The papers not surprisngly go rugby mad this morning

ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS BOOTY is the front page of the Mirror

He was up on a pedestal yesterday - a national hero in waiting.
England rugby ace Jonny Wilkinson was given pride of place next to Nelson in Trafalgar Square... as a lifesize wax model.
It was unveiled by Madame Tussauds - within kicking distance of South Africa House - on the eve of today's rugby World Cup final against the Springboks.
Tussauds spokesman Ben Lovett said: "We hope it will be a good omen."

THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS says the front page of the Sun

Its leader evoking Shakespeare


ON the eve of an epic battle in France, Shakespeare’s Henry V stirred English hearts with literature’s greatest rallying cry.
More than four centuries later, on the brink of another titanic clash across the Channel, our boys could well heed his rousing verse:
“When the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage; Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide. On, on, you noblest English. The game’s afoot. Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry, ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”

The Telegraph reports

Jonny Wilkinson looks to the heavens for inspiration ahead of tonight's rugby World Cup final with the hopes of a nation resting on his shoulders and his golden left foot.Even the Queen has singled him out as being pivotal to England's efforts to overcome South Africa and become the first side to retain the trophy.
The England team were written off as no-hopers just a few weeks ago after a humiliating 36-0 defeat to the Springboks.
But they have defied all the odds and are now just 80 minutes away from the most glorious achievement in the tournament's history.


The Independent uses the final to look at South Africa on its front page

Its team does not accurately reflect the ethnic make-up of the nation. The sport is dominated by a white, moneyed elite. Its towns and cities are plagued by the curse of gangs and gun crime. Its politicians are at a loss over how to deal with Robert Mugabe. Its current political leader lives in the shadow of his famous predecessor who changed the perception of his country around the world. The nation is one of the most racially diverse in the world, but integration remains a problem. The song its fans love to sing is a hymn to the historic struggle of the black man. But, for a night, this beleaguered people will leave all those cares behind And rely on their sporting heroes for consolation. Come on England!

Away from the Rugby and the papers carry some varying stories,the Mail has a front page splash claiming

Dr Kelly WAS murdered to silence him, says MP

Weapons expert Dr David Kelly was assassinated, an MP claims today.

Campaigning politician Norman Baker believes Dr Kelly, who exposed the Government's "sexed-up" Iraq dossier, was killed to stop him making further revelations about the lies that took Britain to war.
He says the murderers may have been anti-Saddam Iraqis, and suggests the crime was covered up by elements within the British establishment to prevent a diplomatic crisis. adding

The LibDem MP, who gave up his front bench post to carry out his year-long investigation, makes his claims in a book serialised exclusively in the Daily Mail today and next week.


Riven by class and no social mobility - Britain in 2007 headlines the Guardian

Ten years of Labour rule have failed to create a classless society, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that Britain remains a nation dominated by class division, with a huge majority certain that their social standing determines the way they are judged.
Of those questioned, 89% said they think people are still judged by their class - with almost half saying that it still counts for "a lot". Only 8% think that class does not matter at all in shaping the way people are seen

£500 tax blow to middle class workers is the Telegraph's lead

Documents quietly released by the Treasury show that more than four million people earning in excess of £34,840 will pay additional national insurance contributions from next April, which will raise an extra £4.5 billion for the Exchequer.
Opposition MPs accused Gordon Brown of "sleight of hand" in his tax-raising policy, while a leading accountant said the Prime Minister was "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

The Times reports on a story earlier in the week

Drink limits ‘useless’

Guidelines on safe alcohol consumption limits that have shaped health policy in Britain for 20 years were “plucked out of the air” as an “intelligent guess”.
The Times reveals today that the recommended weekly drinking limits of 21 units of alcohol for men and 14 for women, first introduced in 1987 and still in use today, had no firm scientific basis whatsoever.
Subsequent studies found evidence which suggested that the safety limits should be raised, but they were ignored by a succession of health ministers.

