The face of Princess Diana stares out from a number of the papers on the 10th anniversary of her death.

Fittingly the Express finally takes Maddy off its front page to replace it with

DIANA KILLED BY FIAT DRIVER SAYS POLICE CHIEF

THE driver of a mystery white Fiat Uno was responsible for Princess Diana’s death, claims the detective who led the inquiry into the crash that killed her.
Jean Claude Mules, who ran the initial French investigation, said his officers found compelling evidence that the car carrying Diana and Dodi Fayed collided with the Fiat seconds before it crashed.
If officers had been able to trace the driver they would have “had their killer”, he added. As Britain today marks the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death, Mr Mules’s comments will re-ignite anger that the Fiat Uno driver has never been traced.

10 years on Princes give their tributes says the Telegraph

Princes William and Harry will today deliver heartfelt tributes to their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales in a service marking the 10th anniversary of her death.The princes, who were 15 and 12 when they walked silently behind her coffin, have taken joint charge of the service and will give personally chosen readings to a worldwide television audience. but adding


The Sun also leads with Diana

The man who buried Diana

Ten years on, as the world remembers Diana’s tragic death, former soldier Nigel Enright recalled the grief that day of Princes William and Harry — then 15 and 12 — and their father Prince Charles.
Nigel was selected to be one of a bearer party who carried Di’s coffin to her last resting place on an island at her family’s Althorp estate in Northants in 1997.
Breaking his silence for the first time, he recalled: “I couldn’t help seeing her sons’ faces. That’s a memory that will never leave me. And Charles too, it was unbelievable. It was the greatest and saddest honour I have ever had.”

The Telegraph reports

10 years on Princes give their tributes

Princes William and Harry will today deliver heartfelt tributes to their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales in a service marking the 10th anniversary of her death.The princes, who were 15 and 12 when they walked silently behind her coffin, have taken joint charge of the service and will give personally chosen readings to a worldwide television audience.

But adding

A YouGov poll commissioned by The Daily Telegraph shows that "respect" for the Royal Family has fallen sharply in the past decade from 64 to 49 per cent. But it reveals that 89 per cent of people questioned knew exactly where they were when they heard the princess had died.

Empty seats at service show scars of Diana’s life have not all healed says the Times

The most poignant sight at today’s service to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, will be the empty seats.Most prominent among the missing will be the Duchess of Cornwall, who will spend the day with members of her family at Raymill House, Wiltshire, the marital home she held on to after her divorce and which she now uses regularly as a bolt hole from the strains of royal life.

Elsewhere a mixed bag of headlines for the papers.

The Guardian leads with

The looting of Kenya

The breathtaking extent of corruption perpetrated by the family of the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi was exposed last night in a secret report that laid bare a web of shell companies, secret trusts and frontmen that his entourage used to funnel hundreds of millions of pounds into nearly 30 countries including Britain.
The 110-page report by the international risk consultancy Kroll, seen by the Guardian, alleges that relatives and associates of Mr Moi siphoned off more than £1bn of government money. If true, it would put the Mois on a par with Africa's other great kleptocrats, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nigeria's Sani Abacha.

which shares the front page with

MoD denies deal over withdrawal from Basra

British forces have released more than two dozen Iraqi prisoners over the last three months in the run-up to their now imminent withdrawal from the UK base at Saddam's Hussein's former palace compound in Basra, though the government denies doing a deal with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army to stave off last-minute attacks.
The Ministry of Defence yesterday would say only that 26 unnamed men had been routinely released into Iraq state custody since May "because a significant criminal case was built against them". What happened to them subsequently was "a matter for the Iraq authorities". Some of the 26 have been released on bail, some freed due to insufficient evidence and some are still in custody pending trial.

The Times reports on the

Vaccine warning as measles cases triple

Parents are being urged to give their children the measles, mumps and rubella jab before the start of the new school year after an unprecedented surge of measles cases was recorded over the summer holidays. says the paper


Adding that

The Times has learnt experts fear that hundreds of thousands of children returning to school as early as next week may cause the highly infectious disease to spread. Despite this the Government has ordered no extra stocks of the MMR vaccine and doctors may run out if they face a sudden rise in demand

The Mail saying that

This is the worst outbreak since the controversial MMR vaccine was introduced in 1988.
Take-up of the triple jab - which also protects against mumps and rubella - plummeted to 80 per cent after Dr Andrew Wakefield claimed it was linked to autism and bowel problems.

It leads though with an exclusive


Middle-class pensions slashed as pay out becomes postcode lottery

Middle-class earners were dealt a new blow to their hopes of a comfortable old age yesterday.
The pensions industry announced a scheme to set retirement payouts according to postcode. It means those who live in apparently more prosperous and healthy areas of the country would receive less generous pension payments than those in less affluent districts. Those who live in leafier postcodes would be paid less every year because of an assumption that they are healthier and will live longer.

The Independent updates us on its campaign against bank charges

£2.6bn bank charges payback for 3.8m customers

In a dramatic victory for The Independent's six-month assault on the charges, an estimated three million people have obtained a full or partial refund from their bank or building society.
The figures come from a YouGov poll which found that more than one third of customers had been charged fees since 2001. Refunds averaged £685. One in 20 bank customers had been billed more than £2,500. Applying the figures to the general population, the price comparison website uSwitch said its research showed that 3.8 million current account customers would have received refunds with a total of £2.6bn.

Meanwhile the paper reports that

Brown urged to call autumn poll to quell referendum calls

Some Brown advisers are pressing the Prime Minister to seek his own mandate from the voters in October to head off demands by MPs in all parties for a referendum on a new governing treaty for the European Union. One Labour source yesterday said: "Europe is now a factor in the election decision."

Vaz to Gord: 'EU must hold poll' reports the Sun

LABOUR’S former Europe Minister Keith Vaz last night joined the mounting clamour for a referendum on the re-jigged EU Constitution.
He called on Gordon Brown to stage a decisive once-and-for-all ballot on Britain’s future in Europe — at the same time as the next election.
In an open letter to The Sun, pro-EU Mr Vaz added that the Government had to “trust the people”. He said a public vote would “settle the Europe question for a generation”.

The Telegraph meanwhile leads with the latest political polls which show

Tory blow in polls fuels election speculation

The survey shows Labour maintaining an eight-point lead over the Tories as Mr Brown enters his third month as Prime Minister.
Despite Conservative hopes that Mr Cameron would be able to gain ground once Mr Brown took over as leader, the poll puts Labour on 41 per cent (unchanged since July) with the Tories on 33 per cent (up one point).
The Liberal Democrats are down two points on 14 per cent.
If replicated at a general election, the results would give Mr Brown a Commons majority of more than 100 – up from 69 now.

There is much reporting of the aftermath of the prison officer strike

Jail dispute set to spread to other public sector unions despite talks reports the Guardian

More strikes by prison officers look inevitable in the wake of the government's response to this week's wildcat action. The justice secretary, Jack Straw, is due to meet union leaders today for "meaningful talks", but both sides appeared headed for a confrontation which could spread to other public sector unions.
Gordon Brown yesterday made it clear that the government was not prepared to put economic stability "at risk" by changing the way in which the 2.5% pay increase is being implemented in stages. "We have succeeded in tackling inflation and having a stable economy because of discipline in pay over the last 10 years," said Mr Brown. "That discipline will have to continue."

The pay rules are tough and you must be disciplined, Brown tells the unions is the headline in the Times

Mr Brown’s words were aimed at workers across the public sector and were intended to bury any lingering hopes among unions that he would soften the hawkish stance on pay settlements he adopted throughout as Chancellor in order to buy their support.
They follow a flurry of renegotiated pay settlements in which ministers have agreed to raise pay rates over the 2 per cent threshold for some of the lowest-paid health workers, civil servants and local government employees, although in each case the overall settlements remained within the limit.


MUM STABBED 20 TIMES SAVING HER TOT reports the front page of the Mirror

The extraordinary details of Tuesday's brutal gangland hit in Bishop's Stortford, Herts, were revealed to the Mirror yesterday. One of the hitmen who carried out the gangland triple murder refused to shoot a young mother and her daughter, insisting: "I didn't come to kill women."
Mum Clare, 23, was in a bedroom at boyfriend Matthew Cowell's house with her three-year-old Angel when the two assassins burst into the suburban semi.

The killers then stormed upstairs - to find Clare, Angel and Keith's sister Christine, 54, cowering in the bedroom. After a brief argument, the other man then pulled out a knife and launched his frenzied attack on Clare as she bravely flung herself across Angel in a desperate bid to protect her.
Clare miraculously survived despite suffering more than 20 wounds.

The Telegraph reporting that

Triple killings over debt of hundred pounds

Last night, detectives said they were making "good progress" finding the killers. A source said: "Drugs is a line of inquiry we are looking into. It's one of many lines of inquiry."
The police are hunting two Asian men in their late teens or early 20s seen fleeing the house in a small red vehicle and heading towards the M11 at around 9.45pm. One of the men is believed to have fired shots at all five adults in the house.



Dad's moving poem to murdered Rhys reports the Mirror

The father of murdered Rhys Jones has written a poem about his son playing football in heaven.
The moving verse imagines the soccer-mad 11-year-old joining a team of legends including George Best, Dixie Dean and Bobby Moore.
Stephen, 44, promises his son he will one day bring his boots and join him in "God's First Eleven".
He wrote the poem after Rhys was shot dead by a gunman on a BMX bike in the Fir Tree Pub car park as he walked home from football practice.

The Guardian as does many of the papers reports that

Divorces down to record low but is it love that's keeping couples together?

The number of divorces in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since 1984 amid signs that changes in legal rulings and publicity surrounding big divorce settlements are encouraging couples to stay together.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that 132,562 couples divorced last year, a 6.5% drop from 2005 and the third successive annual decrease. The divorce rate, calculated per thousand married men and women, also fell to 12.2, the lowest for 22 years.

The Times reports on the

Paedophile kept a video library of his 87 attacks on young girls

A former bank manager who videoed his sex attacks on children as young as three was jailed for life yesterday.
Anthony Barron, a volunteer treasurer for the Scouts, was convicted of 89 offences after a nine-year campaign of abuse against 11 children. Judge Julian Hall, sentencing the 54-year-old grandfather at Oxford Crown Court, said the offences were “as serious as I think I have ever come across”.

