As the Olympic opening ceremony has the world looking on in awe,the Guardian says

08.08.08 A day of war and peace

From the nation which brought you the 8,000 buried terracotta warriors of Xian in 210BC and the 7,500-mile Long March in 1934, you would anticipate nothing less than a spectacle. The ceremony that opened the 29th Olympic games last night outdid all of its predecessors in numbers, colour, noise and expense, demonstrating to the world that the new China intends to make its presence felt.

whilst further West it reports that

Russia and Georgia were effectively at war last night after a festering conflict in the Caucasus plunged out of control following a Georgian military attempt to recover its breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Tanks and artillery from Russia's 58th army were in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, to prevent Georgian forces attacking Russian peacekeepers and civilians, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

While the World looks away says the Mail

At least 1,500 people, most of them civilians, were killed yesterday in heavy fighting between Russia and one of its former Soviet satellites.
With the eyes of the world on the Olympics, a day of drama and bloodshed left Moscow on the the brink of all-out war with U.S.-backed Georgia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who declared a state of martial law last night, called on the U.S. to help, declaring: 'Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory'.

Nearly all the papers have the opening ceremony on their front pages

China's opening ceremony thrills the watching world says the Telegraph whilst reporting that

This was the choreographed demonstration of might the like of which the Olympic Games has never seen; a rebuke to George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy, vocal critics of Chinese foreign and domestic policy sitting in the audience, and the Beverly Hills radicals lounging by pools in Bel Air. Keep your noses out of Chinese affairs.
Vladimir Putin, his focus shifted by the military offensive in Georgia, was a study of quiet admiration for the global confidence his neighbour radiated. Tibet, Burma, Sudan and the colonisation of Africa are the issues routinely raised to keep the dragon in check; human rights the moral stick to beat the beast into submission.

The greatest show the world has ever seen says the Independent

The launch of the 29th Olympics was so stunningly choreographed, so meticulous planned – full dress rehearsals were under way more than a year ago – and went so far back into China's ancient history you suspected that Confucius himself might have been pleased.

But the fighting in Ossetia is not far away from the headlines

The United States, the European Union and Nato appealed for an immediate end to the fighting and for the crisis to be resolved through direct talks. President Bush pledged US support for Georgia’s territorial integrity after holding talks with Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, in Beijing where both men were attending the opening of the Olympic Games.

says the Times

The Independent reports that

President Dmitry Medvedev said today that Russian troops in South Ossetia were carrying out a peace enforcement operation aimed at protecting civilians.
"Our peacekeepeers and reinforcement units are currently running an operation to force the Georgian side to (agree to) peace," Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

Home repossessions hit highest level in 12 years reports the Telegraph

More than 100 homes are being repossessed each day, official figures show, the highest level for 12 years. The number of borrowers losing their homes rose almost 50 per cent in six months.
Experts warned more families will be hit before the end of the year as they are unable to keep up with the rising cost of living.
A total of 18,900 homes were repossessed in the first half of 2008 - a 48 per cent increase since the same time last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The council forecasts that 45,000 homes will be repossessed by December as cash-strapped borrowers struggle to repay their mortgages. Many economists predict greater hardship in 2009, with repossessions approaching the record set in 1991, when 75,000 families lost the roof over their heads. The housing charity Shelter described the latest figures as shocking

. reports the Independent



The Mail meanwhile reports that

Credit crunch puts £640 extra on family expenses

Families are having to find an extra £640 a year to cope with the credit crunch, exclusive research reveals.
For the first time - on the first anniversary of the crisis - it lays bare the impact of the economic ills on millions of households across Britain.
The extra burden comes from the higher rate charged on mortgages, credit cards and unsecured personal loans and the lower rates on savings.

The Sun meanwhile reports that there is

GOOD news for shoppers as most baskets in my league of basic staples have FALLEN in price this week.
The basket contains white sliced bread (800g), milk (two pints), butter (250g), medium cheddar (500g), eggs (ten medium/large), cornflakes (750g), orange juice (one litre), baked beans (220g), minced beef (500g) and seedless grapes (500g).

It leads with Maddy reporting that

COPS were last night probing a dramatic new “sighting” of Madeleine McCann just FIVE DAYS ago.
A little girl looking just like missing Maddie was spotted on CCTV at a bank in Brussels, Belgium.
It follows three earlier sightings in Belgium and three in Holland.

As does the Express

The hunt for Madeleine McCann focused on Belgium last night after it emerged that police are investigating a fresh sighting.
A bank worker in Brussels reported seeing Madeleine accompanied by a woman of North African appearance on Monday morning.

and the Mirror which reports that

Four families stayed in Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment between the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine and further forensic searches, official case files revealed today.
Just over a month after the little girl went missing, flat 5A in Praia da Luz's Ocean Club resort was allowed to be occupied again.
Despite the apartment being a crime scene, 11 people stayed there between June 12 and July 26 last year, raising the possibility that it was contaminated before fresh forensic examinations in August.

Many of the papers report that John Edwards admits to having affair

John Edwards, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee, today admitted having an extramarital affair with a film-maker who worked on his campaign but he denied fathering the woman's six-month-old child.
In a statement released late today, Edwards expressed remorse for his actions. "I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough. I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public," he said

says the Guardian

The Times says that

Mr Edwards, whose wife Elizabeth suffers from incurable cancer, said that he had repeartedly lied to the public about the affair with Rielle Hunter, 44, a film maker who travelled with him for much of 2006. He said that he had never loved Ms Hunter, and denied he was the father of her child.

'Old boy network' is obstructing police investigation says the Telegraph

An "old boy network" of officials is deliberately obstructing police investigating decades of alleged abuse at care homes in Jersey, according to the police officer who spearheaded the inquiry.Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper angrily hit out at the figures who he says have engaged in a "day by day attack" on the inquiry team and the alleged victims of abuse at Haut de la Garenne and other island institutions.

According to the Independent

One of Britain's most successful anti-gun crime projects is in danger of closure after the Home Office refused to continue its funding.
The Don't Trigger project, which has been acclaimed by senior politicians and the police, was supported last year by a £450,000 grant from the Home Office. But when the group running the project applied for a renewed grant and extra money for an anti-knife crime initiative they were turned down by the Home Office minister Vernon Coaker, who said the money could be better used elsewhere.

Finally the Guardian reports that

Australian coroner ends mystery of 'ghost ship'

When the yacht Kaz II was found off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, drifting and no one on board, there were many theories about what could have happened to its three middle-aged crew members.One of the wilder theories was that some kind of paranormal event had happened aboard their catamaran and inevitably, comparisons were made to the lost crew of another "ghost" ship, the Mary Celeste.
But yesterday a coroner in Townsville, Queensland, ended the speculation that has been buzzing around the bars of Australian yachting clubs for months by ruling that the three friends drowned in a freak accident during what was supposed to have been a trip of a lifetime, even though their bodies have never been found