The Times follows up on its royal exclusive yesterday with the story of

How a trap was set for ‘blackmailers’ in £50,000 royal sex-and-drug tapes

One of two men alleged to be involved in a gay-sex-and-drugs blackmail plot against a minor member of the Royal Family will appear in court this week.
Ian Strachan was arrested with Sean McGuigan in a police sting operation in Central London last month after reportedly demanding £50,000 not to release a video which, they claimed, showed the individual engaged in an act of oral sex and suggested that the same person had supplied cocaine to an aide.
The men, aged 30 and 40, appeared initially at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 13, each charged with one count of blackmail. The hearing was held in camera and never reported, and the judge issued an order forbidding publication of any detail that could identify victims or witnesses.

The other papers are making up for lost time

Secrets of the Royal 'blackmail plot' tape revealed says the Mail

Lurid details have been revealed of a "sex and drugs" film at the centre of an alleged plot to blackmail a member of the Royal Family.


'BLACKMAILER': I'VE MET WILLIAM & HARRY headlines the Mirror

The Scot-born businessman was held along with 40-year-old Sean McGuigan when police swooped on a London hotel as they allegedly showed footage of an aide snorting cocaine and bragging about a sex act with the royal. The pair were charged with blackmail and are in custody. Scotland Yard said: "Investigations continue."

Exclusive Man in Royal Blackmail plot says the Sun

ONE of the men accused in the sensational Royal “sex and drugs” blackmail case was yesterday revealed as suave Ian Strachan – a socialite with a millionaire lifestyle.
The party-loving smoothie has a penthouse apartment in London’s trendy Chelsea – where his neighbours include Premier League stars and City high-earners.
Scots-born Strachan, 30, claims to move on the fringes of the Royal Family.

Sex, drugs and silence from the palace: the first royal blackmail plot in a century
says the Guardian which informs its readers

The member of the royal family targeted in an alleged blackmail plot centring on sex and drug claims is not a senior royal, the Guardian understands.Although a name was being circulated yesterday, a court order prevents the identification of the royal or any witnesses.

One of the others stories from yesterday is also covered

Tories are accused of endangering Union says the Independent

Ministers have accused the Conservatives of threatening the United Kingdom's future with plans to strip Scottish MPs of the right to vote at Westminster on English legislation.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, is sympathetic to the proposal to allow only English MPs to debate issues such as schools, hospitals and prisons that only apply south of the border.
Amid signs of an upsurge in English nationalism, the party said the move would tackle the perceived constitutional imbalance that has grown up since devolution to Scotland and Wales nearly a decade ago.

'Exclude Scots MPs from English votes' says the Telegraph

David Cameron is ready to endorse a plan to create an “English grand committee” at Westminster, where Gordon Brown and other Scottish MPs would be barred from voting on matters exclusively affecting England.
The Tory leader also signalled yesterday that he is prepared to review the longstanding Whitehall agreement that gives Scotland much higher public spending than most parts of England. adding that

The Conservative answer to the so-called West Lothian Question is being put forward amid signs of growing English resentment at Scotland's favourable constitutional and financial position within the United Kingdom.

Let us control North Sea oil - Salmond reports the Guardian

The first minister of Scotland told the Scottish National party at its first conference since it won power this year that if Scotland were given direct control of North Sea oil and gas it could be the third-wealthiest country in Europe and the sixth-richest in the world. His claims - based on the currently high oil price of nearly $90 (£43.80) a barrel - came as Mr Cameron responded to growing resentment among Tory backbenchers over the high level of public funding in Scotland, which has allowed the executive in Edinburgh to abolish student fees, phase out prescription charges and introduce free school meals.



Fury over Cameron threat to strip Scottish MPs of voting rights
says the Mail

The Tory leader is pressing ahead with a radical constitutional overhaul - first revealed by the Daily Mail - to end the unfairness caused by the creation of the Scottish Parliament.

Bordering on insane says the Mirror

Tory leader David Cameron is playing with fire, boosting the Scottish Nationalist Party.
To champion the creation of two classes of MP, downgrading the role of those from Wales and Northern Ireland as well as Scotland, is to risk the break-up of Britain.
The unworkable arrangement he supports is irresponsible when a resurgent SNP is already pushing for independence.

