In today's other newspapers

SHOPPING centres and supermarkets are to be allowed to trade for 24 hours a day, says the Mail on Sunday. Details, the paper adds, will be announced in the Queen's Speech on Thursday. At present, the law restricts opening to 8pm on weekdays, except for one night at 9pm.

Mao Tse-tung, China's leader from 1950 until his death in 1976, had a passion for group sex and an interest in cannibalism, reports the Observer. His personal staff would provide him with women aged 16 to 20 for sex sessions most Saturday evenings, according to a BBC television programme to be broadcast next month. His interest in sex continued into his seventies. He is also said to have condoned cannibalism.

The News of the World claims that top jockeys were involved in a drug ring. Stables, it says, are being used to sell narcotics.

The newspaper also features a front-page picture of Bryce Taylor with his trousers pulled down. Mr Taylor took the secret photographs of the Princess of Wales in a gym.

The Sunday Mirror says that the Health Secretary, Virginia Bottomley, is to approve an increase in prescription charges from pounds 4.25 to pounds 5.

Any government plans to cut state benefits to single mothers would be opposed by two out of three people, according to an NOP poll in the Sunday Times. But only a third say unmarried mothers should have more state support.

Labour has a 20-point lead over the Tories, according to another poll in the newspaper. Labour has 47 per cent, the Conservatives 27 and Liberal Democrats 21.

The National Health Service is spending pounds 360,000 to buy leeches to suck blood after amputations, plastic or micro- surgery, according to the People.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that John Major has urged his Cabinet colleagues to tone down the debate over single mothers amid Downing Street fears that it threatens to overshadow the rest of the Government's 'back to basics' agenda. It also says that state schools will be allowed to borrow money from the private sector for the first time.

The Sunday Sport claims a royal exclusive with pictures alleged to show Princess Stephanie of Monaco urinating in public.