The explosions in Pakistan on Thursday night continue to dominate

Bhutto blames rogue officials for bomb reports the Telegraph

Speaking for the first time since the assassination attempt in Karachi, Ms Bhutto tried to galvanise support for a campaign against terrorism.
"We are prepared to risk our lives. We're prepared to risk our liberty. But we're not prepared to surrender this great nation to militants," said Ms Bhutto, wearing a black armband.

Bhutto confronts her enemies: 'We will not stop our struggle' reports the Indy

Shaken but defiant, Benazir Bhutto has vowed to continue her party's campaign to challenge for Pakistan's political leadership as planned despite the assassination attempt that left at least 130 people dead and hundreds injured.
Sixteen hours after her jubilant return to Pakistan turned into tragedy when a huge explosive device was detonated close to her convoy, Ms Bhutto claimed she had been targeted because she stood for democracy rather than extremism. She claimed two suicide bombers were involved in the assault.

The Guardian reports

Bhutto alleges military link to suicide bombing

Benazir Bhutto yesterday accused a shadowy web of figures with links to Pakistan's powerful military establishment of orchestrating Thursday's huge suicide bombing that killed 138 people and wounded 300.Ms Bhutto said she had received extensive information about plots against her life - including names of ringleaders and telephone numbers - days before she flew to Karachi early on Thursday.
All of the details were included in a letter she sent to President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday. "I told him that if something should happen to me the government should know certain things," she said at a high-security press conference at her Karachi home.

The events at the European summit are also reported

Gordon Brown says no to referendum and any more integration for ten years says the Times

Mr Brown left Lisbon insisting that the treaty agreed did not presage “fundamental change”. He was immediately contradicted by one of the architects of the original EU constitution, who said that the new treaty contained all of its essential measures.
Speaking at the end of the summit, Mr Brown said that he had won agreement for an EU declaration in December ruling out further institutional changes “for many years”. Asked how long the moratorium would last, the Prime Minister pointed out that some of the provisions in the existing treaty did not come into effect until 2017.

PM-SURRENDER TO EU BRILLIANT says the Sun

GRINNING Gordon Brown joined in champagne celebrations yesterday after surrendering huge swathes of British power to Brussels for good.
The PM hailed the Great British giveaway as a “brilliant” deal as he took part in a back-slapping party with EU leaders.
He once again ruled out a referendum for the British people – as Tony Blair became hot favourite to be the EU’s first permanent President with a £250,000-a-year salary and an army of officials funded by the taxpayer.

The Liberal leadership election springs to life

Clegg rejects Huhne supporters' claim that he is a 'Cameron clone'
reports the Independent.

The battle lines for the Liberal Democrat leadership contest were drawn yesterday with Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, the two contenders, staking out their ground on the left and right wings of the party.
Mr Clegg rejected suggestions by the Huhne camp that he is a Liberal Democrat clone of David Cameron, the Conservative leader, who described himself as a "liberal Conservative".
"What I am going to try to show is that he is a false liberal. Dare I say it – David Cameron is Clegg Lite," said Mr Clegg.


ITV faces criminal inquiry over cheating viewers reports the Guardian

The Serious Fraud Office was last night considering a criminal investigation into ITV's abuse of premium phone lines as pressure mounted on chairman Michael Grade to take action against the senior executives implicated.
Meanwhile, MPs lined up to condemn the cases which the broadcaster confessed to this week, one labelling them "clearly fraud" and calling on the regulator, Ofcom, to further review the implementation of its licensing code.

GMTV face cops phone-in probe says the Mirror

It is believed to be the first time the SFO has looked in to a major broadcaster.
A senior SFO source said: "We've decided to research what's been going on in case we get a request from Ofcom.
"The first step would be to decide if any crime has been committed. If the answer is yes an inquiry would follow.

The Indy continues to follow the saga of James Watson

Watson makes humiliating return to US after row over race comments

James Watson, the veteran Nobel scientist who helped to unravel the structure of DNA in 1953, cancelled his book tour in Britain and returned home to the United States yesterday after his research institute suspended him for his comments about the intelligence of Africans.
Cold Spring Harbor Labor-atory in New York said that its board of trustees had decided to suspend Dr Watson from his administrative duties as Chancellor pending further investigations because of Dr Watson's comments, published in a Sunday newspaper in Britain, suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than white westerners.

