Ths Sundays are in expose mode today.Led by the Mail which reveals

The anti-terror chief, the girl from Abba, and his secret love affair

Fresh indignity was heaped on Gordon Brown last night after one of the female singers from Abba was bizarrely dragged into a Government sex scandal.
In the latest blow to the Prime Minister's authority, senior sources told The Mail on Sunday that Admiral Sir Alan West, the Security Minister appointed personally by Mr Brown to lead the War on Terror, had admitted to an extramarital affair. The paper adds

Speculation was fuelled by the fact that the 59-year-old former First Sea Lord had formed an implausible but genuine friendship with Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 62, the dark-haired singer from the Seventies Swedish supergroup.
And yesterday, with the rumour mill in full flow, high-level sources were forced into action to clarify the situation.

The Observer leads with

'Sex slaves' win cash in landmark legal deal

Sex slaves smuggled into Britain are set to receive millions of pounds for their 'pain and trauma' after a groundbreaking government decision to compensate victims of people trafficking.
The first payouts of more than £140,000 were made last week to four women who suffered a 'sustained period of sexual abuse'. Another 10,000 are estimated to be eligible under a new interpretation of Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority guidelines.

Whilst the Independent reveals that

British troops investigated over smuggling stolen guns to the UK

The discovery of the weapons, stolen from an Iraqi police station and believed to be one of the largest hauls uncovered, has fuelled growing concerns that weapons confiscated by British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being brought back illegally to the UK and could get into the hands of criminals.

And according to the Telegraph we have a

Row over to failed asylum seekers

Thousands of failed asylum seekers have been flown out of Britain and set up in business back home in a £36 million taxpayer-funded scheme, it can be revealed.The unwanted foreigners, who had no legal right to remain, were given free flights, handed £1,000 in cash at the airport, then paid a further £3,000 to start enterprises in their homelands.

Whilst

NHS U-turn on prostate cancer treatment shares its front page

A life-saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-turn by the NHS rationing body.The groundbreaking ultrasound therapy has been shown to kill nine out of 10 prostate tumours, and five years after treatment, 80 per cent of patients show no sign of the cancer recurring.

On the same topic the Times reports that

NHS threat to halt care for cancer patient

A WOMAN will be denied free National Health Service treatment for breast cancer if she seeks to improve her chances by paying privately for an additional drug.
Colette Mills, a former nurse, has been told that if she attempts to top up her treatment privately, she will have to foot the entire £10,000 bill for her drugs and care. The bizarre threat stems from the refusal by the government to let patients pay for additional drugs that are not prescribed on the NHS.

The paper leads with politics

Gordon Brown in ‘crisis of morale’

THE Bank of England is trying to push through reforms to the banking system to prevent another Northern Rock crisis but is being frustrated by a prime minister and a chancellor who are said to be too demoralised to take action.
City sources say Mervyn King, governor of the Bank, would like to introduce fundamental reforms but believes that recent political setbacks have left Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling distracted. They are said to be “unable to focus because morale throughout the government is so low”, according to one senior Bank official.

Bolshie Britain: a new Winter of Discontent says the Independent

The Prime Minister has been preoccupied with difficulties overseas, but when he finally concentrates on the home front, he will realise that bolshie Britain is becoming a critical problem in its own right. Mr Brown, Old Labour man and friend of the unions, is sliding towards his own version of the Winter of Discontent, amid demonstrations, sloganeering, placards and possibly strikes on a scale not seen for three decades.

The Telegraph maenwhile reports that

Lord Levy 'stymied cash-for-honours report'

Lord Levy, Tony Blair's personal fundraiser, tried to stop publication of a crucial piece of evidence in the cash-for-honours affair, it has emerged.
The peer attempted to prevent a Commons committee publishing a letter from one of the 12 people who secretly loaned Labour a total of £14 million before the 2005 general election.
However, the all-party public administration committee turned Lord Levy down, and the letter, sent to MPs by Sir Gulam Noon, will be published in the committee's report into the saga on Tuesday.

