The papers are divided over what the home secretary should do with the hostages, freed by hijackers at Stansted, who want to stay in this country.

The Sun calls the plane's passengers "freeloaders" and says Britain is a "soft touch" for putting them up in a four-star hotel. The paper urges Jack Straw to follow up his tough talk with action, and send all the passengers home.

The Guardian believes the idea that the UK is a soft touch is "absurd", saying that this country has some of the most rigorous rules on asylum in Europe.

It accuses Mr Straw of prejudging the asylum cases, and says "his tough talk rode roughshod over civil rights".

The Independent condemns the tabloids for using the story "to inflame popular fears of hordes of brown-skinned, crafty, Muslim economic refugees, desperate to live off our state benefits".

In fact, the paper says, "the vast majority of people who move to this country, legally or illegally, are hardworking, enterprising and resourceful, and they add more to the common wealth than they take away".

The paper argues that it would be in Britain's own interest to be more liberal about economic migration.

DNA matching failure

The failure of a supposedly "foolproof" DNA test is highlighted by the Daily Mail.

The paper reports that Raymond Easton from Swindon in Wiltshire is suing the Greater Manchester police after being accused of a burglary in Bolton.

Police said his DNA matched samples found at the scene of the crime and said the chance of him being the wrong man was 37,000,000 to one.

But when his solicitor demanded that a more sophisticated DNA test be carried out, it put him in the clear.

The more basic test has now been dropped, in favour of the more accurate version. The Mail says the FBI, which uses a similar DNA profiling technique, believes the implications of the case are "mind-blowing".

Poll puts Labour on 49%

The Daily Telegraph publishes a poll which, it says, suggests that substantial numbers of voters are becoming disillusioned with Labour.

Researchers from Gallup questioned more than 4,000 people for the survey last month, and found that the proportion who said they would vote for the government if there were an election tomorrow had dropped to 49%.

The paper believes this will "confirm Downing Street's and Millbank's worst fears", but there is some comfort for Labour: just 28% per cent of those questioned said they would vote for the Tories.

Trapped in church

The plight of a group of parishioners, locked in a village church, is recounted by The Daily Telegraph.

The villagers, who included several pensioners and the vicar, became trapped when the door of their church in Thruxton in Herefordshire swung shut.

In desperation, they rang out an SOS message in Morse code on the church bells but no-one outside realised what it meant.

They only escaped after one of them climbed up through the belfry onto a parapet and shouted to a farmer for help.

Pensioner's internet joy

The Mirror has a story with a happy ending. Pensioner, Eileen Stevens, from Gateshead, had spent 38 years searching for her long-lost brother without success and then found him in an hour and a half, using the internet.

Mrs Stevens, 78, knew that her brother Percival Rider was living somewhere in the United States, but had almost given up hope of seeing him again.

All her inquiries drew a blank until she signed up for an internet course run by Age Concern.

She found his address and phone number in Florida and has just been to visit him.