80 per cent of CCTV images 'ineffective' reports the Telegraph

Britain's surveillance society was exposed as ineffective yesterday by a damning official report which revealed 80 per cent of CCTV footage is of poor quality and that the cameras are mostly used to trap motorists rather than catch criminals.
The Government and police chiefs want to extend the network which monitors Britons – already the world's biggest with an estimated one camera for every 12 people – even further to cover all "public space".

3 MINUTES TO DUMP HER BODY is the front page of the Express

Crime experts revealed yesterday that it would have taken less than three minutes to hide Madeleine McCann’s body.
The specialists insisted that was all the time it would have taken for a suspect to remove her from her family’s holiday apartment and return to the resort.
The crimebusters concluded that Madeleine’s parents – or any member of their holiday party – could have disposed of her body without raising suspicion.

And staying with the paper it reports that

NOW UNDER FIVES ARE SENT OFF TO ‘FAT CAMP’

A leading expert is so concerned about the number of overweight young children that he has designed a residential course for them and their families.
The aim of the course devised by Paul Gately, Professor of Exercise and Obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, is to begin the slow process of re-educating them about food and exercise.

Failed asylum seekers given £4,000 'bribes' to go home - including private school fees reports the Mail

Failed asylum seekers are to be offered up to £4,000 to go home voluntarily, it was revealed yesterday.
The support packages - which can include help towards private school fees - are intended to arrest an alarming slump in the number of bogus refugees being removed from the country.
But the proposals were last night attacked as an act of desperation by a Government failing to clear a backlog of 400,000 cases.

Many of the papers report

'Disguised' paedophile captured in Thailand

The Independent says

An international manhunt for a suspected paedophile ended in a small house in rural Thailand yesterday with the arrest of Christopher Neil, 32, a Canadian teacher accused of sexually abusing young Asian boys in 200 online images.
Thai police said they had enough evidence to charge Mr Neil, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and said they would also consider any eventual extradition request from Canada.
His capture followed a worldwide appeal by Interpol after computer experts unmasked the digitally disguised face of a man seen raping boys in Vietnam and Cambodia in a graphic series of interne raphs dating back several years.

Anguish of widow as killers get 2 years reports the Mirror

The widow of Ernie Norton, who died after being stoned by five young yobs, yesterday told how her life is empty without her precious husband.
Linda Norton, 56, said: "When I see other couples out, I think to myself, they are together, why aren't we? I miss Ernie."
In an impact statement read out to the court before his killers were jailed, she added: "The house is just empty without Ernie and life will never be the same again.

British man jailed over death of wife found in French lake reports the Guardian

A British man accused of murdering his wife in rural France eight years ago in order to claim her life insurance was found guilty tonight of involuntary homicide and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Robert Lund, originally from Darwen, Lancashire, had claimed that his wife, Evelyn, drove into a lake by mistake during a storm.
But a jury of five men and four women in the southern French town of Albi rejected his argument.

First signs of a comeback for British cod reports the Times

Stocks of cod around Britain are showing the first signs of reversing a decline that has threatened to wipe out the fish as a viable species.
For the first time in eight years scientists calculating fish stocks have advised the Government that it is safe to catch cod in the North Sea, albeit in small quantities.
The advice was issued by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (Ices), the body that advises fisheries ministers on fish stocks. It found that the number of young fish had increased substantially in comparison with previous years and there were indications that survival rates for mature fish had improved slightly.

Finally the Sun concentrates on another weekend sporting story

WHEN F1 rookie Lewis Hamilton steps into his McLaren car in Brazil tomorrow and revs up in his bid to claim the title, a beautiful oriental girl will sit glued to her TV at her palatial home almost 12,000 miles away, willing him to win.
Jodia Ma has decided to keep a discreet distance from the Sao Paulo race track where Lewis could make history but pals say the Hong Kong beauty is still the love of his life.
The 22-year-old privately-educated daughter of a businessman is no longer a fixture on the grand prix circuit after the pair decided to cool their four-year relationship earlier this year. But they remain in constant contact.