Newspaper headlines: Spy case focus on poisoned policeman

The poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury once again dominates coverage in the papers, with the Daily Telegraph, Times and Daily Mirror all leading their reports on the news a police officer who went to their aid is also fighting for his life.

The Independent website says it has been told by sources that Britain's security services are hunting a network of highly trained assassins, responsible for what the paper calls the "brutal and sophisticated attack" in Salisbury.

The Financial Times says it marks one of the first times a nerve agent has been used away from the battlefield, while the Daily Mirror talks of a "deadly toxin on the streets of Britain".

Elsewhere, the Telegraph expects Home Secretary Amber Rudd to make a Commons statement in the coming hours amid what it describes as "growing speculation that the Russian ambassador will be expelled from London".

The Daily Mirror says Britain is preparing to expel "dozens" of Russian diplomats and spies.

The suspicion in Downing Street, says the Guardian, will be that the Kremlin has carried out "another brazen assassination operation on British soil", despite its furious denials of involvement.

According to the Daily Mirror, "rolling out the red carpet" for the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, was "a shameful act".

It accuses Theresa May of "grovelling before a despotic ruler of a brutal kingdom" - further proof, the paper says, of this government's lack of ethics.

However, the Sun says he is credited with dragging Saudi Arabia into the 21st Century and protesters outside No 10 were unaware that inside Mrs May was convincing him to drop his blockade of Yemen.

According to the Times, the crown prince offers "a compelling vision of change" for his country. Britain should work closely with him and press for even deeper reforms, it says.

The Daily Telegraph has a banner across the front page reminding readers that it is International Women's Day.

It announces the launch of a campaign, backed by business leaders, MPs and academics, to help women entrepreneurs raise capital to start a business.

The Guardian marks the day with a number of opinion pieces by women - including one from Theresa May, describing domestic abuse legislation being unveiled as part of her "longstanding commitment" to end it.

Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning

There is a blunt response from some quarters to the warning from the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, that trade with the UK will be "more complicated and costly" after Brexit.

According to the Sun, Mr Tusk and the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier are not putting their citizens and economies first - they care only about the sanctity of the EU and its institutions.

The Daily Mail agrees, accusing them of putting obstacles in the way of a trade deal.

But according to the Guardian, the UK side has systematically failed to grasp that inside or outside the single market is a binary choice.

The Daily Mail's Richard Kay claims an exclusive with a report that Meghan Markle has been baptised into the Church of England in a secret ceremony with Prince Harry at her side.

The intimate 45 minute service was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Chapel Royal on Tuesday evening, he says, using water from the River Jordan.

Finally, the announcement that this week's edition of the music paper, NME, will be the last to appear in print form provokes pages of nostalgic outpourings, not least from Tony Parsons in the Sun.

He began his career there as a 22 year old in 1977, and describes a world steeped in drugs, drink, pop, rock and punk.

"No one cared if we breathed fumes of alcohol over the typewriters after a three-day bender," he writes, "so long as we hit our deadlines".

The Guardian laments "the decline of a music giant".

NME, according to its music critic, Alexis Petridis, had become "an irrelevant shadow of its former self".