The verdict and sentence of Saddam Hussein unsurprisingly is featured across the Headline writers this morning.

All the papers are in broad agreement that the sentence is correct but some of the comment and analysis looks at the ramifications of yesterday’s events.

The Sun and the Mirror both have straightforward and down to earth headlines

Hanged to rights say the Sun with a picture of Saddam in his underpants washing his clothes humiliation complete

“FREE Iraq rejoiced yesterday after cowardly Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang for the horror crimes of his past.

Jubilant citizens partied in streets across the nation, with those in Baghdad defying a curfew to hug, rattle off celebratory gunfire and burn effigies of the hated ex-dictator.”

The Mirror headlines Saddamed to Hell over a picture of the court scene with Saddam waving his finger at the judge in anger

As the verdict was announced in Baghdad, Saddam, 69, ranted at the judge: "You are traitors. To hell with the enemies of Iraq, to hell with betrayers."
Of the broadsheets

The Times says
'A final snarl, then he swaggered out'
In a piece written with the detail of the courtroom drama it adds
WE KNEW he was dead even before he walked through the door.

The Independent has a picture of Saddam dressed in his now trademark white shirt and jacket with the words of the judge overwritten
"The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity."

But adds that

“European governments and human rights organisations reacted with deep unease to the death penalty handed down to Saddam Hussein yesterday, amid doubts about the fairness of the trial and fears that the sentence could trigger further sectarian bloodshed in Iraq. “

And Robert Fisk writing in the paper warns that

“This was a guilty verdict on America as well”

Arguing that

For if Saddam's immorality and wickedness are to be the yardstick against which all our iniquities are judged, what does that say about us? We only sexually abused prisoners and killed a few of them and murdered some suspects and carried out a few rapes and illegally invaded a country which cost Iraq a mere 600,000 lives ("more or less", as George Bush Jnr said when he claimed the figure to be only 30,000). Saddam was much worse. We can't be put on trial. We can't be hanged.

The Guardian reminds us that

The verdict was welcomed by the Bush administration, just two days before pivotal US congressional elections. George Bush described it as "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law." Speaking in Texas before setting off on a campaign tour, he thanked American soldiers for their part in Saddam's downfall.
The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, welcomed the fact that Saddam and his co-defendants had been held to account. "Appalling crimes were committed ... by the regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice," she said.

And that

“ the verdict did not meet with universal jubilation. The EU welcomed it, but expressed reservations about the death penalty. Russia said the timing was suspect, coming so close to the US elections and even Iraqis opposed to Saddam said the ruling would not save the country.”
Apart form the news from Iraq,the mid term elections just 24 hours away are featured

The Guardian reports that

“George Bush flew to formerly conservative strongholds in Nebraska and Kansas yesterday in an 11th-hour campaign dash to prop up Republican candidates and his own authority as president, under threat in tomorrow's knife-edge elections.”

The Telegraph reports on the Democrats buoyant opinion poll forecasts
Democrats were growing increasingly confident last night that they could seize back control of both houses of Congress when America votes tomorrow.
Weekend polls showed an apparent tightening in many key races. But they also indicated that the Democrats would win the 15 seats they need to gain a majority of the 435-member House of Representatives, and could secure a comfortable majority.
The battle for the 100-member Senate is more delicately poised. Republicans concede privately that they will lose three seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Rhode Island. But Democrats would also have to win in each of Missouri, Virginia and Montana which, polls show, are too close to call.

The power failure across Europe is heavily featured,the Times reporting that it was caused by a cruise ship

A FAULT in the German power grid plunged millions of people into darkness across Western Europe and provided a reminder of the fragility of the Continent’s energy supply as it heads into winter.
The power cut is believed to have been caused by technical problems with German power lines, which led to a chain reaction of energy shortfalls across Europe.
happened just after 10pm on Saturday and lasted for up to 90 minutes in some areas, halting trains and affecting households from northern Germany to Morocco. E..On, the Germany utility company, which is one of the biggest in Europe, said that the problem may have arisen when it switched off a power line over the river Ems, in the north of the country, to allow a large ship to pass underneath safely.
A 380,000-volt line was turned off to let the Norwegian Pearl, a newly built cruise ship, pass on its way from the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg to the North Sea. The loss of power may have overstretched other power lines.

The Star leads with an X Factor story telling us that

FURIOUS Simon Cowell stormed out of the X Factor studio after cheeky Louis Walsh taunted him with a gay jibe.Telly’s “Mr Nasty” looked stunned when the former Westlife manager Louis took a swipe at his sexuality.
And the reason why
Cowell branded Louis “spiteful” for dumping 20-year-old Ashley McKenzie out of the ITV talent show.

And the Daily Express leads on one of its favourite topics

Spies cover up Diana 'murder'

THE Princess Diana inquiry is in danger of stalling after French spy chiefs blocked British detectives’ attempts to establish the final hours of driver Henri Paul.The team led by former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens has been trying to obtain the "agent handling" files on the chauffeur, who was working for several secret service agencies.