Paedophile's ex-wife: I'd slit his throat says the Mirror

after Anthony Barron was found guilty of 89 horrific offences, his ex-wife Christine said: "If he had touched my children I would slit his throat. I wouldn't even bat an eyelid - quite happily. That's the way I feel. He just disgusts me."

One of those stories in the Mail which reports that

Police pays £4,000 to the boy dumped in litter bin by officer

A police force has paid out thousands in compensation to a teenage boy who was dumped into a rubbish bin by an officer.

The plain-clothed constable hoisted Anop Singh, 15, over his shoulder and put him feet-first in the bin.
The incident, which was triggered by an exchange of words between the boy and officers, was captured on a mobile phone video by one of Anop's friends.
The teenager threatened to sue the Metropolitan Police and claimed other youths bullied him afterwards, branding him "bin boy".

Staying with the same paper it reports that

Four-year-olds 'fret for months about starting school'

Researchers say exposure to such prolonged stress could saddle children with long-term health problems.
And the stress could be rubbing off on the youngsters from over-anxious parents, according to the experts behind the government-funded report.
While pushy parents have long been blamed for burdening their offspring with high expectations, the claim that children as young as four could be suffering is a worrying development.




Primary school pupils fail to grasp three Rs reports the Telegraph

Standards among seven-year-olds in the "three Rs" have got worse or stalled, with just one in eight children mastering basic writing skills.Official figures show that the number of pupils meeting standards for writing has fallen for the second successive year while there were no improvements in the number of seven-year-olds attaining standards in maths, reading and science.

US college reacted too slowly to gun massacre says the Guardian

The president of Virginia Tech, Charles Steger, last night rejected calls to resign after an official report criticised the college authorities for having been slow to react during the massacre in April that left 33 students dead.
The report, published yesterday, questioned why police and staff failed to issue a warning between the shooting of two students and, three hours later, 31 others, including the killer, South Korean Seung-Hui Cho. A vague email was sent out two-and-a half hours after the first shooting.
The report said: "Warning the students, faculty and staff might have made a difference. The earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving."

Outrage over portrait of Bin Laden as Jesus Christ reports the Indy

Two entries in an Australian religious art competition – one depicting the Virgin Mary wearing a burqa, the other showing Osama bin Laden in a Christ-like pose – were defended by their creators yesterday.
Priscilla Brack, who created a "double vision" print fusing the images of Jesus Christ and Bin Laden, urged people to refrain from knee-jerk condemnation. Critics assumed that she was drawing similarities between the two bearded figures, she told ABC radio. "But I could actually be saying that it's a juxtaposition of good and evil, which I see as the base level reading of that work."

To the Express which tells us

SUMMER 2007 'COULD BE WETTEST EVER'

This summer is likely to be the wettest since UK rainfall records began in 1914, the Met Office said.
Provisional rainfall figures up to August 28 show that 358.5mm of rain has fallen in the UK, just above the previous record of 358.4mm in 1956.
If the figure is confirmed when all the weather stations send in their data, it would make this summer the wettest on record.
"These figures confirm what most people have already been thinking - this summer has been very wet and very disappointing for most," said Keith Groves, the Met Office's Head of Forecasting.


It's a golden delicioussssss says the Sun

A GREEDY garden snake tries to gobble up a goldfish FOUR times its width after slithering into a pond.
The snake, nicknamed Sid, has been menacing fish in a couple’s garden for the last two years.
Now Valerie Bell, 60, and husband Raymond are appealing for help to get rid of him. Valerie, of Ashford, Kent, said: “Sid is always there — it’s beyond a joke. We don’t want him. Maybe the RSPCA could help.”


Finally the Indy reports that

Britons lead Europe in passion for ready meals

Considering the ever growing success of television food programmes and the country' s current restaurant boom you might have thought that Britain was finally turning away from its reputation as Europe's culinary pariah.
But more British adults, it seems, are turning to easy to prepare ready meals than ever before making Britain the largest consumer of microwave meals in Europe. According to research, record numbers are shunning family meals and the joys of food preparation in favour of food that needs only a few minutes of microwave magic.

A mixed bag of stories this morning in the papers with none agreeing on what the main topic is.

The Guardian leads with yesterday's main story

Police warn of prison chaos

Senior police officers warned last night that the snap 12-hour strike by prison officers which led to chaotic scenes across the country yesterday could have serious implications for maintaining order both inside jails and on the streets. Leaders of other public sector unions claimed that the strike could be the start of a series of bruising clashes between the public sector and the government.
After tense discussions throughout the day the Prison Officers Association executive relented, telling its members to return to work immediately in an announcement just after 7pm yesterday.

Court forces prison officers to call off 24-hour national strike reports the Times

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) instructed members to return to work six hours after the Ministry of Justice won a court injunction to end the strike. The union’s assets could have been seized and its leaders jailed for contempt of court if it had continued to ignore the ruling, which prevented the union “from inducing, authorising or supporting any form of industrial action which would disrupt the operation of the Prison Service in England and Wales”.

It leads with the story that

Airports under fire over 2,000 job cuts

BAA, the owner of Britain’s three biggest airports, is planning to cut up to 2,000 jobs, leading airlines to give warning that a lack of staff could result in even poorer service than passengers suffer already,The Times has learnt.
Ferrovial, the Spanish company that borrowed heavily to buy BAA last year, may be preparing to sell one or more of its airports. It has ordered each of its seven airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton – to conduct a rigorous review of costs and staffing levels.

The Telegraph picks up on David Cameron's comments on newsnight last night

David Cameron talks tough on immigration

David Cameron has set out a tough new stance on immigration, promising curbs to limit the number of people coming in as a way of easing pressure on schools, hospitals and housing.Swinging his party back on to more traditional Conservative territory, the Tory leader said the number of people arriving in Britain over a decade of Labour government had been "too high".
The "huge numbers" had placed "too great a burden" on public services, which were creaking under the pressure.
"There are benefits from immigration and I want Britain to capture the benefits from that immigration," he said on BBC2's Newsnight.

Cam's lurch to the right says the Mirror

Rattled David Cameron lurched to the right last night as he went soft on taxes for the rich and played the immigration card.
The retreat to an old Tory agenda was Mr Cameron's latest attempt to rescue his floundering leadership.
When asked about the super-rich he specifically ruled out forcing them to pay more for the nation.
On immigration he said numbers of people coming in were "very high".
AdvertisementMr Cameron also confirmed plans to tax flights in the UK and abroad.

CALL ME YOU NAIL KILLER RYAN is its front page lead

The teenage killer of Rhys Jones was captured on CCTV as he rode to and from the scene of the shooting, police revealed yesterday.
Officers said that the BMX gunman was picked up by the cameras on his way to the pub where he murdered Rhys, 11.
They believe the CCTV footage could provide them with vital information.
News of the film came as a boy of 15 was arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday.

The Sun leads with an horrific murder but a ray of hope

LITTLE MIRACLE

A LITTLE girl named Angel miraculously survived as ruthless hitmen executed three men and wounded two women around her.
The terror-stricken three-year-old was shielded by the women as the slaughter went on.
And she was seen crying as she was led away by police after the massacre in Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.
It began when a distraught caller screamed for help after dialling 999 from the £250,000 semi at Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.

The Times reporting that

A three-year-old girl escaped unhurt in an attack in which three men were shot dead in what appeared to be gang-land killings.
The girl’s mother and another woman suffered serious injuries when two gunmen burst into a house in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, and fired up to ten shots in a dispute thought to be linked to drug dealing.
Keith Cowell, 52, his son Matthew, 17, and a 33-year-old man died instantly when they were shot in the head. Mr Cowell’s sister and his son’s 23-year-old girlfriend, Clare, were seriously injured in the attack on Tuesday night.

Many of the papers carry front page pictures of Britain's Christine Ohuruogu winning the 400m but the story makes the lead in the Independent which asks

A TRIUMPH OR TRAVESTY

Christine Ohuruogu's ban for life from Olympic competition is likely to be lifted by the British Olympic Association when her appeal is heard later this year, clearing the way for her to receive UK Sport funding ahead of next summer's Beijing Games.
In the wake of her remarkable victory in the women's 400m at the world championships yesterday, Ohuruogu called on the BOA to rescind the penalty, which was automatically imposed after she received a one-year ban from UK Athletics for missing three out-of-competition tests.

Christine has a Beijing dream says the Sun

DEFIANT Christine Ohuruogu won a shock gold for Britain in the 400 metres at the World Championships in Japan yesterday.
Then the East Londoner, 23, called on the British Olympic Association to let her run in the Games again.
Ohuruogu only returned to the sport on August 6 after serving a 12-month suspension imposed on her by an independent disciplinary committee for missing three dope tests.

The Mail goes in for a spot of government baiting.It leads with

Green Belt must be sacrificed to hit Brown's house-building targets

Developers who have been kept at bay by strict laws must be allowed to build thousands of homes around towns and cities, it added.
An inquiry rejected the voices of "nimby" residents and voters who hope to keep the countryside unspoiled.
A panel of inspectors commissioned by ministers said the overcrowded South-East must build more homes for a soaring population. They said leaving the Green Belt untouched "cannot be consistent with Government policy". Gordon Brown wants to build three million more homes by 2020.

And later tells us

Jobless Britain: One in five homes relies entirely on benefits

The number of households in which nobody works for a living rose to more than three million this summer, official figures revealed yesterday.
Among them were a growing number of lone parent families - the first increase in the figure for single parent homes entirely dependent on benefits in five years.
The statistics point towards a failure for Labour's policy of spending billions on benefits, childcare and incentive schemes intended to persuade those without jobs - and single mothers in particular - into employment.

Finally reporting that

Britain is 'worst in the world' for armed robbery says security boss

Nick Buckles, chief executive of Group 4 Securicor, attributed the rising level of attacks to the fact that his staff are not allowed to carry guns, leaving them vulnerable to armed raiders.
He said: "It's just part of our business. It is a rising trend, particularly in the UK, mainly because we are not armed. Britain is the worst country in the world for robbery."

The Telegraph reports that

Nelson Mandela stands tall in London

Nearly half a century ago in a very different world, Nelson Mandela walked through central London and dreamt of a statue commemorating a black man among the great and good in Parliament Square.Yesterday his wish came true. In front of thousands of fans, politicians and celebrities, a bronze sculpture of the world's most respected statesman was unveiled, taking its rightful place beside the likes Sir Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.

