The papers cannot agree on the main story today but Gordon Brown's first visit as Pm to America gets a great deal of coverage

Brown tries to shift Bush talks to trade and Darfur says the paper

Gordon Brown arrived in Washington last night for his first meeting as prime minister with George Bush, determined to shift the focus from Iraq towards less divisive issues such as trade and Darfur.
Mr Brown, who is scheduled to hold formal talks today with Mr Bush and his team at Camp David, the presidential weekend retreat, praised Mr Bush and commended his leadership in the fight against international terrorism - but failed to mention the war in Iraq.

Let's launch a 'cultural offensive' against militant Islam, Brown tells Bush says the Mail

Gordon Brown will use his first formal talks with George Bush to urge a massive cultural offensive against Islamic extremism.
He is set to urge America to learn from the Cold War and mount a battle of ideas rather than rely on military might alone.
As he began his first formal talks with President Bush, he declared: "It is our shared task to expose terrorism for what it is - not a cause but a crime. A crime against humanity."
His words contrasted strongly with the Bush rhetoric of a "war against terror".

The Telegraph reports that

As he left Britain, the Prime Minister spoke of strengthening the "special relationship" but, crucially, was silent on Iraq.
There is growing concern in Washington following a visit by Simon McDonald, Mr Brown's chief foreign policy adviser, in which he reportedly asked what the implications would be if Britain pulled its troops out of southern Iraq.
Mr Brown's first prime ministerial visit to the US will last less than 24 hours. His spokesman insisted that there was no significance in his failure to mention Iraq in his pre-Camp David statement.

'Yo, Brown!': PM arrives for first talks with Bush says the Independent

Speaking to journalists during his flight to Washington, Mr Brown remarkably made no mention of Iraq in what was seen as an attempt to distance himself from what has become known in Britain as "Blair's war".
Plans to pull out the 5,500 British troops in southern Iraq were discussed by the two leaders over dinner at the President's Camp David retreat last night. Mr Brown was expected to reassure Mr Bush that he does not want to speed up plans to hand over the Basra area to Iraqi security forces.

Brown to lead Darfur fight says the Mirror

He hopes his initiative, to be set out at a White House meeting, will help stop the slaughter which has left up to 250,000 dead, two million homeless and four million on food aid.
Mr Brown also hopes that in the wake of the Iraq fiasco it will show how the US-UK relationship can be a force for international good.
Under the UN plan a 19,000-strong force of African and troops from other UN countries will try to stop Arab Janjaweed militia launching brutal raids on the people of Darfur.
A separate EU force will go to neighbouring Chad to stop the conflict spilling over.

The Indy though leads with Iraq

THE HUMAN TIDE says the headline

Two thousand Iraqis are fleeing their homes every day. It is the greatest mass exodus of people ever in the Middle East and dwarfs anything seen in Europe since the Second World War. Four million people, one in seven Iraqis, have run away, because if they do not they will be killed. Two million have left Iraq, mainly for Syria and Jordan, and the same number have fled within the country.
Yet, while the US and Britain express sympathy for the plight of refugees in Africa, they are ignoring - or playing down- a far greater tragedy which is largely of their own making.

But good news from the same country appears on a number of the front pages

One goal unites thousands of Iraqis in footballing triumph says the Times

Victory bullets rained on Iraq yesterday as millions of people united as one to celebrate an historic football triumph against Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asian Cup.
Casting aside fears of car bombs, Shia, Sunni and Kurds joined together to savour the 1-0 win in a rare moment of happiness for a country usually divided by sectarian strife.
Soldiers, policemen and civilians defied a strict government order to leave their guns at home and surged into the streets, firing celebratory shots into the air from pistols and automatic machineguns.