Staying with politics the Observer claims

Cameron makes 'progressive alliance' offer to Lib Dems

In an echo of Tony Blair's talks with Paddy Ashdown a decade ago, designed to keep the Tories out of power for a generation, Cameron calls for co-operation across a range of fronts. The move comes two days before the Lib Dems unveil their new leader following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell, an instrumental figure in the Lib-Lab talks that led to a commission on electoral reform in 1998 and eight years of coalition government in Scotland.

Meanwhile the Telegraph tells us

David Miliband dismisses Gordon Brown rift

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary claimed that it was "completely right" that he signed the document alone while Mr Brown remained in Britain for a Commons committee hearing, arriving in Lisbon hours later to append his signature.Mr Miliband also rejected claims - allegedly made by his supporters - that he was furious after a pro-Brussels speech he made last month was toned down by Downing Street

The Mail claims

Home Secretary plotted to undermine police claims for a pay rise in order to subsidise War on Terror

A secret Home Office document obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveals how only two days after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, one of Ms Smith's senior officials told her how to sabotage the police pay claim.
The leaked letter, with the sinister title "Police Pay - The End Game", reveals that Government spin doctors were ready to launch a dirty tricks war using black propaganda to undermine their demand.

As British troops prepare to hand over Basra to Iraqi forces the papers focus heavily on the task ahead

Handover in Basra as killings go on says the same paper

After four years, eight months and 11 days, after the deaths of unknown thousands of Iraqis, after 174 British fallen, and billions expended on reconstruction and the cost of a military mission, today the British mission in Iraq takes a large step towards being wound up.
In a ceremony that will begin with a few verses from the Koran and end with an exchange of flags, handshakes and a few cans of fizzy drink, the British army will formally hand over control of security in Basra Province to the soldiers of the Iraqi Army's 14th Division.

Ready or not, UK hands Basra back to Iraqis says the Telegraph

Under the terms of the handover agreement, that is where they may now stay. The transfer to what British commanders call "provincial Iraqi control" means that for the rest of their time in Iraq, British forces will go into action only at the direct request of their Iraqi counterparts.
"The factors that contribute to the decision to transfer to provincial Iraqi control are partly the degree of threat, and partly the capability of the Iraqi security forces to take over," Maj Gen Graham Binns, Basra's senior British officer, told The Sunday Telegraph.

So, what did we achieve? After four years and 174 dead, Britain's lead role in Basra is over asks the Independent

In reality, however, nothing will change today. British forces stopped patrolling the rural areas of Basra province well before early September, when they finally quit Basra Palace, their last foothold inside Iraq's second largest city.


The same paper reports that

Bali Conference: World unity forces US to back climate deal

President Bush's administration conceded for the first time yesterday that the pollution that causes global warming will have to be cut in half around the globe by the middle of the century if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
The verbal concession, a dramatic U-turn, came amid unprecedented pressure on the United States in the closing session of the top-level climate conference in Bali. In scenes never before witnessed in international diplomacy, the US was booed and hissed by the representatives of nearly 190 nations for trying to obstruct agreement.

Bali deal leaves greens in despair says the Times

Campaigners claimed the world’s biggest carbon emitters, including America, Japan and Canada, will now be free to carry on expanding such emissions for many more years to come.
“This deal is very disappointing,” said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. “This conference has failed to give us a clear destination.” The target backed by the EU, including the UK, was in line with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has warned that global temperatures could otherwise rise by 2C over the next century.

Floods of tears as climate change 'hard man' breaks down at summit reports the Mail

He is known as the "hard man" of climate-change negotiation.
But after 12 exhausting days of trying to reach a worldwide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it was suddenly all too much for Yvo de Boer.
As the 200-nation Bali conference wrangled over a minor procedural matter, the Dutch diplomat in charge of the talks burst into tears and had to be led away by colleagues.

NEW EVIDENCE ON MADDIE according to the front page of the Express

The FBI has been asked to examine CCTV footage of three men acting suspiciously near the Algarve apartment that Madeleine McCann disappeared from.
The night before she vanished, two men were seen acting nervously near the complex and on the evening she went, the same men were seen with a third man.

