Today's papers

EVERY secondary pupil in England and Wales is to be offered lessons in morality and family values as part of an overhaul of sex education in the classroom, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

John Patten, the Secretary of state for Education, will announce the move tomorrow, as part of John Major's attempt to steer Tory policies 'back to basics' by reaffirming traditional values. Sex education, including lessions on HIV and Aids, will be removed from the science curriculum and become a separate subject.

British Rail has discovered that the 185mph Eurostar trains designed to run through the Channel tunnel do not work on British tracks, claims the Sunday Times. During secret trials the train's engines kept cutting out, causing carriages to judder and leaving drivers feeling queasy.

All the tabloid newspapers have 'exclusive' royal stories on their front pages. The News of the World says the Princess of Wales is so anxious to leave Kensington Palace and her royal lifestyle that she has told her aides to start house- hunting.

Mandatory life sentences for murder should be abolished, according to a report compiled by leading legal figures, says the Observer. The report, commissioned by the Prison Reform Trust, is also critical of the penal policy which gives the Home Secretary the power to increase the time served by lifers at any time during their sentence. The committee, chaired by the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane, says the mandatory life sentence is much too blunt a tool and should be abolished.

The National Health services is paying out pounds 27m a year for patients who do not exist, says the Mail on Sunday. Blunders in collating health records are reported to have arisen because of a discrepancy of nearly two million between official census figures and the total number of patients on doctors' lists.