The Independent leads with

The British are retreating from Basra

The British Army has been defeated in Iraq and left with no option but to retreat from the country, claims radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Violent resistance and a rising death toll among UK troops has forced a withdrawal, he said in an interview with The Independent.
"The British have given-up and they know they will be leaving Iraq soon," Mr Sadr said. "They are retreating because of the resistance they have faced. Without that, they would have stayed for much longer, there is no doubt."

The papers cannot agree on the main news today

The Telegraph covers one of yesterday's main talking points

The Government was accused of hiding the true casualty rate of troops in Afghanistan yesterday as it emerged that nearly one in two soldiers fighting on the front line had been wounded.The shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said there was a discrepancy over the recording of casualties and claimed that the rate was far higher than Government figures.

The lead story in the paper is that

Firms forced to teach teenage workers the 3Rs

Half of employers said some teenagers were "unable to function in the workplace" claiming they cannot make simple calculations in their heads, speak in an articulate manner or understand written instructions.
In a critical report published today, the Confederation of British Industry says that an obsession with iPods, mobile phones and the internet has boosted the computing skills of the "Generation Text".

GPs given ultimatum to open at night and weekends

is the lead in the Times

Family doctors have been warned that unless they agree to open at evenings and on Saturdays, private companies will be contracted to take over their practices.
A letter sent to local NHS organisations has ordered them to improve surgeries’ responsiveness to the public, along with people’s access to and choice of GP services. This includes the option of seeking alternative providers, including private companies, instead of GPs.

The Guardian leads with

Black army officers recruited to help stop gang violence

Black military officers are to be drafted in to work with youths at risk of being sucked into inner city teenage violence, the Guardian has learned.
Senior figures, including Air Commodore David Case, the highest ranking black officer in the forces, have been approached as part of a drive to tackle the gang problem. The initiative will also involve senior police officers, such as Tarique Ghaffur, the Met assistant commissioner and highest-ranked minority officer at Scotland Yard.


Hurricane Dean gets a fair amount of coverage

The same paper reports that

Thousands seek shelter as Hurricane Dean hits Jamaica

Hurricane-force winds began lashing the island yesterday afternoon, said Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. Forecasters said the island would take a near-direct hit, with Dean's eye passing just to the south last night.
The storm has claimed at least eight lives, including a boy washed out to sea by huge waves, while tearing through the Dominican Republic and the Lesser Antilles islands of Martinique and St Lucia. It wiped out banana crops and wrecked infrastructure.

There is also coverage of the Heathrow climate change camp,the Indy reporting that

Heathrow protest reaches its climax as peaceful protest turns to clashes with riot police

The protest plan was straightforward. At midday, a column of marchers made up predominantly of local residents would head through the village of Sipson and symbolically mark out the route that a third runway would take were it one day to carve through their homes.
Those wishing to take part in direct action, meanwhile, were encouraged to walk to the headquarters of BAA, a nondescript block of offices that lies to the north of Heathrow's perimeter fence, and blockade it. The residents' protest would then join them there and stop anyone going in or out of the offices for the next 24 hours. But the police were taking no chances. Waiting for the protesters at BAA were about 1,500 officers.

The Mirror calls it

CLASH OF THE CRUSTIES describing

when several activists tried to storm the BAA office, riot police wielding batons moved in and forced them back, leaving some bloodied. A mounted officer was knocked off his horse by hardcore activists hurling missiles.

CALL THIS POLICING is the lead in the Mail

Shocking figures today cast doubts on the effectiveness of police community support officers.
They show that, on average, each one solves a crime every six years.
And they hand out fines for anti- social behaviour, public disorder or motoring offences at a rate of one every four months.
In several areas the teams, dubbed Blunkett's Bobbies after the home secretary who created them, failed to detect a single crime or write a solitary fixed penalty notice over the past year.

Meanwhile the Mirror reveals a poll which says

Too scared to leave our homes

A disturbing 42 per cent of people are too scared of yobs to leave home at night, a Mirror poll reveals today.
Half of those quizzed feel less safe than a decade ago. A third have called police about anti-social behaviour.
And 62 per cent believe parents are to blame for their children's loutishness.
Yob rule on our streets and estates is now so out of control Britain is a nation gripped by fear.
Despite a record number of police on patrol, half of us feel less safe than a decade ago.

Get tough with yobs says its leader

The message is clear - the Home Secretary must introduce tough punishments for those who refuse to discipline their wild-child offspring.