The papers report on the progess of talks on Pakistan,the Guardian saying

Bhutto close to deal with Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf and his exiled rival Benazir Bhutto edged closer last night to a power-sharing deal that would see Gen Musharraf retire from the army.
An agreement was "80 to 90% complete" said Ms Bhutto from London, where she has been negotiating with a senior Musharraf adviser and the Pakistani military's spy chief.
Her key demand - that Gen Musharraf give up his uniform before impending elections - has been agreed, she told the Guardian. "A lot of progress has been made, particularly on the uniform. But it's for the president to make an announcement."
Gen Musharraf has also agreed to drop corruption charges against Ms Bhutto, her husband and dozens of other legislators, in the form of a general amnesty covering 1988 to 1999, she said.

The Independent reporting that

shedding his uniform could be Mr Musharraf's most momentous decision yet. Pakistan's military has wielded great influence, during both civilian and military rule and many have questioned whether senior generals would continue to support Mr Musharraf if he was no longer head of the armed forces.

The Times reports that

British withdrawal could lead to a bloodbath, Iraq minister warns

Britain is a great power that must not “run away” from its responsibilities in Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Minister has told The Times.
Criticising Britain’s recent “lack of engagement” in the southern city of Basra, Hoshyar Zebari has forecast catastrophic consequences if London and Washington decide prematurely to withdraw their troops from Iraq: a bloodbath as the country breaks up, neighbours sucked into a regional conflict, an oil crisis and a new terrorist haven far deadlier than Afghanistan.

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports

Moqtada al-Sadr announces ceasefire in Iraq

Sadr announced yesterday that an order to stand down had been distributed to his loyalists following the deaths of more than 50 Shia Muslim pilgrims during sectarian fighting in the holy city of Karbala on Tuesday. adding that

British commanders in Basra reacted cautiously last night to a claim by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that he has ordered his militia to suspend offensive operations for six months.

According to the Guardian

Climate warning raises long-term flood fears

Scientists have urged the government to consider the full impact of global warming when drawing up plans to protect Britain from flooding. A study from the Met Office's Hadley Centre predicts that river levels will rise higher than anticipated because existing computer models do not take into account the effects of climate change on plant life.
In a warmer world, say scientists, less water will be drawn up by plants, causing greater flows into rivers like the Thames and the Severn, which burst their banks last month bringing chaos to large parts of England.

Train delays hold up 400,000 a day says the Telegraph

The state of the country's railways was laid bare in the latest report by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
It disclosed that, despite a £6 billion investment in Network Rail over the past year, there are more than 1,000 track, points and signal breakdowns every week.
Overall track failures and broken rails rose by 15 per cent from April to June, compared to the previous three months.
This comes at a time when some passengers are facing fare increases of up to 45 per cent over the next eight years. Ticket prices have already increased by 27 per cent over the last five years.

Finally most of the papers report on

Queen of Mean leaves $12m to dog – and snubs grandchildren

The Times reporting thatNew York’s “Queen of Mean” has left her pet dog in the lap of luxury with a $12 million inheritance – more than she bequeathed her human descendants.

Leona Helmsley, the billionaire property tycoon who died last week at the age of 87, cut two of her four grandchildren out of her estate entirely but bestowed a fortune on her beloved fluffy white Maltese bitch, Trouble.
Trouble will get her paws on a $12 million (£6 million) trust – more than the $5 million in cash and $5 million in trusts that Mrs Helmsley willed to each of her other two grandchildren. Only her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who will look after Trouble, could potentially get more: $5 million in cash and a $10 million trust, of which he can take 5 per cent a year.

Both the Telegraph and the Mail lead with David Cameron's message for crime,

Cameron goes on crime offensive says the former
The Tory leader unveiled plans for minimum jail sentences, an extension of stop and search powers for police, and proposals to give officers more time on the beat.
Answering calls from many in his party for more "hard-edged" Conservative policies, he disclosed a sweeping law and order offensive to address the problems of gun crime, alcohol abuse, lack of discipline in schools and family breakdown.
It was time to "draw a line in the sand" and "fight back against crime" rather than accept that it would increase inevitably, after a series of high profile murders - most recently the shooting of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Merseyside.

Tories finally get tough: Cameron pledges zero tolerance on crime says the Mail

David Cameron today pledges a zero-tolerance approach to all crime along with a major prisonbuilding programme.
The Tory leader will "relentlessly focus" on graffiti, anti-social behaviour and the other minor crimes which can lead to more serious offending.
Making his most significant policy pledges yet, Mr Cameron promises that if put in power he would end the "mockery" of criminals being released early.


The Mirror though says

Cam's £6bn prison sham

Justice Secretary Jack Straw yesterday dismissed David Cameron's law and order plans as a sham.
The Tory leader promised more prison places so villains serve their full sentence - insisting that they would be "cost neutral".
But Mr Straw revealed that providing the 60,000 new places over the next 15 years would actually cost £6.6billion. He accused Mr Cameron of trying to hoodwink voters.

Kop's tribute to Rhys

He was a Blue through and through...
But last night the Kop paid its own moving tribute to Everton-mad Rhys Jones.
More than 40,000 Liverpool fans held their scarves aloft in an extraordinary show of support for Rhys's parents Melanie and Stephen and brother Owen.
Stephen, 44, and Owen, 17 - both in Everton shirts - gripped Melanie's hands tight while the supporters joined in a thunderous minute's applause for the murdered 11-year-old.

You'll never mourn alone says the Sun

APPLAUSE for Rhys Jones rang out around Anfield last night as 43,000 Liverpool fans paid a spine-tingling tribute to the lad who was crazy about Everton.
The Blues’ famous theme tune Z Cars was played as Rhys’s parents and brother stood at pitchside.
Tannoys blared out the Johnny Todd anthem moments before Liverpool strode out for their Champions League clash against Toulouse.


Police comb wood in Rhys Jones murder hunt reports the Guardian

Following a tip-off, officers were thought to be looking in the 10-acre wood for a gun that the attacker, described as a youth aged 13-15, might have thrown away as he fled on a BMX bike. "A drip of information has been coming in overnight," said a police spokeswoman.
Merseyside police set up a base at Croxteth primary school then went into Dam Wood, which flanks the west side of the Croxteth Park estate where Rhys lived with his parents, Melanie and Stephen, and 17-year-old brother, Owen.


Mandela's message to black Britain is the Independent's lead

Nelson Mandela, the hero of the global battle for racial equality, last night made an impassioned appeal for leading black Britons to take a lead in countering violence and low achievement in the inner cities.
At the start of a visit to Britain to celebrate his own life, the former South African president said it was vital that the achievements of the UK's successful black people were harnessed to inspire those "who scale the mountains with you".
The challenge from the 89-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, who will today unveil a 9ft statue of himself in Parliament Square, comes at a time of intense debate about the need for a new generation of role models for black teenagers.

The Times leads with

Make science easier, examiners are told

Examiners will have to set easier questions in some GCSE science papers, under new rules seen by The Times. A document prepared by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents awarding bodies across Britain, says that, from next year, exam papers should consist of 70 per cent “low-demand questions”, requiring simpler or multiple-choice answers. These currently make up just 55 per cent of the paper.
The move follows growing concern about the “dumbing down” of science teaching at GCSE and grade inflation of exam results, which critics claim is the result of a government drive to reverse the long-term decline in the number of pupils studying science.

The Guardian reports on the follow up to yesterday's Mail lead

Mother takes on the MoD over £152,000 'insult' to son maimed in Afghanistan

The mother of a paratrooper who lost both legs and suffered 37 injuries in Afghanistan when a landmine exploded last September is threatening to take the government to court over the amount of compensation awarded to her son.
Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 23, who will need round-the-clock care for the rest of his life, is to be awarded £152,150 in compensation, a sum which his mother, Diane Dernie, has described as an "insult". The award is slightly more than half the maximum £285,000 that can be given to an injured soldier. A member of the 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, Lance Bombardier Parkinson also suffered a brain injury, fractures to his skull, cheekbone, nose, jaw and pelvis, fractured vertebrae, and serious damage to his spleen and chest.

Chorus of outrage at insulting payout to paratrooper who lost both legs in Afghanistan reports the Mail

Soldiers, veterans and politicians yesterday described as an 'absolute disgrace' the compensation paid to a paratrooper who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan.
Lord Guthrie, the former Chief of Defence Staff, said: "As a nation we really should be ashamed of the way we treat people like this."
He was among those reacting with incredulity to the case of Ben Parkinson, highlighted in yesterday's Daily Mail.

Iraq continues to dominate the news,the Independent reporting

Miliband: We will decide when UK troops leave Iraq

The Bush administration will not have a veto over the Government's plans to pull Britain's troops out of Iraq, ministers have made clear.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said decisions about troop withdrawals would be taken independently in the "British national interest" and stressed the situation facing British forces in Basra was "very different" to the one facing their American counterparts in Baghdad.
Downing Street backed his stance as Gordon Brown came under fire from critics of the war for refusing to set a timetable for Britain's exit from Iraq. The Prime Minister will make a detailed statement in October on the future of the 5,500 troops deployed in Iraq.

Continuing violence in the country is reported in the Telegraph

Hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims have been ordered out of the holy city of Karbala in Iraq after fighting killed 51 people and injured hundreds more.
Security officials said Mahdi Army gunmen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fired on members of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, in what appeared to be part of a power struggle between Shia groups in the south of Iraq.
Gunmen were also reported to have fired on security forces, while crowds fought with police at security checkpoints near the Imam al-Hussein mosque, the focal point of Shabaniyah, which marks the birth of the Shia imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi.


US will never let ‘friendly-fire’ witnesses go to a British court reports the Times

The families of soldiers killed by American “friendly fire” will never get to see those who may have been responsible for the deaths questioned at inquests, The Times has learnt.
In an official document seen by this newspaper, the Ministry of Defence makes clear that all requests for US service personnel to give evidence at British inquests will be turned down. The new rules will cover the deaths of the three soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan.