The paper leads with

Criminal trial chaos over lack of judges

An acute shortage of judges is causing long delays in bringing criminal trials to court, putting more pressure on overcrowded prisons and delaying justice for victims of crime.
The Times has learnt that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, received a list of approved candidates to fill the growing number of vacancies for Crown Court judges some weeks ago But Mr Straw has not indicated how many appointments he will make nor when he will announce them.
Retired judges are being pressed into service, and part-time recorders are being repeatedly asked to serve for longer periods. Such ad hoc measures save money because the Government does not have to pay holiday allowance or pension contributions for retired or part-time judges.

The Telegraph returns to the subject of the floods

Former flood chief: I would give up bonus is its lead story

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Professor Ed Gallagher said his requests for more funds for flood defences were repeatedly turned down.

He also increased the pressure on the agency's management to repay the five-figure bonuses they were awarded days before the recent floods, saying that he would have expected his bonus to be "reduced" in the same situation.

"We first issued warnings and asked for more money in the 1990s, unfortunately at that time we were in the middle of a drought and rivers and reservoirs were drying up so that one fell on deaf ears," he said.

Weather gives flood-ravaged area a break as engineers work to restore water supply says the Guardian

Devastated areas of the Severn valley had their first reprieve for over a week as heavy rainfall tracked away from the area and water engineers made unexpected progress in restoring domestic supplies.
Overnight showers in battered Tewkesbury raised fears of further misery but clearer weather pushed them east before dawn and the town basked in warm sunshine most of yesterday, along with much of the rest of the country.
But the political fallout from the floods continued as Lady Young, head of the Environment Agency, was forced to defend bonuses paid to her and other senior executives at the quango.

It leads though with the story that

NHS doctors challenge high drugs prices

British doctors are to rebel against high prices set by pharmaceutical companies for their products by giving patients a cheap but unlicensed drug that prevents blindness, the Guardian has learned.
Unable to afford to treat all those losing their sight with a licensed and extremely expensive drug, Lucentis, some primary care trusts are giving NHS doctors the green light to use tiny shots of a similar drug, Avastin, which is marketed for bowel cancer, but costs a fraction of the price. Avastin is widely used for eye complaints in the United States.

Both the Mail and Express return to the house theme

HIPs 'could be used to raise council tax' claims the Mail

The new Home Information Pack scheme will be used to raise council tax through a "stealth" revaluation, it has been claimed.
The Tories accused ministers of preparing to use data gathered by assessors compiling the new reports to revalue homes and increase bills.
The charge came as experts warned that the HIPs – to be introduced on Wednesday for homes with four bedrooms or more – will lead to chaos, confusion and chicanery for the entire property industry.

HOUSE PRICE CHAOS says the Express


THE housing market will be plunged into chaos this week when the controversial home information packs are introduced.
Both home buyers and sellers face confusion amid warnings that the packs will push up the cost of moving and hit property prices.
With interest rates rising and house price increases already slowing, estate agents fear that the new packs – which come into force on Wednesday – will inflict serious damage on the property market.

JAWS 2 Is the Sun's lead story this morning

HORRIFIED mum Catherine Price videoed a “harmless” shark off Cornwall — then discovered it was Britain’s JAWS.
Holidaymaker Catherine was on a boat trip with son Callum, seven, when they spotted the 12ft monster’s fin.
As it circled in the water, fellow tourists dismissed the creature as a docile basking shark.
But Catherine got the shock of her life yesterday — as experts confirmed it could well be the second sighting of a deadly GREAT WHITE prowling off St Ives.

The papers report the death of Comedian Mike Reid,the Mirror leads with it

Eastenders star Mike Reid died suddenly last night following a massive heart attack.

Reid, 67 - car dealer Frank Butcher in the BBC soap - collapsed at his luxury villa in Spain and was dead by the time he reached hospital.
Stunned co-star Barbara Windsor, who played his third wife Peggy Mitchell, said: "It's absolutely terrible news.
"He was a lovely man, a good performer, an actor and a friend." Reid's agent David Hahn said his widow Shirley was too shocked to speak.
He added: "She's distraught. Mike was her life."

