The papers were forced to change their front pages in the wake of events in Liverpool last nightThe Sun leads with the story

BOY 11 SHOT DEAD BY KID

A HITMAN hoodie riding a BMX bike last night ruthlessly shot dead a boy aged just 11.
The victim’s mother rushed to the scene after he was blasted in the neck and pleaded, “Stay with us, son” as he lay dying.
The lad collapsed in a pool of blood and was rushed to hospital, where surgeons battled in vain to save him.


According to the Telegraph

An 11-year-old boy on his way home from a youth league football match was shot dead by another youngster last night in what is believed to be a gang-related attack.Rhys Jones was in the car park of a Liverpool pub when a hooded figure - said to be as young as 12 - approached on a BMX bike and fired three shots.Witnesses said the boy, who died in hospital, was shot in the neck by a "local gang member".

Elsewhere,The Independent claims that

Home Office tried to gag Chindamo's character witnesses

Two senior prison officers, including the deputy governor of Ford open prison in West Sussex, were banned from expressing any opinion on the rehabilitation of 26-year-old Learco Chindamo, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the west London headmaster in 1995, it has been alleged.
Chindamo's lawyers claim that both key witnesses were also prevented from attending the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal which this week ruled Chindamo could not be deported to Italy.

Chindamo made 'murder' joke reports the Sun

Learco Chindamo BOASTED of his wicked crime and swaggered around jail with a gang of fellow killers, handing out beatings to other cons.
Ex-thief Mark Brunger said: “He didn’t give a toss about killing Philip Lawrence, he used to laugh about it with everybody.”
Mark, 28, hit out after a tribunal blocked Chindamo’s deportation on his release — despite Home Office warnings that he is still a threat.


Iraq ,until the shooting ,dominated the headlines

Bush: there will be no pullout from Iraq while I'm president reported the Guardian

Making it clear he will resist congressional pressure next month for an early withdrawal, he signalled that US troops, whom he hailed as the "greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known", will be in Iraq as long as he is president. He also said the consequences of leaving "without getting the job done would be devastating", and "the enemy would follow us home".
Mr Bush's speech came on the day that the US suffered one of its highest daily death tolls since the 2003 invasion, with 14 troops killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed.

The Independent leads with

The vanishing coalition

President George Bush invoked the spectre of Vietnam for the first time yesterday as 15 more American soldiers died and increasing evidence emerged that the coalition of the willing that invaded Iraq four years ago has begun to fracture irreparably.
As the US death toll moved to 3,722, Iraq's Prime Minister engaged in an angry war of words with his critics in Washington. Meanwhile, a senior US general issued a dark warning that American troops may have to be sent to the south of the country to fill the vacuum left by a projected British withdrawal.

The Telegraph reporting that

US general blames Britain for Basra crisis

The first sign of serious tension between Gordon Brown and President George W Bush over Iraq have emerged as a senior US general said the withdrawal of British troops was creating a security crisis in the south of the country.Gen Jack Keane, who is close to the White House and was the architect of the American troop "surge" in Baghdad this year, said the policy was helping to turn Basra into a city of "gangland warfare".

It along with the Mail focuses on the latest immigration/emigration figures

Britons quit country in record numbers

The number of Britons emigrating in the 12 months to July 2006 reached 385,000, the highest since present counting methods were introduced in 1991, new figures show.This is almost certainly the greatest emigration since the 1960s, when thousands left to start new lives in Australia. It could even be the highest since before the First World War, though official figures are not available.

The Mail has two figures 576,000-those coming in,196,000 those going out

The exodus is countered by high levels of immigration, with the Office for National Statistics saying that 574,000 people came to live in Britain between June 2005 and 2006.
Overall, the population has risen by 349,000 to more than 60million. The news came as it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers will be granted an 'amnesty' to live in Britain on human rights grounds.

The Times adds that

One in four children born in Britain has a foreign mother or father, according to figures released yesterday.
A surge in migration has also helped to drive up the birth rate to a 26-year high. Live births last year increased for the fifth successive year, to 734,000, compared with 663,000 in 2002.
The 25 per cent foreign parent figure – for the year to July 2006 – compared with 20 per cent in 2001. Mothers born outside Britain had 21.9 per cent of births in 2006.

The Express and the Mirror continue to report on Maddy

Maddy cops: 'She died by accident in flat' says the Mirror

Senior detectives have told prosecutors they believe Madeleine McCann was killed accidentally in her holiday flat.
The Portuguese officers made the revelation during a meeting earlier this week - and claimed to have evidence that supports their theory.
A source said: "They said they think Madeleine is dead and it happened in the flat. But they don't think she was killed on purpose. It's the first time they have said this."

