Cynical electionering and Diana dominate the pages today.

The tabloids all feature the opening of the Diana inquest on their front pages,the last picture of Diana in the car is featured in many

Diana: The last picture says the Mirror

Princess Diana is driven away in the back of her Mercedes in the final picture of her before she died.The extraordinary photo - shown yesterday to the inquest jury probing her death - was taken as Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed left the Ritz hotel in Paris at 12.20am.
Five minutes later the Mercedes careered into a pillar in the Alma tunnel, killing Diana, Dodi and driver Henri Paul. Guard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor.
The picture was released on the coroner's website as the inquest into the crash in 1997 finally began.

Moments from death headlines the Sun

Driver Henri Paul stares manically down the lens of a paparazzi cameraman, while in the front passenger seat, Dodi’s bodyguard Trevor Rees is seen behind a sun visor.

Both the Mail and the Express make claims

Diana told top lawyer Queen was about to abdicate ... and she feared for her life says the Mail

Princess Diana told her solicitor that she believed the Queen planned to abdicate to make way for Charles, her inquest was told.
She feared that both she and Camilla Parker Bowles would be 'put aside' to allow the prince to marry his sons' nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
'Reliable sources' had informed her of the plan.
The astonishing allegation was recorded by Lord Mishcon in a tense private meeting with Diana in October 1995. He kept it secret until after the Paris crash in which she died almost two years later.

According to the Express Diana said

THEY NEED TO GET RID OF ME

Inquest to put conspiratory theories to the test says the Telegraph

It was their job, he said, to decide whether the couple were simply the victims of a tragic accident or whether, as Dodi's father Mohamed Fayed believes, the crash was "murder in the furtherance of a conspiracy by the establishment, in particular His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who used the secret services to carry it out".Among the claims they would have to consider were Mr Fayed's beliefs that Diana was pregnant when she died, that she was about to announce her engagement to Dodi and that MI6 officers in Paris arranged her death.

The paper leads though with

Gordon Brown's Basra pullout 'is a stunt'

Gordon Brown has been accused of treating the Armed Forces as a "political football" after an announcement about troop withdrawals from Iraq appeared to backfire.The Prime Minister has flown to Basra to announce that 1,000 servicemen would return home by Christmas, leaving a contingent of 4,000.
The move was widely seen as an attempt to prepare the ground for a snap general election. But he faced severe criticism for alleged spin after it emerged that half of the withdrawals had previously been announced and hundreds of the troops were already home.

November 1: the countdown begins says the Guardian

Gordon Brown yesterday set the stage to announce a November 1 general election on Tuesday next week as a poisonous row erupted between the two parties over the prime minister's decision to fly to Iraq in the middle of the Tory conference.
In a surprise intervention that had not been cleared with David Cameron, the former prime minister Sir John Major accused Mr Brown of breaking his promise to end "a decade of spin and deceit" by travelling to Baghdad to announce the withdrawal of 1,000 British troops by Christmas, breaking his commitment to tell parliament next week.

'Dog-whistle' style of politics attacked by Conservatives says the Independent

David Cameron will try to turn the tables on Gordon Brown today by accusing him of resorting to the "dog-whistle" style of politics associated with right-wing political parties.
In arguably the most important speech of his career, the Tory leader will tell his party's Blackpool conference that the Prime Minister represents an "old politics" that is not working.
Mr Cameron will deny that he is cooling on green taxes, and will elevate the threat to the planet from climate change to that posed by terrorism. He will say that making Britain "safer and greener" will be one of the Tories' three key themes at the general election, which he will challenge Mr Brown to call immediately.

'Cynical' Brown accused of electioneering as he announces 1,000 troops home from Iraq by Christmas is how the Mail describes it

Gordon Brown was on the back foot last night as the Tories accused him of cynically using British forces in Iraq to fuel speculation of an imminent election.
Senior Conservatives led by David Cameron said the Prime Minister had broken a promise to tell Parliament first after he announced troop withdrawals on a surprise visit to Baghdad.
And, in an scathing attack on spin, Sir John Major claimed Mr Brown was using 'nods, winks and cynicism' about an election to destabilise the Opposition. 'It may well backfire,' he warned.

Brown's Iraq pull-out is 'spin'says the Sun

The PM was accused of “cynical” double-counting after it was revealed he had PREVIOUSLY announced the pull-out of 500 of them — and 270 were ALREADY back in the UK.

The Times leads with

Fresh Tory tax cuts for family and companies

Personal and business tax cuts will be unveiled by the Conservatives in any autumn general election campaign, The Times was told yesterday, as poll fever began to run out of control.
George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said that he would follow up his proposals to slash inheritance tax and stamp duty for first-time buyers with more populist measures. Money raised from new green taxes would be used “pound for pound” to fund personal tax cuts.

The Indy meanwhile trails some Labour policy

Spending on NHS to be raised to £100bn a year for first time

The Prime Minister has ordered the Whitehall machine to gear up for the possible announcement early next week of a November ballot. If he decides to go ahead, the Treasury's comprehensive spending review, setting out the Government's plans for the next three years, will be unveiled on Monday – nine days earlier than was planned. The centrepiece will be a rise in health spending to take the NHS budget, currently at £87.6bn a year, past the £100bn mark for the first time by the end of the three-year period in 2010-11.