BARBARA Windsor last night led tributes to East-Enders pal Mike Reid after he died of a heart attack, saying: “He was the best.” reports the Sun


Richard Branson admits: 'I smoked drugs with my son'reports the Mail

The extrovert billionaire says he smoked cannabis with model son Sam, now 21, during a surfing holiday in Australia.
Sir Richard, 57, "I went with my son on his gap year. We had some nights where we laughed our heads off for eight hours." I don't think smoking the occasional spliff is all that wrong. I'd rather my son did it in front of me than behind closed doors."
In the interview with Piers Morgan for GQ magazine, the entrepreneur also admitted trying cocaine and ecstasy

The Times reports that

After 38 years, the Army’s longest campaign draws to a quiet close

The Army’s longest continuous military campaign in its history will come to an end at midnight tomorrow, but there will be no fanfare for the passing of Operation Banner: soldiers are too busy for that.
For decades the Northern Ireland Troubles came to define what the Army was about. Now, after 38 years of constant service, with more than 300,000 military personnel serving there and 763 killed as a direct result of terrorism, it is over.
The 5,000 soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland will remain, but no longer as part of the security forces.

Abe to stay despite drubbing in election says the Independent

Japan's voters delivered a devastating verdict yesterday on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 10 scandal-tainted months in office.
Mr Abe's grip on power has been badly weakened by the results of the upper house election, which saw a historic swing away from the conservative ruling coalition he heads toward the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
The Liberal Democrat (LDP)/New Komeito government needed 64 of the 121 seats being contested to keep control of the house. Early results predicted that it would lose more than 20 seats, with some polls suggesting that the LDP could match its worst upper house performance in 1989, when it won just 36.
"If projections are correct, we are looking at utter defeat," said the LDP secretary general, Hidenao Nakagawa.

Inside Iran's nuclear nerve centre: halfway house to an atomic bomb reports the Guardian

With global tensions rising over Iran's nuclear intentions, the doors of the Isfahan plant were opened last week to a small group of journalists from Europe and America in a rare bid for transparency by the embattled but determined government in Tehran.
Ten miles south-east of the tiled mosques of Isfahan, Persia's old capital, the conversion plant is a cluster of squat yellow-brick buildings at the foot of some weathered sandstone crags, and ringed by anti-aircraft batteries dug into the surrounding semi-desert.

RAF typist who hurt thumb is awarded eight times more than soldier who lost leg reports the Mail

An RAF typist who injured her thumb at work is to be paid almost half a million pounds by the Ministry of Defence.
The civilian's award is almost 30 times the amount a serviceman would receive for the same injury.
It is eight times more than a soldier would receive for losing a leg and almost double the amount he could expect if he lost both legs.
The £484,000 payout was condemned by former soldiers, politicians and servicemen's charities who fear it will severely damage morale.

The Mirror claims an exclusive

Jail's where Allah wants me

The Mirror has exclusively seen prison letters from the 33-year-old Briton who is serving 110 years in a US jail for trying to bomb nearly 200 air passengers out of the sky.
He never once expresses remorse or regret for his vile crime. Instead, he rambles that "everything which occurs in this life contains some good for us".
But though the simple-minded street mugger turned zealous Muslim convert believes he will be rewarded in heaven he fantasises of freedom on earth.
Declaring his belief that God will make his delusional hopes come true, he writes: "I had a couple of good dreams about my situation changing for the better in the not so distant future, so this is a blessing from Allah.

Finally the Telegraph reports

Hillary Clinton student letters reveal high mind

A box of yellowed letters written in the 1960s by a self-absorbed, angst-ridden university student with a penchant for long words and philosophising has given intriguing insights into the author - the future Senator Hillary Clinton.
They were written by Mrs Clinton, the favourite to win the Democratic presidential nomination, between 1965 and 1969 when she was a student at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and was keeping in touch with an old school friend called John Peavoy. The assured, fiercely disciplined politician had then "not yet reconciled myself to the fate of not being the star" at university and was unimpressed by the "boys" she had met "who know a lot about 'self' and nothing about 'man'".