Welcome to the last day of the world as the papers look forward to the turning on of the Hadron Particle collider.

The Independent reports that

It was Oscar Wilde who declared that "all art is useless" – which was not a condemnation, but a proclamation. If you want to create something of beauty, he meant, do not be distracted by people who ask what it is for. On that basis, whatever emerges from the £4.4bn experiment that begins today in the vast complex built at the Cern – The European Organisation for Nuclear Research – laboratory near Geneva, where infinitesimally small particles travelling at mind-boggling speeds will crash together with so much force that they almost replicate the Big Bang, could be called the most expensive work of art in human history.

The Telegraph asks will it cause the end of the world?

The end is nigh. The momentous day that 10,000 scientists have been waiting for, along with assorted cranks, doomsayers and prophets of misfortune, is almost here.the planet's best known scientist, Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, dismissed concerns that the LHC will seed a black hole to swallow the Earth: "The world will not come to an end."

Apart from the collider there are various headlines across the papers,the Times leads with

Cambridge University's Alison Richard condemns push for state pupils

In a robust attack on government “meddling”, Alison Richard, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, will say that universities are not “engines for promoting social justice”.
Ministers have repeatedly called on elite universities to do more to attract students from poor backgrounds. Last night Professor Richard told The Times that the role of Cambridge was to educate and to lead research, not to “fix problems of social mobility”.

Social class also interests the Telegraph which reports that

Harriet Harman today ends a decade-long Labour cease-fire in the class war by declaring that social class is still the most important dividing line in British society

and adds

Family background is the most important factor in determining the quality and length of someone's life, the Labour deputy leader will say, suggesting that class "overarches" racial and sexual inequalities.
Miss Harman's speech to trade union leaders today marks a change of tone for Labour after years of trying to downplay the importance of class.

The Independent stays on the theme as it says

Gordon Brown has called on his party to "adapt and rethink New Labour policy" as he acknowledged that the Government had not done enough to tackle inequalities in Britain.
He used an article to be published on the eve of the Labour Party conference to insist that the Government "must do more" to promote fairness.

The Guardian looks to changes to immigration

Welcome to Britain - so long as you're an engineer, maths teacher or sheep shearer

Doctors, secondary school teachers and social workers from outside Europe will no longer be recruited to work in Britain under the points-based immigration system which is to come into force in November.
The three are the largest occupations represented among 300,000 skilled jobs currently open to non-European Union migrants which will be excluded under the new system.

The Independent adds that

The Home Office's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) yesterday published its first list of the kinds of job that it believes can be filled by migrant workers of any nationality.
It spotlighted a series of areas where employers are struggling to attract skilled workers and have such little hope of recruiting within Europe that they will have to look further afield.

There is still much debate about the outcome of the airline bomb plot trial,the Times reports that

Prosecutors are expected to decide at a high-level meeting today to seek a retrial of seven men on allegations of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to attack transatlantic airliners.
Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, will chair the meeting, which will also be attended by Peter Wright, QC, who presented the Crown case at the five-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
There was “disbelief” and “astonishment” among investigators when the jury returned its verdicts on Monday, revealing that it was not convinced of the existence of a plan to attack aircraft in mid-flight.

Ex-Met terror chief calls for radical overhaul of anti-terror policing says the Telegraph

Andy Hayman, who was closely involved with the liquid bomb inquiry as assistant commissioner of the Met, said the current situation was "a mess".
"A national counter-terrorism agency would streamline operations and achieve economies of scale, but most importantly, it would strengthen operational effectiveness," he said.
He added: "We cannot allow the complicated, and frequently petty, politics of policing to get in the way of the fight against terrorism."

The Mail meanwhile says

Air passengers face five more years of bans on carrying liquids in their hand luggage, it has emerged.
The news comes despite the result of a high-profile court trial on Monday which saw eight suspects escape conviction over an alleged plot to blow up planes

The Independent claims that

The government is in discussions with security companies and Britain's airports to lift the ban on liquids being carried in hand luggage as early as next year.Technology already deployed at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 can automatically detect the presence of liquids in carry-on bags. Now, government scientists are running tests to see if the scanners can be adapted to pick out those that are harmful.

The Guardian reports that Critical report on anti-terrorism intelligence shelved

A critical report on the conduct of the police and MI5 in the run-up to the July 7 attacks on London has been shelved for legal reasons, the Guardian has learned.
The intelligence and security committee, which consists of senior peers and MPs, was due to have published its report today. It is understood to relate to communications between MI5 in London and West Yorkshire police.