The Independent reverts to one of its major topics on its front page this morning

Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave

Parts of the Arctic have experienced an unprecedented heatwave this summer, with one research station in the Canadian High Arctic recording temperatures above 20C, about 15C higher than the long-term average. The high temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice in September to the lowest levels ever recorded, a further indication of how sensitive this region of the world is to global warming. Scientists from Queen's University in Ontario watched with amazement as their thermometers touched 22C during their July field expedition at the High Arctic camp on Melville Island, usually one of the coldest places in North America.

The Times reports on the lastest Maddy developments

Madeleine McCann detective sacked after outburst

The Portuguese detective leading the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was sacked yesterday after he accused British police of helping her parents to cover up their role in their daughter’s death.
Chief Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who has been the driving force behind briefings that the couple were responsible for the disappearance of their daughter, was dismissed from his position as director of the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão and demoted to the rank of inspector.

Cop demoted after McCanns outburst says the Mirror

The bungling Portuguese police chief running the Madeleine McCann probe was last night kicked off the case by furious bosses.
Officials demoted boozy chief inspector Goncalo Amaral after he launched an astonishing public attack on parents Kate and Gerry and British detectives.
The 48-year-old accused the McCanns of manipulating the investigation and claimed police here are pandering to the family.

Blame for fatal shooting would hamper policing, says QC reports the Guardian

A successful prosecution of the Metropolitan police over the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes would be like putting handcuffs on detectives and would damage the fight against serious crime in the UK, a jury was told yesterday.
A trial at the Old Bailey heard that the attempt to prosecute police over the death of the 27-year-old Brazilian, who was shot dead by police marksman at the height of the anti-terrorist operation in July 2005, was based on ignorance and hindsight.

Police in Tube shooting told: ‘you will face deadly terrorists’ says the Times

Two policemen who shot dead an innocent man on the London Underground had been briefed by their commanders to expect a confrontation with determined suicide bombers, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
On the morning that they killed Jean Charles de Menezes the officers were told that they would have to intercept “deadly” terrorists who were “up for it”.
As their cars arrived at Stockwell station, where Mr de Menezes was boarding a train to go to work, they received an urgent order from the Scotland Yard control room: “Do not let him on the Tube.” Minutes later two officers shot the Brazilian electrician in the head seven times using bullets designed to kill instantly.

The Telegraph as does many of the papers reports on the second day of the tennis coach trial

Tennis coach 'demanded lesbian sex'

An award winning female tennis coach threatened to end the career of a promising schoolgirl player unless she had sex with her, a court has heard.The alleged victim - who was aged 13 when she came under the tutelage of Lawn Tennis Association coach Claire Lyte - claimed that Lyte threatened to have her thrown out of the LTA's academy at Loughborough if she told anyone of the affair.
"I never wanted to do any of it," the girl told the court. "She (Lyte) told me what to do.

Tennis girl's 'lesbian hell' reports the Sun

The same paper tells

I killed sister with mum's gun

A TEENAGE wannabe gangster killed his 12-year-old sister with his MUM’S gun, a court heard yesterday.
Kasha Peniston, 17, was sat on a sofa watching TV with Kamilah when the powerful .38 snubnose revolver went off in his hoodie pocket — shooting the girl in the forehead.
Police found him covered in blood and cradling Kamilah, yelling: “I’ve shot my sister, please get an ambulance.”
Kamilah — described as “a little brainbox” by her family — was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery but died the next day.

Summit 'may strengthen Kim Jong Il' says the Indy

South Korea's President walked across the world's most fortified border for his country's second summit with North Korea yesterday, amid concerns that the three-day visit may bolster the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, before he has taken irrevocable steps to dismantle the reclusive state's nuclear programme.
"I am crossing this forbidden line of division," President Roh Moo-hyun said as he stepped over a yellow strip on the road at the Demilitarised Zone, on which were written the words "peace" and "prosperity", becoming the first Korean leader to cross the land border between the two countries. "There is nothing in sight, but this line is the wall that has left our nation divided for half a century. Because of this wall, our nation has suffered so much pain," he said.

The Guardian reports that

Iraq security firm denies trigger-happy charge

The US company at the centre of the scandal over the role of private security guards in Iraq brushed aside accusations that it was a cowboy outfit yesterday, even as details emerged about a incident in which an allegedly drunken member was involved in a fatal shooting. Testifying before a congressional hearing Erik Prince, the normally secretive head of Blackwater, denied his company was overly aggressive.
The company is in the middle of a tug of war between the Iraqi government and the US state department following the alleged killing of 11 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad on September 16. Blackwater has been blamed.

According to the Telegraph

Pervez Musharraf ready to do deal with Bhutto

The announcement came after months of tension and days before elections in which the embattled president plans to extend his eight-year tenure.
"The president is issuing an ordinance granting amnesty to politicians against whom cases were constituted between 1985 and 1999 as part of his national reconciliation drive," a government official said.
The amnesty - due to be formalised today - meets one of Ms Bhutto's key demands in long-running talks on possible power-sharing. The deal would align two pro-US figures who have called for moderates to unite against Islamic extremism.