Many of the papers lead with the plane crash in Madrid this morning.

More than 150 people were killed yesterday after a plane bound for the holiday island of Gran Canaria crashed on take-off, swerved off the runway and burst into flames at Madrid airport, in western Europe's worst air disaster in seven years.
Ambulances and police raced to Barajas airport but emergency services found themselves retrieving charred corpses rather than rescuing the living.

says the Independent

150 burned alive in a jet says the front page of the Express

The plane, carrying 166 passengers and nine crew, crashed at Barajas airport in Spain after skidding off the runway following an engine fire.
A rescue worker said: “It’s the closest thing to hell that I’ve seen.
“The bodies were boiling. We burned ourselves just by touching them. It’s a miracle anybody survived.”

150 die in holiday jet fireball says the Telegraph

Families of the victims of the crash, which was the deadliest in Spain since 1983, when a Boeing 747 crashed in Madrid, killing 181, were overnight identifying bodies in a makeshift mortuary in the capital, which was also used in March 2004 when 191 were killed by terrorist bombs on four commuter trains.
Most of the victims of the crash are thought to have been Spanish and German holidaymakers. There were 20 children and two babies onboard. The British Embassy in Madrid sent staff to the airport to try to establish if any Britons were on board. About 17 million British holidaymakers visit Spain every year and more than a million British ex-patriates live in the country.

The Times reports that

Speculation was growing about the possible causes of the Madrid aircrash last night as it emerged that the plane had two flights cancelled in previous days because of technical problems.
Javier Fernandez Garcia, the flight coordinator at Madrid airport, told El Mundo newspaper: "This aircraft already had two flights cancelled because of problems."

The Mirror leads with Gary Glitter.Nowhere to Run says the paper

Glitter, 64, was barred from entering Hong Kong after blagging his way on to a flight from Thailand. He wants to avoid being sent back to the UK, where he would immediately be put on the sex offenders' register.
He crowed: "I've been in jail three years. Now I want to do some shopping in Hong Kong."

The Sun says

Now Hong Kong has sent him packing the pop pervert is trying to find a country that will take him in.
And the loathed serial paedophile is facing the prospect of being at the centre of an international pinball game.
He could even end up like the character in the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal, about a stranded man who lived in an airport.

The Mail leads with gas prices

Families face even higher energy bills this winter following a massive rise in the price of gas.
A leak in a key Norwegian pipeline has sent the wholesale price of supplies to the UK soaring by 14 per cent, raising fears of winter shortages.
The firm in charge of the North Sea pipeline said it could be shut down until next spring.

says the paper

The Guardian leads with an exclusive.The paper reports that

MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian.
The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.
It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable" and simply reflect the communities in which they live.

It is the day of the GCSE's and the Telegraph says

More than a fifth of GCSEs were awarded A grades for the first time today as the number of top marks climbed at its fastest rate in 20 years. Figures published by examiners today showed 20.7 per cent of papers were graded an A* or A - compared to 19.5 per cent last summer.
As 750,000 teenagers collected results, it emerged that the proportion of entries awarded at least a C - officially a good pass - increased more than 2 percentage points to 65.7 per cent.

The Times reports that

Nearly 200 struggling secondary schools could be put under new management unless their GCSE results today are much better than last year’s.These failed last year to reach the Government’s minimum target of 30 per cent of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs - including English and maths - at grade C or above. They were told in June that if they did not show significant improvement, they could be taken out of local authority control, closed and reopened as semi-independent academies or trusts.

The Telegraph reports that

Russia has accused America of starting a new arms race by locating part of its missile defence shield in Poland and warned that its response would go beyond diplomatic measures.The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who yesterday signed a deal with Warsaw to install a silo of 10 interceptor missiles on Poland’s Baltic Coast, just over 100 miles from Russian territory, described Russian paranoia as “bizarre”.