The paper leads with Labour pins hopes on £1bn energy dealMoney for heat-saving measures angers unions wanting windfall

Ministers and the country's leading electricity companies are expected today to finalise a £1bn plan to improve energy efficiency and help cut soaring fuel bills.
But the three-year package, due to be announced tomorrow is bound to disappoint some Labour MPs and leave trade unionists determined to redouble their calls for a windfall tax.
The result of nearly two months of talks, the plans are likely for the first time to include a contribution from the independent power generators such as Drax.

The Times says that

Eleven million homes are to be given help to reduce bills in the biggest state-backed programme to modernise household energy use for more than 40 years.
Utility companies will fund most of an additional £1 billion for energyefficiency measures over the next three years, Gordon Brown is likely to announce tomorrow.
About four million of Britain’s poorest households, people on benefit and people over 70, will be eligible for free loft and cavity insulation. More affluent households, yet to be defined, will be able to claim discounts on household improvements designed to reduce energy consumption.

According to the Telegraph,

The Government's drugs watchdog spends £1 million more on spin than on evaluating medications, The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has come under fire in recent months for the time it takes to decide which drugs can be given on the NHS and for rejecting some life extending medications as too expensive.
Official figures show that Nice spent almost £3.4 million, 10 per cent of its budget, evaluating new drugs and technologies last year

The Mail says that

The money forked out on press officers, marketing executives and consultants included £25,000 on top public relations firm Weber Shandwick to defend NICE's ban on Alzheimer's drugs.
It could have paid for 5,000 Alzheimer's sufferers to get £2.50-a-day drugs for a year. Alternatively it would have funded nearly 200 patients with advanced kidney cancer to have a drug for 12 months that would double their life expectancy.

The Express leads with a cure for hayfever

A trial on humans of a new drug that stops the allergic reactions will begin within weeks, with the results available early next year.
If the pioneering tests are successful, allergy charities hope the treatment, to be administered with an inhaler, will dramatically help sufferers of the often debilitating respiratory conditions.

The US elections continue to take up column inches,the Times reports that

At the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, Sarah Palin’s former pastor sees powerful signs that the end of the world is nigh.
Pastor Ed Kalnins cites conflict in the Middle East, America’s dependence on foreign oil and the depletion of energy reserves as evidence that “storm clouds are gathering”. He told The Times: “Scripture specifically mentions oil instability as a sign of the Rapture. We’re seeing more and more oil wars. The contractions of the fulfilment of prophecies are getting tighter and tighter.”

The Telegraph reports that

Gordon Brown has triggered a potential row with John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, after apparently backing Barack Obama - breaking convention not to get involved in foreign elections.

The Guardian says that

White women voters are deserting the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama because of the sudden emergence on the Republican ticket of Sarah Palin, according to a poll yesterday.
An ABC/Washington Post survey recorded that an eight-point lead Obama held over his Republican rival John McCain before the arrival of Palin had turned into a 12% lead for McCain

The Sun meanwhile claims that

Sarah Palin can trace her family tree back to 18th century NORWICH, historians revealed last night.
The Vice-President candidate’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather Robert Gower was baptised in the Norfolk city in 1723, according to ancestry.co.uk.
Gower, who is from her mum’s side of the family, then left for the US in the 18th Century, and his son James was born in Maine.

It leads though with

A TEEN sex beast attacked four women in an imitation of violent computer game Grand Theft Auto, a court heard yesterday.
Ryan Chinnery, 19, prowled streets in his car targeting females he thought were prostitutes after becoming obsessed with the video nasty.
He assaulted his victims, none of them hookers, by night in a two-month period.

The Mail reports that

Park wardens have been ordered to stop and interrogate anyone who is not accompanied by children.
The visitors who are quizzed have to explain their presence and risk being thrown out or reported to police if their answers are not satisfactory.
The policy has been introduced at Telford Town Park in Shropshire. The council which manages the 420-acre area says it is a 'commonsense approach' aimed at safeguarding children.

Finally the Sun reports that

ANGLER Drew Hammond went fishing for carp . . . and caught a vicious 33lb turtle usually found in the Mississippi river.
Drew spent 15 minutes hauling in his catch at Earlswood reservoir near Solihull, West Mids, and was stunned to see an alligator snapping turtle the size of a bin lid.
The brute tried to bite him. Drew, 37, said: “I was glad when it went back in the water.”