President Bush's comments about Iran are well covered

Bush warns of Iran 'nuclear holocaust'says the Telegraph

In a speech to US war veterans designed to shore up support for the unpopular war in Iraq and his policy in the Middle East, he said that Iran posed a danger to the whole world by pursuing nuclear weapons and supporting Islamic extremists in other countries.
"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," he said.

Keep out of Iraq, or face our wrath, Bush warns Iran says the Mail

Most of the papers report that

Gul sworn in as Turkey's president

Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, a practising Muslim and former Islamist, was yesterday sworn in as the 11th president of the staunchly secular republic in a move that will be seen as a defining moment for the country.
Mr Gul's ascent to the post came after 339 MPs - two short of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development (AK) party's presence in the 550-seat parliament - voted for the British-educated economist, in the third round of a presidential election that required a simple majority to clinch the job. says the Guardian

The Indy reports that

Senior commanders of the army - whose chief of staff General Yasar Buyukanit issued an eve-of-vote warning that "centres of evil" were trying to undermine modern Turkey's founding principles - pointedly stayed away from Mr Gul's swearing in ceremony last night.
But AKP legislators broke out in applause after the results of the vote were announced and in the Cappadocian town of Kayseri, Mr Gul's socially conservative political base, thousands of cheering residents waved Turkish flags while a cannon fired 41 rounds in celebration.

The Trials and tribulations of singer Amy Winehouse get a lot of attention,the Sun leads with

KISS OF DEATH

AMY Winehouse’s desperate dad told yesterday how he “wanted to die” when he saw pictures of his daughter drenched in blood.
The troubled Rehab singer and her junkie husband Blake Fielder-Civil were snapped covered in cuts and scratches after a furious fight at a London hotel last week.
And Amy’s dad Mitch, 57, said: “It was sickening seeing those pictures. No, it was worse than sickening — I wanted to die.

Winehouse in-laws: 'If you don't get help, you'll die' Says the Independent

On the rollercoaster ride that is Amy Winehouse's life, it is usually her own behaviour - or that of her bad boy husband - that gets her pride of place in the headlines.
Yesterday, however, it was the turn of her parents and in-laws to take the spotlight as the families of both Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil were drawn into a very public spat over the couple's controversial lifestyle.
The two sets of parents came to verbal blows over how to deal with their offspring's drug problems, with a row erupting after the singer's in-laws urged fans to stop buying her records as a message that the couple's behaviour was unacceptable. And they called on Ms Winehouse's record company to do more to stop the pair taking drugs.

And the Telegraph reports on another star with problems

Owen Wilson's plea after ‘suicide attempt’

The 38-year-old star of “Wedding Crashers” and “Zoolander” is said to be in good condition at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where he was transferred on Sunday after paramedics were called to his Santa Monica home.
A police log records a report of an attempted suicide, but does not indicate who made the call.
The actor's publicist, Ina Treciokas, declined to answer questions about whether Wilson had attempted to commit suicide.
"I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," Wilson said in a statement released by his spokesman to celebrity gossip website TMZ.com.

Four hotels ban drunk Gazza reports the Sun

SOCCER legend Paul Gascoigne got a red card from FOUR hotels for being drunk.
Alcoholic Gazza has been guzzling pints of lager and VODKA in posh Puerto Banus in Spain — despite a near-death scare in June.
But there was no room at the inn when he tried to find a hotel after his latest 24-hour bender around Marbella.

The Times reports on the

return of tarring and feathering

The past is supposed to be just that, but in Northern Ireland it refuses to go away. In a chilling reminder of the darkest days of terrorist “justice” a man has been tarred and feathered by hooded attackers.
In a scene reminiscent of the 1970s, when the Provisional IRA regularly meted out this savage treatment in areas where it held sway, the loyalist Ulster Defence Association is suspected of leaving the victim tied to a lamppost in a street in South Belfast.
The attack took place on Sunday in the strongly loyalist Taughmonagh estate. Pictures of the attack appear to have been recorded on a mobile telephone camera. They show passersby looking on as the “punishment attack” was administered. After tar was poured over the man’s head, feathers were emptied over him and a placard hung around his neck claiming that the victim, said to be a local man in his thirties, was a drug dealer. It read: “I’m a drug dealing scumbag.” The victim has not been identified, nor has he come forward to the authorities.

The Guardian continues its theme of the week after city bonuses it tells of

The boardroom bonanza

Boardroom pay at the UK's top companies soared 37% last year as full-time directors were rewarded with inflation-busting increases in basic salaries, big cash bonuses and substantial payouts from share schemes.
The surge in pay, which takes the average total pay for a chief executive to £2,875,000, is more than 11 times the increase in average earnings and nearly 20 times the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index. The ratio between bosses' rewards and employees' pay has risen to 98:1, up from 93:1 a year ago - meaning that the work of a chief executive is valued almost 100 times more highly than that of their employees.

Finally the Telegraph reports that

Spiderman suit could see humans scale walls

A "Spiderman suit" that allows the wearer to scale vertical walls just like the fictional superhero could one day be a reality.Italian scientists have calculated how sufficient stickiness could be generated in the same way to support a human being's body weight.They believe microscopic hollow structures called carbon nanotubes could theoretically be used to make the idea work.
Prof Nicola Pugno, from the Polytechnic of Turin, said: "It may not be long before we are seeing people climbing up the Empire State Building with nothing but sticky shoes and gloves to support them."

Both the Sun and the Mirror take the same lead this morning with the comments made by the parents of murdered Rhys Jones.

We blame Killers parents says the Sun

THE devastated mother of murdered Rhys Jones told yesterday how she blamed his hoodie killer’s PARENTS.
Melanie, 41, — who cradled her 11-year-old son after he was shot by a teenage thug — said the family were responsible for leaving the gunman capable of murder.
Sobbing beside shattered husband Stephen in Liverpool, she said: “The parents don’t care. I blame the parents most of all. There are no boundaries any more. There’s no respect.”

Rhys' Mum-We blame the parents is the Mirror's headline.

Melanie said she and Stephen were shocked to learn the hooded bike-riding killer who shot dead Rhys in Croxteth Park, Liverpool last week may be as young as 13.
She said: "It's horrendous. What are their parents doing, is what I want to know.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that

More prisons are not the answer to punishing criminals, says poll
A Guardian/ICM poll published today overturns the assumption that the public think tough prison sentences are the best way to tackle crime. It shows that a majority of voters think the government should scrap its prison building programme and find other ways to punish criminals.
Politicians in all parties routinely assume that voters think prison works. But 51% of those questioned want the government to find other ways to punish criminals and deter crime.


The papers though have a variety of leads.The Telegraph claims that

120 Labour MPs demand EU referendum

The figure - more than a third of the Parliamentary Party - was disclosed by Ian Davidson, a Scottish Labour MP who, despite being close to Mr Brown, is co-ordinating the strong internal campaign for the British people to be given a say.
Mr Davidson, who has written to Mr Brown on behalf of the Labour rebels demanding major changes to the proposed EU Treaty - or alternatively a referendum - told The Daily Telegraph that support among his fellow MPs was running at levels similar to 2004 when Tony Blair had to give way and promise a plebiscite

Meanwhile according to the Independent

Brown accused of trying to stifle debate at Labour conference

Gordon Brown is facing his first serious clash with Labour's rank and file amid claims that he is attempting to quash debate in the party.
Union leaders and party left-wingers have warned that they will be stripped of the right to put forward emergency motions to the party conference.
A string of so-called "contemporary resolutions" has caused headaches for the Labour leadership in recent years, provoking embarrassing conference clashes over issues from Iraq to foundation hospitals. This year activists are working to secure debate on a potentially controversial motion on council housing.


The Times runs with the latest on the war on terror

Army chief predicts a 'generation of conflict'

The head of the Army has ordered his senior staff to make preparations for “a generation of conflict”, in a speech that the Ministry of Defence tried to keep secret.
General Sir Richard Dannatt gave warning of the dangers posed by a “strident Islamist shadow” and suggested that the British Army was “on the edge of a new and deadly Great Game in Afghanistan”.
He also told senior staff that the trust and respect of the public could be “increasingly difficult to gain” in the context of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The challenge of this generation is as great as any that have gone before us,” he added.

The Independent also has an Afghanistan theme

Record opium crop helps the Taliban fund its resistance

Britain faces a war on two fronts in Afghanistan, following the revelation that the province where British troops are deployed has become the biggest source of illicit drugs in the world.
In an annual survey of opium production released yesterday, the UN reported that Helmand province had produced 48 per cent more opium compared to its record-breaking crop last year. Opium production in Afghanistan as a whole will reach a "frighteningly new level" at 8,200 tons, 34 per cent higher than last year, the report said.

Insult to a hero: Horrifically-injured soldier gets a mere £150,000 in compensation
is the lead in the Mail

Ben Parkinson volunteered to serve his country on the Afghan front line - and paid a terrible price.

The young paratrooper suffered a total of 37 terrible injuries when he was blown up by a landmine.

He lost both his legs and sustained grievous damage to his spine, skull, pelvis, hands, spleen and ribcage, leaving him in a coma for months.
Incredibly, 23-year-old Ben is still alive almost a year later - according to his doctors the most badly-injured soldier ever to survive.
All his mother wants is to buy a bungalow so she can care for him there.
Yet as recompense for his ruined life, Ben has been offered only £152,150 - little more than half the maximum award for maimed military personnel and less than a third of the £484,000 doled out to an RAF typist who claimed she had suffered repetitive strain injury to her thumb.

Basra rifles stolen reports the Mirror

Thousands of British troops were placed on high alert at Basra Air Base yesterday over fears a terror gang broken into the camp.
All soldiers were on standby at midday after eight SA80 assault rifles were stolen and an "early warning' system" that protects troops against attack was spiked. The huge generator which powers the base's main alarm was also taken.




Brown dismisses pressure to quit Iraq says the Guardian

Gordon Brown last night dismissed pressure to set an early timetable for the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq as an option that would betray international obligations and threaten the safety of the troops on the ground.
The prime minister used a letter to the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, to reassure Washington that he does not intend to cut and run from the US-led coalition despite growing American fears, spiced with criticism that British strategy faces defeat in the four southern provinces under London's control since the 2003 invasion.