The story also makes the front page of the Sunday Mirror

The News of the world leads with

Amy's jail hell

POLICE are to quiz troubled rock star Amy Winehouse over an alleged trial-rigging plot.
The 24-year-old singer must give fingerprints and DNA samples and will be questioned under caution.
She could face LIFE in jail if cops link her to the suspected conspiracy to clear husband Blake Fielder-Civil on a GBH charge.
A Scotland Yard source said: "This is a very significant development."

More scandal in the news of the World which claims

Shane had his wicket way with me for TWO YEARS

CRICKET love rat Shane Warne had rumpy-stumpy for TWO YEARS with a secret mistress who even fixed up a naughty THREESOME.
Busty blonde Kerrie Lee, 36, revealed how she dressed up in kinky outfits to keep the world-class ball-tweaker in a spin. and

Ben sacked

RAPE rap Emmerdale star Ben Freeman—who‘s facing 20 years if convicted—has been sensationally FIRED from the soap, the News of the World can reveal.
An ITV spokesman confirmed last night: "We cannot be sure of Ben's availability for work, so we cannot renew his contract. It is due to the uncertainty of the process of law and the lead times in writing a character in and out of a soap."

The Mail reports on the

rise of the suburban high: Gangs are setting up cannabis farms in prosperous neighbourhoods

The view over the detached houses off Nottingham Road on the outskirts of the Derbyshire town of Ripley takes in mature, well kept gardens with their brimming shrubberies and rows of clipped holly and fir.
Lying close to a golf course, these houses date from the Thirties and have been home to generations of stable, affluent families who have invested money and effort into preserving them, planning and tending the landscaped gardens, putting up ornamental shutters and paving the drives. yet

the burned-out house is evidence of a new type of criminal activity taking place in the strangest of locations and on an almost unimaginable scale. Cannabis farming is sweeping Britain.
Almost every square foot from the attic to the hall in the Nottingham Road property had been turned over to plants.

The Observer reports that

Top British terror suspect escapes

The alleged British terrorist mastermind behind a plot to simultaneously blow up at least 10 transatlantic airliners in an atrocity that had the potential to dwarf 11 September was on the run last night.
One of Britain's most wanted men slipped his handcuffs and fled after appearing at a court in Islamabad, Pakistan, where his lawyers were protesting against requests for his extradition. Last night two policemen were being questioned about the incident.

News from abroad and the Times reports from

Inside the Taliban’s fallen town of fear

FIRST the traitor was hanged, then his head was cut off and finally the Taliban placed it on a road at the point where it enters Musa Qala.
“They killed him at 3am and left his head there for everyone to see,” said Gul Wali, 14. “They killed both traitors and thieves. The traitors were giving secrets to the enemy.”
Three others were hanged in the town. One was left strung up at a different entrance, one from a monument in the centre and the third in the bazaar.

Pakistan lifts emergency rule but media curbs remain reports the Observer

President Pervez Musharraf yesterday lifted emergency rule in Pakistan but otherwise gave few signs of further concessions towards restoring democracy in the nuclear-armed country ahead of the 8 January election.
In a televised address last night, Musharraf said his objective of 'saving Pakistan from destabilisation' had been achieved.

Has the tide turned against Clinton? asks the Independent

Senator Hillary Clinton is battling to contain a deepening crisis in her presidential bid amid evidence that her closest rival, Barack Obama, is riding a late surge of support in the two critical states that kick off the party nominating process in the new year, Iowa and New Hampshire.
With less than three weeks before the first votes are cast, there are new signs that the tide may be turning against the former First Lady. She has seen her once impressive lead in both states evaporate in several new polls, while her message has been overwhelmed by headline-making stumbles by her campaign team. It is a startling reversal for Mrs Clinton, who until recently had successfully cultivated an air of invincibility about her campaign.

Mike Huckabee dubbed Ronald Reagan's heir reports the Telegraph

The former Baptist preacher and governor of Arkansas, who has taken a lead in four out of the five important early nominating states, has hired the man who guided Mr Reagan to the greatest landslide in American political history as his campaign chairman.


Finally the Observer reports that

Creationists plan British theme park

The latest salvo in creationism's increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.
The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m Christian theme park.