The Express reports on

THE agonising moment when Madeleine McCann’s parents realised she was missing was revealed last night by a fresh witness.Detectives were told Kate McCann cried hysterically after discovering that her daughter had vanished.
She sobbed “We’ve let her down, we’ve let her down” as she and her husband Gerry frantically searched for the little girl. The extraordinary details of the panic and confusion were given by a neighbour of the McCanns at the apartment block in Praia da Luz from where four-year-old Madeleine went missing 112 days ago.

However the paper also returns to one of its old subjects

DIANA WAS NINE WEEKS PREGNANT WHEN SHE DIED
An investigative journalist, formerly of the reputable Paris Match magazine, claims to have uncovered the explosive proof from archives at the hospital where the Princess was taken after the crash on the night of August 31 1997.
The document has previously remained hidden for 10 years due to “ethical and privacy” concerns, according to respected investigative reporter Chris Lafaille.


Noise of modern life blamed for thousands of heart deaths reports the Guardian

Thousands of people in Britain and around the world are dying prematurely from heart disease triggered by long-term exposure to excessive noise, according to research by the World Health Organisation. Coronary heart disease caused 101,000 deaths in the UK in 2006, and the study suggests that 3,030 of these are caused by chronic noise exposure, including to daytime traffic.
Deepak Prasher, professor of audiology at University College London, told the New Scientist magazine: "The new data provide the link showing there are earlier deaths because of noise. Until now, noise has been the Cinderella form of pollution and people haven't been aware that it has an impact on their health."

The Indy also gives us food for thought

Why taking a short trip is more stressful than a traditional family summer holiday

A survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of the internet search engine Yahoo! found that British families increasingly prefer to take several mini-breaks each year, rather than the traditional, annual two-week holiday.
Rather than giving parents and children regular doses of relaxation, however, mini-breaks and extended weekends are raising stress levels and making many parents wish they had kept the children at home.


Gun cops hold 3 in biker murder raid reports the Mirror

Armed police yesterday arrested three men on suspicion of murdering Hell's Angel biker Gerry Tobin.
They were held in raids between 3am and 4am on three addresses in Warwickshire and the West Midlands.
A green Rover similar to one believed to have been used in the killing, a gun, axe and knives were recovered.

News from abroad and the Times reports that

Pakistani militants are released from jail

Dozens of suspected Islamic militants have been released from prison without trial in Pakistan in a direct challenge to President Musharraf by the country’s judiciary.
Most had been seized by the notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and held, without being charged, for periods of up to three years. Also freed were a number of critics of General Musharraf’s regime and activists demanding autonomy in the southwestern province of Balochistan. adding that

The move, ordered by the Supreme Court, is likely to raise concern in Britain and the United States over Pakistan’s continued role as an ally in the War on Terror. It also highlights the erosion of General Musharraf’s authority after he was forced to reinstate Pakistan’s chief justice, a decision that has emboldened legal challenges to his troubled administration.

Burma cracks down as fuel protests gather pace says the Guardian

At least eight Burmese pro-democracy activists were seized on the streets of Rangoon yesterday as armed police and supporters of the junta intervened to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting at a dramatic hike in fuel prices and growing economic hardship.
Around 300 marchers walked from the commercial capital's outskirts as thousands - some cheering - looked on. The latest in a growing series of protests came hours after 13 leading activists, including the senior leadership of the 88 Student Generation group, were arrested in the most serious clampdown by the Burmese junta in a decade.

Berlusconi enlists beauty queen to launch new party reports the Independent

As he prepares to celebrate his 71st birthday next month, Silvio Berlusconi has appalled mainstream rivals for leadership of Italy's centre-right by blessing a new political party launched by a 39-year-old former beauty queen.
Michela Vittoria Brambilla, who started a network of nebulous political clubs last November, said she had officially registered the Partito della Liberta (PDL) and its logo with the European Union on 6 August "on Silvio Berlusconi's mandate".

The Mail picks up on the story that

Council tax bills to be cut if 'pay as you throw' charges on bin collections are introduced

Council tax will be cut if 'pay-as-you-throw' charges on rubbish collection are introduced, town hall chiefs promised yesterday.
The cuts would be worth at least £30 off an average annual bill of £1,100 and could even reach £10 a week, they claim.
The pledge came as local government chiefs published details of three schemes under which households would pay for visits by the binmen.

Finally the Telegraph reports on the

Silver surfers

The over-65s spend 42 hours a week online, four hours more than the most active users who are aged between 18 and 24, according to Ofcom’s annual report into the industry.
While the regulator did not list the websites they were searching, previous studies have shown that search engines and online shopping websites are particularly popular among "silver surfers"