The Independent looks at the presidential election

Obama goes on the offensive as McCain surges into lead at polls says the paper

Barack Obama has launched a sustained and sharply negative advertising campaign against his Republican opponent John McCain, who has vaulted into the lead, according to an opinion poll released yesterday.
The first ever black presidential nominee has repeatedly promised that he would transcend the bickering of traditional politics. Trying to keep that pledge, but also the competitive edge, Mr Obama is now running an uplifting national advertising campaign while delivering fierce attacks on his opponent at the local level in key swing states.

McCain and Obama raise stakes says the Guardian

Both campaigns released new hard-hitting adverts amid polls yesterday showing McCain narrowing the gap, or even slightly overtaking Obama. Overall the two candidates appeared virtually locked in their race for the White House.
In the Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll, Obama led McCain nationally 45% to 43%. The same poll gave Obama a 12-point lead in June. A Zogby International poll yesterday showed McCain ahead with 46% compared with 41% for the Democrat. Obama had led McCain by similar margins, 47% to 40%, in a poll last month

The Times reports that an

Explosion in Turkey holiday town injures 16

Police officers and soldiers were among those hurt when a parked car exploded as a minibus carrying police officers passed by in the town of Kusadasi, 100km from Izmir city, CNN Turk has reported.
The blast shattered windows in the surrounding area, which was near a police housing complex in the Buca district of the Aegean port, which is Turkey's third-largest city.

The Sun reports that

MORE than 105,000 operations were cancelled by the NHS last year, it was revealed last night.
That is nearly TWICE the number reported in official statistics.
Around 7,000 people had their ops delayed at least twice, with one patient having surgery cancelled a staggering NINE times.

Every petrol pump 'will be prepay by 2011' forecasts the Mail

The soaring cost of unleaded and diesel has seen an increase in instances of people driving off from forecourts without paying.
Petrol retailers say their fuel theft bill has risen by several million pounds.The prepay system, where drivers have to swipe a debit or credit card at the pump before they can get any petrol, is already used widely in the U.S.
The amount the driver has spent is automatically deducted from the swiped card, making it impossible not to pay for filling up.

The Telegraph reports that

Britons lack "national purpose" according to a study which found that most people prefer to spend their Bank Holiday watching television or surfing the internet rather than celebrating the country's heritage. Britons lack "national purpose" according to a study which found that most people prefer to spend their Bank Holiday watching television or surfing the internet rather than celebrating the country's heritage.

The Times reports

Strikes scheduled over the Bank Holiday weekend at Stansted, Gatwick and Manchester airports have been called off.
Baggage handlers and cabin crew voted to call off the action after reaching a pay deal with airport bosses. The two 24-hour walk-outs, scheduled for August 25 and 29, threatened to disrupt the travel plans of up to 1.3 million Britons heading abroad for the Bank Holiday weekend.

I am leaving a strong legacy for England, claims departing Barwick reports the Guardian

Brian Barwick is confident Fabio Capello will lead England to success over the next few years after it was confirmed that the Football Association chief executive will leave his post on December 31 following a major difference of opinion with chairman Lord Triesman over the precise nature of his job.

The Times says that

Barwick’s position has been under threat since Triesman began work as the governing body’s first independent chairman amid much fanfare in January, but the suddenness of his departure is a shock.
With Great Britain enjoying a gold rush at the Olympic Games in Beijing, this was not an evening that showed the national game in the best light, with England playing poorly in a 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic. The FA had been planning to announce Barwick’s departure this morning, but news leaked out shortly before kick-off on a night when England were booed off by a large section of the Wembley crowd.

Finally the Express reports that

A couple have publicly apologised to neighbours after their daughter’s party left their street looking like a war zone.
Antiques dealers Martin and Annette Herdman were on holiday in Marbella, Spain, leaving 16-year-old Holly at home, supervised by a relative.
The teenager had invited a handful of friends round for drinks but was horrified when up to 30 gatecrashers turned up.
When she refused to let them in they rampaged down the street scratching cars, smashing windows and breaking bottles.