It leads though with the story that

City bonuses hit record high with £14bn payout

City bonuses have increased by 30% to a record £14bn this year. The rise is twice as big as in 2006 and likely to exacerbate the widening gap between executive and shop-floor pay. The bonuses come against a background of record debt, rising bankruptcies and home repossessions.
Analysis by the Guardian of preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that bonuses across the economy rose 24% this spring to £26.4bn, comfortably exceeding the country's entire transport budget. More than half, £14.1bn, was earned by the 1 million people in the financial services sector. The figure for 2006 bonuses was £10.9bn.

Anna Politkovskaya arrests add to Russia row reports the Telegraph

Russian authorities have hinted that Boris Berezovsky, a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin who lives in London, was behind the murder of an investigative journalist in Moscow.Anna Politkovskaya, who was investigating human rights abuses by the Russians in Chechnya, was shot in the lift of her apartment block on Oct 7 last year. Her death - the 13th murder of a journalist in Russia under Mr Putin's rule - provoked outrage.
Russia's prosecutor-general announced that 10 serving and retired police and security service officers had been arrested in connection with the death but insisted that they were acting under someone else's orders.

The Independent reporting that

Figures within the Russian Interior Ministry and secret services have been arrested as accomplices to the crime, but it was hinted that the mastermind of the murder was the oligarch living outside Russia.
The person who ordered the crime, said Mr Chaika, was living outside Russia and wanted to "destabilise the situation in the country ... and return to the previous ruling system, when money and oligarchs decided everything."

It as many of the papers reports on

Attorney General becomes the latest Bush ally to quit

The US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a close friend of President George Bush and one of the most controversial members of the administration, resigned abruptly yesterday without explanation.
Mr Gonzales was the architect of the Bush administration's policy of placing detainees captured in the fight against terrorism beyond the protection of any law. His policies cleared the way for brutality against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and other secret "black site" prisons.
But his downfall came when critics said he lied under oath to Congress over the firing of nine US attorneys and for ordering the FBI to spy on Americans without court warrants.

Another resignation in the Times

John Prescott will stand down as MP at the next general election

He issued a statement saying that he would remain an MP for the rest of this Parliament. Last week he had dismissed speculation of plans for such an announcement as “press prattle”.
Mr Prescott, 69, is expected eventually to take a seat in the Lords, but will spend the next few months working on his memoirs, for which he has secured an advance of £300,000.

The Mail reports how

Diana service led to Camilla and Charles' worst row

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall had "their worst row since they married" over her determination to pull out of attending the Diana memorial service.
Camilla felt she had been let down by her husband and his advisers, who repeatedly reassured her that it would be "appropriate" to attend.
She was particularly angry that courtiers allowed matters to drag along for so long, making her 11th-hour decision not to attend Friday's service seem the result of being boxed into a corner - when the truth was that all along she had grave misgivings about attending.

CAMILLA'S QUEEN DREAM IN SHATTERS says the Express

PRINCE CHARLES’S dream of making Camilla his Queen have suffered a dramatic setback amid the row over Princess Diana’s memorial service.
The heir to the throne’s failed attempt to have his second wife attend this week’s 10th anniversary service of thanksgiving for Diana has raised questions about his judgment, royal insiders said yesterday.

It leads again with Maddy

MADDY: NEW SETBACK OVER DNA EVIDENCE

THE search for Madeleine McCann was dealt a devastating blow last night after it was revealed that DNA tests needed to unlock the case will not be ready for weeks.
Officers have been on standby, ready to arrest a suspect as soon as the results are confirmed.
But the crucial evidence is still not ready. DNA samples were taken earlier this month from the bedroom where the four-year-old girl disappeared. The discovery of the samples led to what detectives described as a “decisive stage” in the investigation.


Statins 'may ease risk of dementia' reports the Telegraph

An American study found that patients on cholesterol-lowering drugs had fewer signs of Alzheimer's.
Doctors are excited that statins, which cost as little as 60p a day, could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's by as much as four-fifths.
A team at Washington University, in Seattle, found fewer "tangles" and "plaques", which are signs of Alzheimer's, in the brains of people who took statins than in those who did not.

Staying with health matters and the Times reports that

Patient care was damaged by the chaotic changeover of junior doctors at the beginning of the month, an opinion poll for The Times has shown.
A clear majority of hospital consultants who responded to the poll on doctors.net, the largest medical website, said that care had been somewhat worse or much worse as a result of the change.
Over Britain as a whole, 11 per cent said that patient care had been much worse, and 42 per cent somewhat worse, compared with previous years.

And the Guardian reports

NHS surgery success rates to be made public

A radical overhaul of NHS strategy which will give patients a right to know the success rates of every specialist unit in every hospital is being planned by leading surgeons and government officials. For the first time, patients will be allowed to compare the quality of the clinical care provided in each NHS department.
People with a particular medical condition will be able to assess the quality of the relevant specialist teams at rival NHS hospitals before choosing where to go for treatment. In some specialties, results for individual surgeons may be available.

The Sun reports from Greece where

Brit girls tell of Greece terror

TWO British girls told last night how they ran for their lives as Greece’s catastrophic fires raged around them — so close they felt their skin would melt.
Terrified campers Rebecca Batchelor and Florence Huntley, both 21, fled to the beach ready to jump into the sea as burning ash rained down.
It was their only hope of escape — all roads were blocked by the killer blaze.
Nursery nurse Rebecca said: “I feared we would be burned alive. It was so hot it felt like our skin was melting. It was hell.

The Express reports that

Meat prices are set to increase because of financial pressures on British farmers, an expert said.
Livestock producers are facing a hike of nearly 100% in their animal feed costs, according to business advisory firm Deloitte.
And the recent foot-and-mouth scare was another financial blow to the industry.
If foreign markets do not fully resume imports of British produce it will mean further revenue losses, Deloitte warned.
Richard Crane, food and agriculture partner at Deloitte, said meat price rises would be needed to support the British industry.
"Consumers hold the key to a more resilient future. UK shoppers will have to pay more for their meat.

Finally the Mirror reports on the

700-mile tractor trek

A tractor fan drove his 44-year-old machine on a 700-mile pilgrimage from Germany to the factory where it was made - only to find it is now a housing estate.
Wolfgang Mueller, 65, had dreamed for years of taking his red Massey Ferguson MF35 back to Coventry.
Two weeks after retiring, the farmer left Stuttgart, chugging at less than 30mph towing a caravan through Luxembourg and France and catching a ferry at Calais.
He took country lanes and B-roads to Basildon, Essex, to look at New Holland tractor-makers, then to get a photo of his vehicle at London Bridge.
But when he reached the spot where Massey Ferguson had been based, he saw rows of houses called Bannerbrook Park

The face of Camilla looks out from many of the front pages as the 10th anniversary of Diana's death approaches

Queen lets Camilla 'off the hook' says the Mirror

The Queen told Camilla she could pull out of Diana's 10th anniversary service to "get her off the hook", a royal expert claimed last night.
Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, said: "This could only have come from the Queen, it could only have come from the highest. She probably said 'You don't have to do this Camilla - you really don't have to do this'.
"Camilla probably thought it was her duty to go, but now she's been let off the hook."

Camilla pulls out of Diana memorial on Queen's advice is the headline in the Mail

A word from the Queen led to the Duchess of Cornwall's announcement that she would not be attending the Diana memorial service.
According to insiders, Camilla agonised to her mother-in-law about the dilemma she felt her presence would present.
Buckingham Palace had watched with growing unease the insistence of Clarence House courtiers that Camilla's presence at the event would be "appropriate".

HATE MAIL FURY FORCES CAMILLA OUT says the Sun

Quoting a seniot royal source the paper says

This is yet another PR disaster for Clarence House.
“Camilla was more than happy to stay away but decided to attend following advice from her top aides.“As soon as news leaked out, the scale of this miscalculation began to sink in. In the past four weeks alone she has been sent dozens of letters demanding she stay away.
“Camilla has worked tirelessly to improve her public image. But this shambles has set her back five years.”

The paper leads on the Liverpool shooting

COPS HAVE KEY WITNESS says the paper

A WOMAN who might have seen the killer of schoolboy Rhys Jones offered to speak to police yesterday.
Senior officers had issued an urgent appeal for her to contact them.
She was believed to have walked past the murderer as he made his way to the pub car park.
But detectives said it was crucial that more witnesses came forward.

Rhys 'was hit by schoolboy's stray bullet in gang dispute over girl'reports the Times

Detectives believe that Rhys, 11, was accidentally hit by a stray bullet as he walked through a pub car park on the private Croxteth Park housing estate in Liverpool last Wednesday.
The intended victim is believed to have been a senior member of The Strand gang — known as the Nogga Dogs — who had started a relationship with a girl from Croxteth Park. The gun boy was allegedly ordered to carry out the attack by an older member of the Croxteth Crew gang because the rival was with a former girlfriend of his. The Croxteth Crew are based on a nearby social-housing estate.

Rhys murder: police release all suspects says the Independent

Four people being questioned in connection with the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones have been released without charge, while two more have been released on police bail, police said today.
One boy aged 15 and a man aged 19, as well as a 15-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman were released this morning without charge.
Merseyside Police said a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man had been released on bail pending further inquiries.
This means no one remains in police custody in connection with the death of the 11-year-old in Croxteth Park, Liverpool, on Wednesday.

Elsewhere the Telegraph leads with

British Armed Forces staff shortage crisis

The Daily Telegraph has learned,The Armed Forces are missing thousands of specialised soldiers, sailors and airmen crucial to continuing the fight against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.New figures show an alarming shortage of vital staff, with more than a third of Army medical posts now vacant - leading to fears that lives are being put at risk.

The Times leads with

Safety fears over new register of all children

Senior social workers have given warning of the dangers posed by a new government register that will store the details of every child in England from next year.
They fear that the database, containing the address, medical and school details of all under-18s, could be used to harm the children whom it is intended to protect.

The Guardian leads with its latest opinion poll

Poll warning to Brown over October election gamble

Gordon Brown would risk the possible loss of his parliamentary majority if he gambled and held an early general election this autumn, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows Labour's lead narrowing slightly to five points amid signs of rising Conservative support.
The poll, carried out before the start of the bank holiday weekend, confirms that Labour is in a stronger position than it was before Mr Brown took over as leader. Support for the party stands at 39%, up one point on last month's Guardian/ICM survey. But Conservative support has increased by two points to 34%. Both major parties are squeezing the Liberal Democrats, down two points to 18%, a trend seen in other recent polls.

