Tuesday's papers

Afghanistan continues to dominate the front pages.

Tears of British soldiers on the front line is the headline in the Times which reports how Troops 3 Platoon, A Company, 2 Rifles in Sangin speak about the horror of the attack that killed three comrades.

The Mail reports how

The mother of Britain's 200th casualty in Afghanistan branded Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth 'stupid and arrogant' last night. Hazel Hunt, whose 21-year- old son Richard died on Saturday, said Mr Ainsworth should spend time on the front line to understand how desperate troops are for more men and equipment.

Meanwhile the Sun reports that

Gordon Brown was blasted last night for missing the opening of Britain's first recovery centre for wounded soldiers.
The PM failed to turn up even though the 12-bed unit is in Edinburgh - less than 20 miles from his Fife home.

British forces in Afghanistan have suffered the bloodiest month since the US-led invasion in 2001, it emerged today, fuelling growing fears in Whitehall that the government is struggling to shore up public support for the military campaign.says the Guardian

Whilst the Independent reports how the outcome of the elections this week

threatenes to hang on the impact of renewed Taliban intimidation and the return to the fray of a former warlord, notorious for savage acts of brutality and violence.

adding that

The Taliban warned that anyone whose fingers were stained with indelible ink, the tell-tale sign of having voted, risked having their digits chopped off. Hundreds of letters have also been sent out in the old Taliban capital Kandahar, warning people to stay away from the polling stations or face a wave of suicide attacks and "new" unspecified tactics.

Elsewhere the Telegraph has the conflict on its front page but leads with the story that magistrates have warned that police cannot be trusted to hand out summary justice and will act as “judge and jury” if given powers to issue more on-the-spot fines,

The Express reports that 6 million people in Britain are living on unemployment benefits,

Details of the milestone figure emerged in a report by think-tank Policy Exchange. Its dram­atic findings blow apart the Government’s own official figures for unemployment rates, leading to possible accusations that Labour is massaging the numbers to keep them as low as possible in the run-up to a General Election.

Other stories this morning.

The Guardian reports that the health secretary Andy Burnham has said that

David Cameron is planning to take a "major gamble" with the NHS by "turning Britain's best loved institution into the world's biggest quango", the health secretary,

According to the Times,

Plans to build thousands of new social homes will have to be abandoned because of the Government’s decision to cut the amount tenants will have to pay in rent next year,

The Independent reports that a Labour peer has demanded an apology from Jim Fitzpatrick, the Farming minister, after Mr Fitzpatrick publicly criticised the segregation of men and women at Muslim weddings.

Lord Patel of Blackburn, a senior figure in Britain's Muslim community, accused Mr Fitzpatrick of launching a "cowardly attack" on Muslims who opted for a segregated wedding, accusing him of pandering to "anti-Muslim sentiment" within his constituency.

Alistair Darling comes in for some criticism in the Mail which reports that he will spend only two and a half days in London this week even though he is supposed to be minding the shop for Gordon Brown while he is on holiday.


And the hijacked ship has turned up safe and sound as the Independent reports

The Arctic Sea was recovered about 300 miles from the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa and last night the 15 members of its Russian crew were being questioned aboard a naval vessel.

John Cleese's divorce makes many of the front pages after he reached a £12 million settlement in his acrimonious divorce from his third wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger.

The Oscar nominated comedy actor is giving his former wife £8 million in cash and assets which include an apartment in New York, a £2 million mews house in fashionable Holland Park in west London, and half a beach house in Santa Barbara in California which is yet to be sold. reports the Telegraph