Sunday's papers

Bankers profits return to the headlines as the Sunday Times reports that

THE state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to hand out record bonuses of up to £5m each in a snub to struggling taxpayers.

adding that

The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff in line for payments of between £1m and £5m.

The Sunday Telegraph says that Ministers are drawing up plans for a tax raid on Britain’s banks worth hundreds of millions of pounds,

The radical move, being considered as a way of forcing banks to pay a price for the taxpayer-funded bail-out of the financial system, could include a one-off “windfall” tax on profits. says the paper.

The industrial action planned this week by unions in the post office is heavily covered.The Observer reports that

Royal Mail is heading for a bitter confrontation with postal workers after announcing plans to recruit an army of 30,000 temporary staff in an attempt to crush the national strike that starts this week.

adding that it

said it had ordered the biggest recruitment drive in its history "to help keep the mail moving during the strikes called by the Communication Workers Union (CWU)".

Blairs are on the front of both the Independent and the Mail on Sunday

Tony is in the former as it reports that his

former chief adviser on the EU,Sir Stephen Wall has misgivings about the ex-prime minister becoming President of Europe, as the campaign to overturn his bid gathers pace.said a high-profile figure such as Mr Blair was "not necessarily a very good idea" and cast doubt on his ability to build consensus among EU leaders. A figure from a smaller state would send a "unifying signal", he added.

For the Mail it is Sir Ian Blair whose long-awaited autobiography, Policing Controversy,the paper is serialising

In it, he offers a strikingly candid account of life at the heart of Scotland Yard - and, finally answering his critics, issues a forceful defence of his turbulent nearly four-year reign as Britain's top policeman.

According to the Times,

NICK GRIFFIN, the BNP leader, has put his personal bodyguard on the European Union payroll as his party becomes the latest to exploit the political expenses system.

Maenwhile as he makes his first appearance on question time this week,the Telegraph reports that

Holocaust survivors and victims of racist attacks plan to confront the BNP's leader Nick Griffin during the programme over his past as a holocaust denier with a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

The Independent has been to Afghanistan reporting that British troops and their commander in north Helmand feel let down by the slow pace of reconstruction.

Beyond the hulking form of Mount Doom, an ominous landmark dominating the skyline, the enemy fighters operate freely across the district and into the mountains of Baghran. They are held back by a circle of a dozen small patrol bases – inhabited by British and Afghan forces – that stand on the front line and battle any incursion from the insurgents who surround them in every direction. A home-made wooden sign in one camp said it all: "Welcome to Stalingrad".

On the other side of the border

More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a long-expected assault on the Taliban lair of South Waziristan yesterday, following a fortnight of militant attacks that left 175 dead and underlined the threat to Pakistan's stability.

says the Observer

Meanwhile the Times reports on a suicide attack targeting the Revolutionary Guards in Iran today has killed around 20 people and wounded 40 more, according to Iranian state television.

The funeral of Stephen Gately is covered in all the papers.

GRIEF-RACKED Boyzone star Ronan Keating broke down at the funeral of bandmate Stephen Gately yesterday, describing him as: "A man, a friend, a brother, a son, a husband and a hero." GRIEF-RACKED Boyzone star Ronan Keating broke down at the funeral of bandmate Stephen Gately yesterday, describing him as: "A man, a friend, a brother, a son, a husband and a hero." says the News of the World whilst the Sunday Mirror says

Packed inside and outside St Laurence O’Toole Church in Stephen’s home city of Dublin, around 4,000 fans, friends and family – including his distraught partner Andrew Cowles – were also brought to tears, as his boyband pals made touching, heartfelt eulogies.

The Observer has learnt that

several high-ranking employees at Wandsworth and Pentonville prisons in London may face disciplinary action for their role in alleged attempts to dupe the chief inspector of prisons, Dame Anne Owers.The two jails were transferring difficult prisoners before her inspections in an attempt to ensure they received positive reports.

The Independent reports that 80 people were arrested and three police officers left needing hospital treatment during a huge climate change protest at a power station.

More than 1,000 demonstrators converged on the giant coal-powered Ratcliffe-on-Soar site in Nottinghamshire yesterday, with clashes breaking out between police and protesters as they tried to tear up perimeter fencing.

A new row over genetically modified foods being introduced into our shops has broken out after a Royal Society report recommended GM crops should be grown in Britain. says the Telegraph

Finally the Independent reports that

the BBC has triggered amazement by changing the words of Humpty Dumpty on one of its children's programmes to give the accident-prone character a happy ending. A programme on the broadcaster's children's channel CBeebies featured a singalong feature in which, instead of being unable to "put Humpty together again", all the King's Horses "made Humpty happy again"