Most of the papers report on the fires ranging on the Greek mainland the Guardian reporting that

A Greek prosecutor today ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks, which have been blamed for the worst forest fires in decades, could be considered terrorist acts.
The public order ministry said Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is responsible for prosecuting terrorism and organised crime, ordered the investigation to determine "whether the crimes of arsonists and of arson attacks on forests carried out in the country during the summer of 2007" could come under Greece's anti-terrorism law.
The investigation would also seek to identify those who were responsible, the statement said.
At least 63 people have died in the fires. A blaze broke out today on the fringes of Athens, burning down a slope of Mount Ymittos and threatening a suburb of the capital.

63 dead in Greek forest fires reports the Times

Over the weekend the Prime Minister placed Greece on an emergency footing and declared three days of mourning for the victims, who included two French tourists burnt to death while hiking on Mount Taygetos, above Sparta. Yesterday rescuers near Olympia found the remains of a mother and her four children, whom she was still clutching. The Olympic Star, a seaside hotel at Amarynthos, 70 miles north of Athens, was evacuated. No British tourists or residents have been reported hurt.

The Independent's front page is a message from Darfur by Mia Farrow who writes

I am a witness to Darfur's suffering

My first visit to Darfur was in 2004. It changed the way I needed to live my life. I have just returned from my seventh trip to the region. I don't think I have the words to adequately represent what I have seen and heard there.
Incomprehensibly, it has now been more than four years since the killing began. Some experts believe half a million human beings have died thus far. Others bicker about the exact death toll - as if it makes a shred of difference to how we must respond.
Only the perpetrators dispute that hundreds of thousands of innocent men women and children have been killed, in ways that cannot be imagined or described. It is all the more appalling that we cannot know - that no one is yet able to count the dead. And the dying continues.


The Express continues to lead with Maddy

NEW SLURS OVER 'CORPSE' says the paper

THE campaign of slurs against Kate and Gerry McCann continued last night after it was claimed the scent of a corpse had been detected on their car keys.
The allegations, in a Portuguese newspaper, are the latest in a long line of lurid and hurtful stories hinting that the couple were somehow to blame for their daughter’s disappearance

Maddy: It's over says the Mirror

The father of Madeleine McCann has lost faith in the Portuguese police investigation to find his missing daughter and plans to wind down the media campaign.
Gerry McCann also hinted that he and his wife Kate, 39, were preparing to take the decision finally to return to Britain with their twins.
Gerry, who speaks regularly to detectives, said police seem to be no closer to solving the crime.

The Independent reports that

Iraq: British retreat descends into chaos as Shia militia occupy police centre

Shia militia loyal to the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have scuppered an attempt by British forces to hand over the Basra joint police command centre to Iraqi police.
Iraqi police reportedly left when the Shia fighters arrived and began emptying the facility. According to witnesses, they made off with generators, computers, furniture and even cars, saying it was war booty - and were still in the centre yesterday evening.
The embarrassing episode, which comes as the British in Basra are preparing to move their remaining soldiers to the city airport as part of a planned withdrawal, once again highlights the strength of the militia in the city.

US pressure forces move to reconciliation says the Guardian

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, and fellow leaders in the country have reached consensus on key areas of national reconciliation, under mounting US pressure to demonstrate political progress on the eve of a key report to Congress on the Baghdad security "surge".
The Shia prime minister appeared on television flanked by Jalal Talabani, the country's Kurdish president, and the Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, to announce a deal on easing restrictions on former members of the Ba'ath party joining the civil service and military.

The Times meanwhile reports that

42 die in bomb attacks on 'lucky' weekend

India’s technology hub of Hyderabad was on high alert last night as security forces hunted the Islamic militants whom they blame for a double bombing that killed 42 people in the city.
Police also disclosed that they had defused 19 more bombs hidden in plastic bags at bus stops, cinemas, road junctions and pedestrian bridges across the city.
The blasts on Saturday - one in a restaurant and another during a laser show at an outdoor auditorium - were the latest in a series of attacks on Indian cities since 2001.
If all the bombs had detonated, police believe they would have dwarfed even the worst of the recent attacks – the multiple train bombings in Bombay that killed 186 last year.

The Guardian says that the

Cumbria rail crash report to question safety of 1960s track technology

The safety of up to 700 sets of points used across the rail network will be called into question next month as a key report outlines the causes of last February's fatal train crash in Cumbria.
A study of the Grayrigg derailment, due to be published over the next fortnight, will provoke concern about decades-old railway technology that is still in widespread use.
The rail industry report is expected to state that Network Rail will examine the design of groundframe points after a faulty set derailed a Virgin train travelling at 95mph on February 23 2007 killing one person and injuring 22. If the equipment needs to be replaced the rail infrastructure firm would have to change up to 700 sets of points at a cost of millions.

According to the Telegraph

Fishermen 'discard two-thirds of catch'

The study of the amount of the catch in British waters that is “discarded” because it is too small or the wrong species found that almost two thirds of the fish caught are thrown back over the side dead.
Scientists estimated that a total of 186 million fish weighing 72,000 tons was caught by English and Welsh commercial fishing vessels in the English Channel, Western Approaches, Celtic and Irish Seas between 2002 and 2005.

The sun comes out for Notting Hill's big day reports the Indy

Under clear blue skies, the Notting Hill Carnival's bright costumes and barrage of music formed a dazzling antidote to what is close to becoming Britain's wettest ever summer.

Thousands of revellers danced as the party kicked off in the streets of west London. More than one million are expected to attend the two-day carnival - Europe's biggest street festival - which began with the usual children's parade. Steel bands competed with Caribbean soca tunes and calypso music belting from sound systems mounted on trucks as the parade of floats and young dancers in elaborate feather headdresses and multicoloured sequinned costumes passed.

Summer shows up at last says the Telegraph

Much of the country was bathed in glorious sunshine with the thermometer reaching as high as 77F (25C).
The best of the sun was seen along the south coast where thousands of people took to the beaches to make the most of the three-day weekend.
In Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Weymouth, the temperatures peaked at 75F (23.8C) by the mid-afternoon yesterday.

Balmy Britain basks in Bank Holiday heaven - but traffic hell is on the way says the Mail


Finally the sharks have returned to the Sun

Scot shark: Sea you, Swimmy!

A STUNNED oil worker told yesterday how he videoed one of the world’s deadliest sharks off SCOTLAND.
Lance Baldwin, 40, and colleague Scott Munro, 26, filmed the killer Mako with a remote-control underwater camera.
The pair, who were doing safety checks on a rig off the Aberdeen coast, thought the shark — swimming 100ft down — was a Great White.
Experts revealed it was a deadly Mako — famed for leaping out of the water on to boats to attack humans.

The shooting in Liverpool continues to dominate the papers although the deaths of three British troops in Afghanistan under friendly fire gets much of the headlines

Three British troops killed by US jet says the Guardian

An urgent investigation was under way last night into why a US fighter plane killed three British soldiers, and seriously injured two others, after it was called in to support UK troops engaged in a fierce battle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.
In the worst "friendly fire" incident involving British forces in the country, an American F-15 long-range strike aircraft dropped a single 500lb bomb killing the soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Outcry as 'friendly fire' kills three UK soldiers reports the Telegraph

The Ministry of Defence has faced heavy criticism for failing to provide troops with technology that could help prevent "friendly fire" incidents after three soldiers died when an American jet dropped a bomb on them. Ministers had been warned by MPs this year that they had repeatedly failed to invest in a combat identification system to protect British forces from accidental attacks by allies.

A DEADLY BLUNDER? A DEADLY GAMBLE? says the Mirror

The men of B Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, were fighting off a heavy attack from several Taliban positions - some only 200 metres away - near the small British base at Kajaki in the southern Helmand province on Thursday evening.
They radioed an urgent request for air support and two F15 jets were sent in. One dropped the single laser-guided bomb and it hit the British troops.
The survivors were evacuated to a field hospital at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand. Spokesman Lt Col Charlie Mayo said: "One is seriously injured and the other very seriously injured."


Sun offers £100k to catch killer as the paper takes the lead in the invetigations

THE Sun today offers a £100,000 reward to catch the BMX boy who murdered Rhys Jones.
Police have hit a wall of silence in their hunt for the 11-year-old soccer fan’s killer.
The reward has the backing of police and Rhys’s parents Stephen, 44, and Melanie, 41.
We put up the huge sum as cops quizzed a 16-year-old boy over the murder of Rhys, who was shot dead on Wednesday night in a pub car park near his home in Croxteth, Liverpool.

An arrest - but still police meet silence says the Times

Simmering tension threatened to erupt into violence in Liverpool last night as police confronted bitterness and anger among residents in the community that was home to Rhys Jones.
The 11-year-old schoolboy’s murder has exposed a widening divide between Merseyside Police and those who live in the Croxteth Park area of the city.
Local people complained that the force had failed to address concerns about gang-related crime. Police responded by expressing their frustration at the lack of information emerging from the community, which was hampering their efforts to track down Rhys’s killer.

Mother's tearful return to the spot where Rhys was gunned down is the lead in the Mail

The pain was obvious on their faces as for five minutes they walked among the flowers and Everton football shirts at the spot which has become a makeshift shrine in the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, where Rhys was shot by a young killer on a BMX bicycle on Wednesday evening.
They took with them their own flowers and messages of love.

Meanwhile the Independent asks

The real question: why are our children prepared to kill one another? on its front page

The harrowing and sad death of Rhys Jones brought home this week the unseen and sinister infrastructure for young people to use firearms that now exists in Britain's cities. The rage, bewilderment and hatred that have followed Rhys's murder while he walked home from playing football are understandable. Questions are being asked about whether we have a state of anarchy on our streets, whether a generation is being lost to violent lyrics, images that glorify murder and poor parenting. The eight children on the front page, all of them aged under 18, are unified by one single fact: they all had their lives cut short this year by their fellow teenagers.

The Guardian meanwhile reports as

The Nogzy, the Crocky and the bizzies - a teen 'soldier' speaks

I'm a Nogadog, me. I've been one for four years and I'm 17 now. I thought it was a good thing when I was young. It was all my mates. You are just a Nogzy soldier. We are all Nogzy soldiers.
It's not a nice thing to be into, fighting and shooting and that. But that's it. It can be with fists or with knives, whatever someone prefers. Or guns. I haven't used a gun, though I have shot one off in the park once. If I was in danger and lads were after me then I would use one - there are two Crocky lads after me now. If you are fighting and you have something on you, then you are just going to use it.

