The end of the Beijing Olympics and the countdown to London dominate the front pages

Over to you Boris says the Independent

Something forlorn and regrettable happened here last night. The greatest Olympics we have ever seen, and perhaps ever will, quite unavoidably came to an end.
When they did it, it was hard not to feel a shiver of sympathy for Boris Johnson as he was handed maybe the heaviest baton ever passed on in the history of organised sport.

Over to you London says the Telegraph

Against an astonishing spectacle of fluorescent light and pyrotechnics in the Bird's Nest stadium, London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, accepted the Olympic flag to signal the start of its four-year reign as host city.London 2012, aware of the futility of trying to outdo a floor show of this magnitude, chose a red double-decker bus as the centrepiece of a segment in which the TV talent show winner Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page attempted to bridge the generational divide with a Led Zeppelin classic. They were joined, in what may yet be his international swansong, by David Beckham kicking a football high into the sky.

Don't drop the baton Boris says the Mail

With a wave of the Olympic flag, the countdown to London 2012 began last night.
As the Beijing Games came to a spectacular end, London Mayor Boris Johnson gave a flamboyant foretaste of the individual style that can be expected in four years' time.
As he walked to the centre stage to receive the flag he had his hands in his pockets, and cut a characteristically rumpled figure beside immaculately dressed Olympic chiefs.

The Sun looks forward to the Games in 2012 and reports that

SUPERSTAR David Beckham kicked off the countdown to the London Olympics — and revealed he could be a COACH for Team GB in 2012.
Becks sent 91,000 spectators into a frenzy at Beijing’s National Stadium when he appeared from within a red London bus at yesterday’s closing ceremony.

But there was also some controversy as the Mirror reports that

Bungling tourism bosses last night used the face of Murderer Myra to promote 2012 at a VIP party.
Her portrait from the Tate flashed up in a video was played to guests Gordon Brown, David gold medal heroes Chris Hoy and Vicky Pendleton and London mayor Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister was said to be absolutely furious over the bungle at London House, the Beijing base for the capital's 2012 promotions

The Times meanwhile says that

Britain risks losing its top coaches to rival countries keen to restore their national pride in London 2012, Olympic chiefs gave warning yesterday amid concerns over funding for elite sport.
Basking in the glory of 19 gold medals, and 47 in total, the Great Britain team is aware that its record haul since 1908 has focused attention on the performance directors in the leading sports of cycling, sailing and rowing. Yesterday Gordon Brown promised that everything would be done to ensure the medal success at Beijing was exceeded in London.

The Guardian leads with

City academies to take over struggling primary schools

The government is poised to radically expand the academies programme to include children as young as four by announcing that it has given the go-ahead for the takeover of three struggling local primaries.
Lord Adonis, the schools minister, told the Guardian that he had sanctioned the first so-called "matrix" academy, where three primaries on separate sites will feed into a secondary under a central management system to serve a total of 2,200 children.

The Telegraph reports that

Gordon Brown is an electoral liability for Labour, a former Cabinet Minister has warned in a fresh attack on the Prime Minister.Baroness Jay, a former Leader of the House of Lords under Tony Blair, says that Mr Brown's "dire" personal standing with voters is hurting his party's prospects.
The peer says Mr Brown compares unfavourbly with her father, Jim Callaghan, the former Labour prime minister who led his party to a shattering election defeat by the Conservatives in 1979.

Meanwhile according to the Mail

Gordon Brown is being pressed to move David Miliband in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Aides want him to 'neutralise' the Foreign Secretary by shifting him to the Treasury.
Handing him the Chancellor's job currently held by Alistair Darling, who has presided over the Northern Rock scandal and the 10p tax row during an unhappy tenure at No 11, would 'lock him in' to prevent trouble-making.
The calls come after Mr Miliband spelled out his strategy for beating the Tories in what was widely seen as a leadership manifesto.

The papers preview the Democrat's convention,the Times says that Obama sends his bandwagon west for the gun-toting, God-fearing vote

Democrats are on a roll across the Rocky Mountain region — a vast expanse of gun-toting, God-fearing, free-riding cowboy country. They have swept five Republican governors from office in five western states, while in Colorado they have seized control of both houses in the state legislature and congressional seats that were once regarded as irredeemably Republican.

Obama still faces one complication: Clinton says the Independent

She may have lost the nomination - but she holds her party's fate in her hands. The Democratic convention that opens here today will be the coronation of Barack Obama, choreographed to the last word and smallest gesture. But millions of hands could still wield a fatal dagger. They belong to the supporters of Hillary Clinton.

The Telegraph says that

Determined to pour cold water on the celebrations and exploit resentment among Hillary Clinton supporters that she was Mr Obama's vice-presidential mate, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, favourite to become John McCain's running mate, will be in town.
"There's going to be a lot of rhetoric coming out of the convention but we want to match that with Barack Obama's record and tell people he's not ready to be president," said Alex Conant, Republican National Committee spokesman.

Many of the papers report that

Hope was fading fast last night for eight mountaineers missing near Mont Blanc after a powerful avalanche caused one of the deadliest accidents to hit the French Alps in decades.
More than 15 hours after a large chunk of ice broke off from the mountain and prompted the pre-dawn avalanche, five Austrian and three Swiss climbers had still not been recovered from the slopes of Mont Blanc du Tacul.

says the Guardian

Back to the Uk and the Independent reports

An increasing number of children are being criminalised by the justice system, it was claimed yesterday, as new figures showed that more than 1,000 youngsters have been jailed for an average of six months each for breaching anti-social behaviour orders.

The Express says that

BASIC steps to ensure elderly patients do not become malnourished in hospital have been snubbed by almost half of all NHS trusts, a survey suggests.
Despite ample evidence that many vulnerable older patients need help during mealtimes, the issue is being ignored by health chiefs.
One in three said they had not even introduced a “red tray” system which means patients who cannot feed themselves are served on a red tray, alerting nurses to their needs

Jeremy Paxman once again courts controversy,the Telegraph reports his claims that

Middle-class white men are the most discriminated against in the television industry, The Newsnight presenter pointed to a string of women in senior positions at the BBC and other broadcasters in an attempt to show that the "glass ceiling" holding them back no longer existed.
"Do I think it's a man's world? That's the most ridiculous question I've been asked all week," Paxman said during an interview at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

Hotel chain hacker puts 8m guests at risk of ID fraud says the Mail

Up to eight million people are at risk of ID fraud after a hacker breached the security system of the world's largest hotel chain.
An Indian hacker broke into the IT system of Best Western Hotel Group and stole personal details of everyone who has stayed there in the past 12 months.
The details, which included home addresses, phone numbers, place of employment and credit card details, were sold on through an underground network controlled by the Russian Mafia.

The Independent says that

A major nature reserve is to become one of the first casualties of the rising seas around Britain.
Part of Titchwell Marsh, a favourite spot for birdwatchers on the north Norfolk coast, is to be sacrificed to the waves to save the rest of the site from destruction. The site, owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has seen its sea defences starting to give way after years of coastal erosion, exacerbated by global sea level rises, according to Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's Director of Conservation.

Finally back to the Olympics and the Sun

delivered a triumphant message to beaten Aussies yesterday after Britain scooped an impressive 19 gold medals – and they ended up with just 14.
We drove advertising vans around Sydney and London with a billboard asking our rivals -“Where the bloody hell were you?”