The Telegraph meanwhile reports

David Cameron: 'UK needs immigration cut'

In his first major speech on the issue, the Tory leader will challenge Gordon Brown to a "grown-up" debate.
Effectively tackling Mr Brown on his slogan "British jobs for British workers", he will suggest that, if more British citizens work instead of claiming benefits, there will be fewer vacancies to attract immigrants.

The Times leads with

House price gloom as the wealthy turn away

House prices fell for the first time in two years this month, sending a shudder through millions of homeowners already hit by rising mortgage repayments and more expensive borrowing.
The outlook for homeowners is likely to worsen with news that the wealthy are losing confidence in bricks and mortar as an investment. There has been a big drop in City bonuses being used to buy prime property in Central London and in the popular second-homes areas, triggering fears of price falls in the South West, East Anglia and the Cotswolds.

2.4M CLAIM BENEFITS OVER FIVE YEARS claims the Express

Labour has been accused of failing its heartlands after figures revealed more than 2.4 million people have been claiming benefits for more than five years.
The figure is 600,000 higher than in 1999 and Tories claim the Government has failed to "get to grips" with the problem.
Tory analysis of the figures showed that in 33 local authority areas more than 10% of the working age population had spent at least five years on benefits.

And more gloom from the lead in the Telegraph

Stealth tax traps five million drivers

The cost of driving has soared but the Treasury has refused to raise the threshold at which employees using their own car have to pay tax.
Up to five million people use their cars for their jobs and they can claim up to 40p per mile back from their employers for up to 10,000 miles without being taxed.
However, if they are paid more than 40p per mile, the expenses are viewed as a benefit in kind and taxed as income.

The Independent leads with the state visit of the Saudi royals

A royal guest to be proud of?
His regime is condemned as one of the most brutal in the world, but today Britain will roll out the red carpet for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

This week, Gordon Brown and David Cameron will welcome the leader of one of the world's most vicious dictatorships to Britain. Both men will embrace King Abdullah al-Saud, who heads a regime in which, according to Amnesty International, "Fear and secrecy permeate every aspect of life. Every day the most fundamental human rights of people in Saudi Arabia are being violated."

Saudi king's state visit to Britain faces protests and boycotts
reports the Guardian

Britain's most sensitive and controversial relationship in the Middle East faces protests and boycotts during a state visit by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, just weeks after a lucrative new defence contract made clear that it was business as usual between the two countries.

Staying with the paper it leads with the story that

Police demand doctors report gun victims

Police chiefs want doctors to break medical confidentiality and report patients they treat who have suffered knife or gun shot wounds, the Guardian has learned.
The proposals are set to be handed to ministers by police chiefs as part of an intensified new response to tackling youth gang and gun crime.
The proposals have caused concern among doctors and civil rights activists, who argue that confidentiality is the cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship.

The Mirror reports that

Rachel kill charge '2 years off'

Detectives believe it will be another two years before they can charge the man they suspect of killing model Rachel Nickell.
They are convinced he is a serial rapist held in Broadmoor mental hospital for a double murder.
Rachel, 23, was stabbed 49 times on Wimbledon Common, South London, in 1992. Loner Colin Stagg was charged but a judge threw out the case.

Meanwhile the Mail reports that

Jill Dando 'murderer' Barry George was wrongly convicted, says jury foreman

The foreman of the jury who pronounced Barry George guilty of Jill Dando's murder says he believes he was wrongly convicted.
Speaking for the first time, the anonymous juror said that, without crucial evidence which has now been declared 'inconclusive', George would have been acquitted.
He was jailed for life in 2001 for shooting dead the 37-year-old TV presenter outside her home in Fulham, South-West London, two years earlier.

The Express again leads with Maddy

THREE NEW SIGHTINGS IN MOROCCO

Three callers to an international telephone hotline set up last week by the McCanns reported separate sightings of the missing youngster in the north African country.
Each caller said that blonde, blue-eyed Madeleine was with the same 60-year-old woman, who they described as “middle class”. Last night, a team of private detectives were on the ground in north Africa searching for the mystery woman.

COPS CONTAMINATE CAR.. BY DRIVING IT reports the Mirror

Crucial Dna evidence from Kate and Gerry McCann's hire car may have been contaminated - because police drove it to the forensic lab themselves.
Bungling detectives failed to properly secure vehicles seized during the six month probe into the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine in Portugal.