David Cameron vows to mend 'broken society' reports the Telegraph

After a two-week holiday squeezed into a difficult political summer, he is back on front-line duty - answering questions about the killing of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool.
As well as shock and sympathy, the Tory leader says he felt deep admiration for Rhys's parents when he heard their moving appeal for help to find their son's killer, and for society to mend its ways.


Cam tells parents: Do your job reports the Sun

Fuelled by dismay at the shooting murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, the Tory leader said that it was time for ministers to look deeper into the issue rather than just call for further crackdowns.
Speaking on a visit to Oxfordshire, he called on the music and computer games industry and magazines to relent in their portrayal of violence

The Guardian reports on another incident

'Tragedy beyond words' for family as woman, 20, dies after park attack

A 20-year-old woman who was severely beaten during an alleged mob attack died from her injuries yesterday.
Sophie Lancaster was walking through the skating area of Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, with her boyfriend Robert Maltby, 21, when they were attacked by a gang of youths in the early hours of August 11. The couple, whose injuries were so bad that police were initially unable to determine their sexes, were taken to Rochdale Infirmary.

And more in the Mail which reports that

British Bank Holiday getaway descends into chaos with motorway shooting

The Bank Holiday getaway descended into chaos for thousands of travellers today after a gunman fired shots at a police car on a major motorway route.
Motorists were stuck in tailbacks on the M5 for most of the day, with further misery caused by an overturned lorry on the popular stretch to Devon and Cornwall.
Ten mile queues built up on several adjoining roads as frustrated holidaymakers attempted to find alternative routes.

Adds the paper

The chaos began at 4.10am when police stopped to check a blue 3-series BMW parked in a layby outside a garden centre near junction 12 of the M5.
But the L-reg car, which was carrying at least two people, sped away suddenly and two shots were fired from it in the direction of the police car.
Neither of the shots hit the car but the motorway was shut in both directions for several hours so forensic officers could examine the scene for clues, such as bullet casings. The BMW made a successful getaway.


Summer's here at last (... well, almost)says the Telegraph

In the West temperatures rose with Exeter hitting 77F (25C), and it was a similar story in the Midlands and Yorkshire.It was good news for deckchair and ice-cream vendors in coastal resorts such as Bournemouth as beaches which had been deserted for much of the summer filled up at long last.
The picture was rather less encouraging towards London and the South East.
Festival-goers at Reading may not have been rained on, but with water from recent downpours still not having drained, the best word to describe the conditions underfoot was "squelchy".

Much coverage of the Edinborough Tv festival

Paxman takes aim at BBC and 24-hour news culture says the Guardian

Jeremy Paxman last night attacked the 24-hour television news culture, which he says prizes emotion over reasoned argument and live reportage over uncovering stories.
He also used the flagship opening night speech at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival to attack the BBC, claiming its future could be in jeopardy because of the quality of its programmes.
"In the very crowded world in which television lives, it won't do to whisper, natter, cogitate or muse," he told the audience of TV executives. "You have to shout. The need is for constant sensation. The consequence is that reporting now prizes emotion over much else.

BBC’s licence fee could soon be indefensible, says Paxman reports the Times

The presenter of Newsnight gave warning that the BBC’s licence fee funding would become a thing of the past unless it was able to articulate “a clear sense of purpose and express it through much better protection of the defining brands”.
Speaking before an audience at the Edinburgh Television Festival, he predicted that there would probably be “one more licence fee settlement” but said that it would be “foolish to be too confident” that there would be a fourth or fifth to follow. He also high-lighted worries about a decline of standards in television, including the phone-in scandals on Blue Peter, Comic Relief and Children in Need.

The Mail meanwhile asks

Has Channel Four sounded the death knell for reality TV

Celebrity Big Brother is to be scrapped following accusations of racist bullying during the last series.
Channel 4 will turn its back on the reality show - and four other successful programmes - as it aims to concentrate on new, high-quality material.
However, industry insiders believe the decision not to run the celebrity show in 2008 may herald the beginning of the end for Big Brother.

The Independent reports that

Prime Minister and top footballers 'are overpaid'

A survey of what makes a "reasonable" wage shows the gulf between most people's idea of a fair day's pay for a day's work and what is actually taken home.
Premiership football stars are worth only £62,000 a year, a tenth of their average earnings, while the chief executives of top companies should command annual salaries of no more than £120,000 - a world away from the FTSE 100 average of more than £750,000, according to the poll for the Fabian Society, the Labour think-tank.The YouGov survey of 3,000 people found that best-selling authors should only receive £80,000 a year, while a reasonable pay packet for Prime Minister Gordon Brown was £135,000, more than £50,000 less than his actual salary of £187,000.


Democrats demonised for backing Bush in Iraq reports the Telegraph

Two of the Democratic party’s most influential strategists have been transformed into hate figures of the American Left after daring to support President George W. Bush’s tactics in Iraq.
Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, military analysts at Washington’s liberal Brookings Institution, declared themselves as unlikely allies of Mr Bush when they wrote an article in the New York Times titled “A War We Might Just Win".

The Independent reports that

Merkel under pressure to ban neo-Nazi party

Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming under mounting pressure to ban Germany's main neo-Nazi party following a brutal attack on eight Indian traders who were chased and beaten by a mob screaming racist abuse.
A leader of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) was charged with inciting racial hatred yesterday after he proposed Adolf Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hours after Udo Voigt made the remarks in a speech in Jena marking the 20th anniversary of Hess's death last Saturday night, the Indian men were chased through the nearby town of Mügeln.

Last of the Romanov children to be reunited in death with the Tsar reports the Times

archaeologists are convinced that they have found the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, Tsar Nicholas II’s haemophiliac son and heir, and one of his four sisters, the Grand Duchess Maria. The discovery near the Urals city of Ekaterinburg, where the family was killed by firing squad, may settle an enduring controversy over the fate of the Romanov dynasty after the Communists seized power in 1917.
More than 40 bone fragments, seven teeth, three bullets and part of a dress have been sent to forensic science experts for examination. They were uncovered after archaeologists identified the burial site from a 1934 report to local communist bosses by Yakov Yurovsky, the lead executioner.

The Guardian meanwhile reports on a modern Russia

The Maks-2007 international airshow near Moscow was the biggest in Russia's post-Soviet history - and an apparent symbol of Russia's resurgent military might. Last week, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia's ageing fleet of strategic bombers had resumed "combat missions". On Tuesday, the MoD said the RAF had sent out two Typhoon fighters after spotting a Tupolev-95 bomber heading towards British airspace.
The encounter seemed to symbolise Russia's renewed military threat and follows a tumultuous eight months in which a hawkish Mr Putin has denounced US power, torn up a conventional arms agreement with Nato, grabbed a symbolic chunk of the Arctic, and accused Britain of "stupidity" in its handling of the Alexander Litvinenko murder.

Finally the Independent reports as

Americans celebrate a national symbol as the Big Mac turns 40

It's up there with the dollar bill and the Statue of Liberty as one of the great symbols of American culture, so it seems only fitting that the Big Mac's 40th birthday be marked in style this week, with the opening of its own museum.
Fans of the world-famous burger can now immerse themselves in its history and play Big Mac games at the museum in Pennsylvania, which calls itself "the most tasteful in the world".
The triple-decker sandwich - with its two beef patties, sauce, lettuce, a sesame seed bun, and a distinctive middle layer of bread - was an instant success when it was invented by a McDonald's franchise owner, Jim Delligatti, in 1967.

Nearly all the papers lead with the shooting of the 11 year old boy in Liverpool

Gang warfare goes public says the Guardian

The apparently random shooting of 11-year-old Rhys Jones on a Liverpool street yesterday exposed a barely concealed culture of violent gangs glorying in crime.
As residents of Croxteth Park, campaigners and politicians denounced the senseless murder of a shy, polite boy who lived for football, Gordon Brown described the killing as a "heinous crime that shocked the whole of the country". He added: "The people responsible will be tracked down, arrested and punished." Merseyside's chief constable, Bernard Hogan-Howe, described the murder as the most shocking crime in his 20 years' service and said Rhys was probably Merseyside's youngest-ever gun crime victim.

The short, happy life of Rhys Jones says the Times

When the leavers’ service was held a few weeks ago at Broad Square Primary School in Liverpool, 11-year-old Rhys Jones and his friends were told that a world of opportunities was waiting for them. They were urged to grab those opportunities with both hands.
But for Rhys they disappeared in a pub car park on Wednesday night when he was shot three times in the neck and left to die in his mother’s arms. Last night, a weeping Melanie Jones spoke of her bewilderment at her son’s killing.


Boy's mother appeals for shooting witnesses reports the Telegraph

Melanie Jones, sitting next to her husband Stephen, said that the family was utterly devastated at their loss and spoke of how she had cradled her dying son her in her arms.
The couple said that their son had never been in a gang and did not even know what one was.

The Mirror quotes from Rhys

My son was a baby,he was only 11,shot in the back of the neck from behind,only 11

Mum Melanie, 41, sobbed as she said: "My baby was only 11. He didn't deserve this. He was shot in the back of his neck from a shot from behind. My baby."
Dad Stephen, 44, said: "We are devastated. We've lost our world. And the world has lost a good guy. People are saying to me 'Wrong time, wrong place'. But it shouldn't be a case of wrong time, wrong place. It shouldn't happen in this country."



'Please catch my baby's killer': says the Mail

Wiping away tears, 41-year-old Mrs Jones said: "Someone knows who did it and I know people must be frightened, but please come forward.
"It could be their son, their brother next time because it will happen again if he is not caught."
In a direct appeal to the killer, she pleaded: "Give yourself up."


It's time for all of us to say ENOUGH says the Sun

Adding that

A TOP cop told yesterday how 11-year-old Rhys Jones’s cold-blooded execution was: “The most shocking event in my 20 years of service.”
Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe said there was “no suggestion” the football-loving lad was involved in any sort of crime.



