept secret from the public, highlights how "a potentially deadly combination of shoddy track repairs and poorly maintained trains" could lead to another disaster.

The Sunday Mirror says "the iron chancellor melted" on Saturday.

The paper describes how the "happiness simply refused to be held in check" as Gordon Brown talked for the first time about his new daughter.

The Sunday Express says Mr Brown beamed for the cameras, "throwing off his image as a dour Scotsman."

'Changed man'

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Matthew d'Ancona believes parenthood will reveal "an attractive truth about his character."

The Mail on Sunday says it was clear that "Britain's normally glum-faced chancellor was a changed man."

With the premature Jennifer Brown likely to spend several weeks in hospital, The Independent on Sunday gives an insight into the work of special care baby units.

The paper's chief feature writer, Cole Moreton, was recently in a similar situation to the chancellor.

Bewildering

He says they are "daunting places" with a bewildering amount of hi-tech equipment and describes how whatever the doctors say "it is hard not to fear the worst."

The Sunday Telegraph reports that the government ignored warnings more than a year ago that Muslim extremists were infiltrating prisons and recruiting inmates.

The paper says that the revelation that radical and untrained imams were allowed to carry on operating in jails will "embarrass" ministers as investigations continue into the activities of the British shoe bomber suspect, Richard Reid.

Under the headline "MI5 blunders over bomber" The Observer claims the security services knew of links between him and one of the 11 September suspects, but failed to pick him up for questioning.

The shortcomings in airport security exposed by the case are given much consideration by the papers.

The Sunday People believes its front page story about investigators managing to smuggle weapons on to two planes, "bodes very ill for 2002."

It argues that those entrusted with our safety in the air since the terrorist attacks on America have "totally failed us."

The Sunday Express is not surprised, highlighting how potentially life or death work is undertaken by inexperienced staff.

The paper says security officers at Heathrow often have only two weeks' training before starting work.

According to The Sunday Times, police are investigating claims that a disgraced gynaecologist might have faked his own death to avoid accusations that he had sexually assaulted at least 60 patients at the Kent hospitals where he practised until the mid 1990s.

Rodney Ledward was believed to have died last year of cancer in Ireland, but the paper says he is reported to have been seen there and in Spain recently.

The News of the World reveals that the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K Rowling, was married in a ceremony in Perthshire on Boxing Day.

The paper says the creator of the schoolboy wizard "cast a secrecy spell to keep her wedding shrouded in a cloak of invisibility".