The Sun leads with the same theme

Anarchy in the UK as yobs rule

BRITAIN is on the brink of ANARCHY after a weekend of yob violence, campaigners said last night.
As figures revealed knife crime had DOUBLED in two years, a string of incidents left law-abiding citizens living in terror.
A mob BESIEGED a police station.
A man and a teenage boy were MURDERED in separate incidents and paramedics were ATTACKED as they tended a father and son.
In one county, 999 callers were told there were only THREE police on duty in a town of 22,000 people.

The Times reports that

Brown’s plans for voting reforms shelved over fears of confusion

Moves to reengage voters by introducing proportional representation for Westminster elections have been dismissed by officials, who fear that it could lead to political instability and confusion.
Changing the voting system would increase the likelihood of minority governments and coalitions, which can be a “drag on effective government”, officials investigating voting systems found.

Airport bomber's email to relative said he wanted to die for Allah reports the Guardian

Evidence recovered pointing to his role in June's attempted attacks in London and Glasgow includes an email message sent just before the Glasgow attempted bombing, talking of martyrdom; CCTV footage from one of the failed car bombings in London showing a man relatives say is Ahmed, running away; evidence from a computer he used, showing visits to bomb-making websites; and his mobile phone from the smouldering Jeep.

The aftermath of the hotel fire at the weekend concerns the papers

Firefighters tell of equipment shortage as inferno destroyed Newquay hotel says the Independent

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said yesterday that cuts in the service meant there were not enough firefighters to man a second pump when the blaze broke out. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, also blamed cost cutting for there not being enough aerial appliances in Cornwall. "We know that the only two aerial appliances in Cornwall were out of action and an appliance had to come 50 miles from Devon," he said.

We ran for our lives, say the hotel blaze survivors reports the Mail

They described fighting their way to safety through flames and smoke after being forced to flee their rooms. Rosemary Snook, who was staying in the Penhallow Hotel with her daughter Julia's family, had just gone to bed when fire alarms went off. "The porter was knocking on all the doors and we are all trying to run to the stairs - it was chaos," said the 59-year- old from Richmond, North Yorkshire.
"I immediately thought of Julia because I hadn't seen her all night but I got disoriented and was running along my floor thinking she was on the same floor.
"But when I realised she wasn't I dashed to the next floor and found that they were already out.

British farmers recruited to grow poppies reports the Times

A British company is recruiting farmers to cultivate opium to meet the growing demand for diamorphine in hospitals across the country.
The news comes as troops contine to struggle to contain the opium industry in Afghanistan. Figures due to be released by the United Nations next month are expected to show that the poppy crop has reached a record level. They are expected to show an increase in cultivated area to 166,000 hectares (410,000 acres).
Britain has spent £290 million on its counter-narcotics campaign in the country and is planning to spend an extra £22.5 million next year.

The Telegraph reveals a breaking scandal in Australia

Australian Labour leader's strip club scandal

Confounding his image as a squeaky clean, church-going family man, Kevin Rudd was forced to admit that he paid a visit to a strip club during a boozy night out in New York in 2003.
The former diplomat was enticed into Scores, a Manhattan "gentlemen's club", while on a tax payer-funded official visit to the United Nations as shadow foreign minister.
He denied claims that he had been cautioned by the club's bouncers for touching the strippers and said he had telephoned his wife, Theresa, the next day to confess the indiscretion.

The Independent reports that

Vladimir Putin rewrites Russia's history books to promote patriotism

Critics are accusing President Vladimir Putin's government of a Soviet-style rewriting of Russian history with a series of new "patriotic" textbooks to be unveiled in the new school year.
New laws passed this summer have given the government sweeping powers over which textbooks will be used in schools. Teachers and other critics have voiced concerns that this will allow the government to force the use of a single, approved book in each subject - essentially a return to Soviet practice.

Finally from the Telegraph

The slimming club for fat cats and dogs

Half of dogs and cats in Britain are overweight, according to the RSPCA.Joe Inglis, a television vet who joined the charity to launch the Pets Get Slim website and roadshow yesterday, said: "Action needs to be taken.
"A weight problem can affect a pet's quality of life and lead to straining of the joints, as well as internal illnesses like diabetes, liver disease and heart disease."
He said www.petsgetslim.co.uk would give pet owners help and motivation. "We know diets are difficult and when you've got a pet begging for treats, it's really tough," he added.