Its leader saying

That little boy’s killing is a defining moment for our country, perhaps even more so than those of poor Damilola Taylor and James Bulger.
For if there is one shred of hope from it, it is that it may force us to consider how we have gone so badly wrong and how we can put things right.
It is time for the Government and the judiciary to radically rethink the derisory sentences handed down to young criminals. It is time for police to go back on the beat and for the Home Office to sanction a huge increase in their numbers.


There is much analysis of the story

Croxteth caught in crossfire of rival gangs reports the Telegraph

The smart middle-class streets are where people move up and away from the depressing, boarded-up terraces nearby; a haven of self respectability.
But in recent months residents have felt increasingly under siege, caught in the crossfire of rival estates and rival gangs. They said incidents of anti-social behaviour have shot up, and, according to the local residents' association, recent requests for a police presence were rebuffed.

Younger offenders, younger victims - a grim trend reports the Guardian

The gun crime figures have been falling in England and Wales over the past 18 months but that recent decline follows an eight-year rise in firearms offences since the ban on handguns introduced in 1997 following the Dunblane massacre.
So far this year, eight children have died after being shot, with Kamilah Peniston, 12, in Manchester the youngest before Rhys Jones's death in Liverpool this week. The other six victims, all teenagers, died in shootings in London.
Even though the number of people shot dead dropped from 77 in 2004-05 to 49 the following year, the police were saying they were worried about the rise of a teenage gang and gun culture.

Its leader proclaims

Death on the streets

there stands a dispiriting and dangerous shift in parts of inner-city gang culture. Guns, and the killings that accompany them, are becoming part of the life of some young people.

Weapons crime and its deadly link with youth culture must be defeated says the leader in the Times


The Independent asks

Moral panic and a return to gesture politics

Will the smiling face of 11-year-old Rhys Jones replace that grainy image of two-year-old James Bulger as a cipher for all that is wrong with British childhood? Fourteen years separate the two deaths. But yesterday it was as though the greater part of Britain had been waiting for just such an atrocity to top off the latest bout of hand-wringing about our young people. The blamelessness of the victim, the innocence of his pursuit, the youth and seeming cold-blooded purpose of the inevitably hooded killer all added up to a picture of debased childhood, rooted in a degraded society.

Fury as paedophile escapes jail reports the Mirror prominently

A judge who spared a paedophile jail for a string of sex attacks was branded "pathetic" yesterday by the pervert's own sister.
Senior Jehovah's Witness Michael Porter, 38, attacked boys for 14 years.
He admitted 24 charges of gross indecency and indecent assault on 13 youngsters - one only 18 months old.
But Judge Tom Crowther gave him three years' community rehabilitation after being told he had had therapy and was a changed man.


The Independent chooses a different lead story

For the first time, Britons' personal debt exceeds Britain's GDP

Britons have racked up so much debt on loans and credit cards that the total borrowed now exceeds the entire value of the economy, new research shows today. The financial consultant Grant Thornton is forecasting that gross domestic product (GDP) will hit £1.33 trillion this year, less than the £1.35trn which was outstanding on mortgages, credit cards and personal loans in June.

And the Express continues with its Maddy coverage

Mum's fury at you killed her slur as the paper reports that

The mother of Madeleine McCann faced more anguish last night after a TV reporter was accused of hinting that she may have killed her own daughter.
Kate McCann was said to be “horrified and deeply upset” by the remarks from Sandra Felgueiras, one of Portugal’s top presenters.
Kate and her husband Gerry were so incensed that they were ready to sue to protect their reputations.


Republican senator urges Bush to start Iraq exit by Christmas reports the Guardian

A senior Republican senator, John Warner, last night urged President George Bush to begin bringing troops back from Iraq by Christmas, as US intelligence agencies published a bleak assessment of the chances of progress in the country in the next 12 months.
Mr Warner, who has recently returned from Iraq and is widely respected by his Republican colleagues, went much further than in June when he first broke ranks with Mr Bush over the war. After a meeting with White House aides, he told reporters: "We simply cannot, as a nation, stand and continue to put our troops at continuous risk of loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action

Saving Private Hubbard: soldier sent home after his brothers die reports the Times

A family’s last remaining son was returning home from Iraq last night after his two brothers were killed in action, in a case strikingly similar to Saving Private Ryan, the Second World War epic by Steven Spielberg.
Jeff and Peggy Hubbard lost their youngest son, Nathan, 21, in Iraq on Wednesday - nearly three years after a roadside bomb killed his older brother, Jared, 22, near Fallujah in October 2004.
Now their third and eldest son, Jason, 33 - who joined the Army at the same time as Nathan so that he could protect him in Iraq - is heading back to California under military regulations that are designed to spare parents losing all their children to war.


Meanwhile the Independent asks

Was George Bush right about Vietnam?

There have been surreal moments aplenty in the presidency of George W Bush. Few, however, can match his invocation of Graham Greene in defence of America's policy in Iraq. Where Bush is the most faith-driven of leaders, so unafflicted by self-doubt, Greene is the mouthpiece par excellence of seedy ambiguity, tattered faith and human frailty.

Yesterday's Gcse results get a lot of coverage

Grammars beat independents to top GCSE results reports the Times

State grammars edged ahead of independent schools in GCSE performance this year, as national figures showed that nearly a fifth of entries achieved an A or A* grade for the first time.
The proportion of entries achieving A* to C grades rose from 62.4 to 63.3 per cent. However, the overall pass rate, measured by a minimum of a grade G, slipped slightly from 98.1 to 98 per cent, suggesting that while schools may have succeeded in lifting D-grade candidates to a C, they have done less well with the least able.

The Telegraph reporting that

Examination boards said that the shift was down to a drop in grades in the private sector - coupled with year-on-year rises by state schools.
They insisted the biggest increases were seen in comprehensives.
The results re-ignited the debate on the future of selective education the UK as grammar school supporters called for both main political parties to "think again" about their opposition to them.


Brown faces Labour revolt over EU referendum says the same paper

A "hard core" of at least 40 Labour MPs is poised to issue the Prime Minister with an ultimatum to re-open talks on the treaty or concede a referendum. They are preparing a 15-point plan to put to Mr Brown calling for the Brussels blueprint to be radically amended to end the need for a British referendum

Tories to fight the election on fixing our broken society reports the Mail

Tackling social breakdown will be firmly at the heart of the Conservatives' General Election manifesto, David Cameron revealed yesterday.
He will fight Gordon Brown over solving the grave social problems blighting Britain, including spiralling knife and gun crime, the rise of lawless gangs and yobbish behaviour.
Making clear the Tories would woo voters on social issues rather than the economy - the party's traditional front line - he adapted Bill Clinton's famous phrase to explain: "It's society, stupid."


According to the Guardian

BA staff could face extradition to US after $300m fine for price fixing

Senior British Airways staff under criminal investigation for price fixing face the threat of extradition to the US under a controversial treaty, it emerged last night. The justice department in Washington was set to publish the names of 10 former and current BA employees as criminal suspects under investigation for running a fuel surcharge cartel after a judge confirmed a $300m (£151m) fine for the world's third-largest airline.

The Times is reporting that

Children taken from parents and adopted ‘to meet ministry targets’

Record numbers of young children are being taken from their parents and adopted - sometimes unjustly - to meet government targets, it is claimed today.
Each year some 1,300 babies under a month old are placed in care before adoption, compared with 500 when the Government came to power, BBC Radio 4’s Face the Facts claims today.
The programme is told that there are now more than 100 cases of possible miscarriages of justice in which children have been forcibly or unjustly adopted.

The Telegraph reports that

Paxman attacks TV's 'obsession with ratings'

As public trust in broadcasters reaches an all-time low following scandals involving the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, the presenter will make a "plea for the soul of the medium".
He is expected to use the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival to attack the industry's obsession with money and its fixation with "maximising the number of viewers in order to maximise the return".
The Newsnight presenter will also condemn the absence of any "prevailing sets of beliefs" about what television is essentially for.

The Guardian meanwhile reports on the same story

BBC scandals stoking crisis of distrust, say Paxman and Marr

The former BBC political editor Andrew Marr, meanwhile, told the Guardian the recent loss of viewer confidence was a more serious threat to the BBC's long-term future than the Hutton affair sparked by claims that the government "sexed-up" its dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.
"Hutton ... was a confrontation between the BBC and the government which ... the government won, resulting in enormous institutional and personal damage inside the BBC ... This argument is more important in the sense that it is between the BBC and its owners and users."

Sex in your sixties - too cringemaking or a life-enhancing treat? says the Mail

Passion in old age is seen by many as unwelcome, or just unedifying. But as the Mail reported yesterday new research suggests that many pensioners enjoy a vigorous love life well into their eighth decade.
A study of 3,000 men and women aged 57 to 85 revealed that 73 per cent of people aged 57 to 64, and over half of those aged 65 to 74, have active love lives.

The Guardian reports that

World faces threat from new deadly diseases as scientists struggle to keep up, say experts

The world will face a new deadly threat on the scale of Aids, Sars and Ebola within a decade, the world's leading authority on health said yesterday, as it warned that diseases were spreading more quickly than at any time in history.
New diseases are emerging at an unprecedented rate, of one a year, and are becoming more difficult to treat, says the World Health Organisation's annual report. It paints a bleak picture of future health threats, with science struggling to keep up as diseases increasingly become drug resistant.

Many of the tabloids report on

Tom Kat's twin bed

The Mirror telling us that

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes sleep in separate bedrooms - because the Mission Impossible star snores, it was claimed.
An insider said: "Katie says this way she can get her beauty sleep."
Tom, 45, has rooms in the north wing of their rented Hollywood estate and Katie, 27, in the south.
The insider told a US magazine: "At first it was because Katie is Catholic and they were only dating.


Finally the Mail reports on the case of

Two female sunbathers prosecuted for flashing their breasts at CCTV camera

When Abbi-Louise Maple and Rachel Marchant saw a CCTV camera trained on them as they sat on a beach, they had a mischievous idea.
The 21-year-olds lifted their tops and flashed their bare chests at the camera before collapsing in a fit of giggles.
The young women's friends thought their prank was hilarious.
The CCTV operator, however, didn't see the funny side and called the police.
Minutes later, the two blondes were arrested, questioned and then charged with committing an act outraging public decency - an offence which carries a maximum sentence of six months prison or a £5,000 fine.