According to the Times

He went into the garden and began muttering ‘Iraq’ and ‘it’s all my fault’



Tony Blair virtually regarded the result of the 2005 general election as a defeat for which he blamed himself and the Iraq war, according to a new biography.
As the early results suggested a much-reduced Labour majority, Mr Blair went into the garden and started muttering “It’s all my fault” and “Iraq”, the book reveals.
He accepted that it weakened his authority as Prime Minister to make the changes to the machinery of government that he wanted and to appoint the Government that he needed. And it further enfeebled him in his relationship with Gordon Brown, who had been persuaded late on to take a full part in the election campaign and grabbed most of the credit for winning a third term – albeit with the Labour majority cut from 167 to 64.

Blair failed to handle Bush on Iraq, claims biographer reports the Indy

Tony Blair failed to stand up to George Bush over the invasion of Iraq, the former US secretary of state Colin Powell has claimed.
The damaging disclosure by an influential participant in the build-up to the war will undermine claims by Mr Blair's allies that he acted as a restraining influence on the president.

Gordon Brown calls for tough stand on Darfur says the Telegraph

Gordon Brown threatened further sanctions against Sudan last night as talks meant to produce a breakthrough after four and half years of fighting in Darfur collapsed. "This a critical moment for Darfur," Mr Brown told reporters at Number 10.
Two hundred thousand people have died and two million people have been displaced. If we can find a way forward with both a ceasefire and talks involving all the parties then there is hope for the area."

Argentina's first lady on course to take presidency reports many of the papers

Argentinians were on track last night to elect a modern Evita as the country's first female president, in a ballot steeped in the memory and the mythology of their sainted former first lady, Eva Peron.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the wife of the serving President, Nestor Kirchner, won 46.3 per cent of the vote according to exit polls last night, which would be enough to avoid a second ballot. Her nearest rival, Elisa Carrio, polled just 23 per cent.
The election now looks likely to cement the couple's hold on power and establish a political dynasty as powerful as the Perons aspired to be in the 1950s.

Says the Independent

Chad accuses French charity of child trafficking reports the Guardian

Seven Spanish crew members of a plane hired to spirit 103 children out of Chad are being held by police, along with nine French citizens detained last week, it was confirmed yesterday, as international condemnation grew over a French charity's bizarre attempt at humanitarianism.
The crew were seized along with six members of the charity Zoe's Ark and three French journalists. The charity claimed its operation "Children Rescue" sought to save the lives of Darfur orphans, aged between one and 10, by housing them with families in France who had each paid more than €2,000.

An attack across the border would mean war, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani warns reports the Times

Any move by Turkish troops into Kurdish territory would be a declaration of war, the region’s leader said yesterday.
President Barzani gave the warning as a new wave of clashes inside Turkey left up to 20 Kurdish guerrillas dead. He said that Ankara was using its grievances with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an excuse to challenge the growing prosperity and independence enjoyed by Iraqi Kurds in their largely autonomous region.


Many of the papers report the comments of Arnold Schwarzenegger

Cannabis not a drug says the Telegraph

Although the Californian governor's spokesman insisted the comment was meant as a joke, the statement comes amid a fierce debate over whether cannabis use is not being taken seriously enough.
Despite having admitted taking marijuana in the 1970s, Schwarzenegger told GQ magazine that he had never taken drugs.
"That is not a drug. It's a leaf," Schwarzenegger told his interviewer Piers Morgan. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."
Schwarzenegger also refused to condemn politicians who decline to answer questions about drug use.

Finally,

The Sun launches its HELP OUR HEROES CAMPAIGN

BRITONS are today urged to dig deep in their pockets and repay a massive debt of gratitude to the nation’s forces heroes.
Hundreds of our dedicated fighters – like the lads pictured right – have been wounded in battlefields across Iraq and Afghanistan.
And with the Government unable to cope with the rising toll, it is falling increasingly to forces’ charities to bear the brunt of the impending crisis. adding

Today The Sun calls on its readers to back Help For Heroes, a new group raising funds to care for the nation’s wounded.
You can help by buying a wristband to show your support – or making a donation of your choice.