Monday's papers

Both the Gaurdian and the Times lead with the fallout from the sacking of David Nutt,

The home secretary faces mass resignations from the government's drug advisory body over his decision to force out its chairman, who accused ministers of distorting scientific evidence on cannabis

.says the Guardian

Les King, an expert chemist, was the first to resign. He said that the Home Secretary had denied Professor Nutt his right to free speech and called for the council to become truly independent of politicians. He was swiftly followed by Marion Walker, a pharmacist and clinical director with the substance misuse service at the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

reports the Times

This is a war that cannot be won. And the suppression of David Nutt won't help says Bruce Anderson in the Independent

The maximum penalty for using a class B substance is five years in prison. Does anyone believe that any judge would ever pass such a sentence for smoking marijuana? So what is the point of pretending to buttress a law that is already widely flouted with even more pains and penalties which will never be enforced?

The Telegraph leads with the news that Harriet Harman has warned that radical proposals to overhaul the system of MPs’ expenses drawn up by an independent review may be blocked

She said it would not be fair for MPs to be forced to sack their spouses or other family members working in their offices.
She also indicated that plans to stop MPs living in the London commuter belt from having taxpayer-funded second homes may prove unacceptable.

According to the Times,Alistair Darling is expected to announce tomorrow that Lloyds Banking Group and RBS will be stripped down and various parts sold to new owners, creating as many as three new institutions on the high street.

The Guardian thinks that the Chancellor will need to pour up to £40bn of taxpayers' money into the banking system if he is to fulfil a pledge to carve out three new banking players on the high street in the next four years.

There is much attention on Afghanistan after Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round run-off in the elections yesterday

The former foreign minister said it would be impossible to participate in the November 7 vote after the government's refusal to sack or suspend officials and ministers implicated in fraud.

says the Telegraph

The move in effect clears the way for Hamid Karzai to retain power despite the fact that he was stripped of his first round election majority because of rampant fraud. A weakened Karzai administration, shorn of electoral legitimacy, represents a major blow to Western powers as they consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan for the military campaign against the Taliban.says the Independent

Meanwhile the focus continues on the British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates whom the Telegraph says could be given their freedom in exchange for the release of seven pirates captured by the German navy last week.

Meanwhile the Sun reports that

A BRITISH holidaymaker died yesterday when she was crushed by a landslide on a family beach on Tenerife.
Marion O'Hara, 57, was at the island's popular Playa de los Gigantes resort when rocks fell 200ft from a cliff above her.

Someone is attacked by a complete stranger every 30 seconds in Binge Britain, figures revealed last night.is the lead in the Mail adding that

There were 1,057,000 violent attacks by strangers last year - the equivalent of 2,895 a day or 120 every hour.
Opposition MPs said it was the latest proof the Government's relaxation of licensing laws had failed.

The lead in the Independent is a report that

Every adult in the UK would be legally required to decide whether to donate their organs after death, under a radical solution to the critical shortage of organs for transplant put forward by the country's oldest royal medical college.

The Sun uncovers a new phenonoma this morning,Beefgate

BEEFEATER Moira Cameron was allegedly subjected to a hate campaign that saw her uniform defaced, notes left in her locker - and a web entry about her sabotaged.
The 44-year-old bachelor girl became the Tower of London's first female yeoman warder "on merit" in 2007 after 522 years of exclusively male guards.

The Mail reports on the The Halloween slayings

A man was under arrest last night after a retired company executive and his girlfriend were found dead in a Halloween murder at a house in a quiet residential street.
The victim, named locally as 62-year-old Ken Snell, a former senior executive with mobile phone giant Motorola, was with an unnamed woman just after 9pm on Saturday at the £250,000 bungalow in leafy Cringleford, Norwich.

Police in the Ohio city of Cleveland urged families of missing people to come forward with pictures of their absent relatives yesterday after the discovery of six badly decomposed bodies at the home of a convicted rapist, prompting a mass murder investigation

.reports the Guardian

A new study on the front of the Express has found that

GENTLE exercise can dramatically cut the danger of an early death from heart disease, according to new research.
Just 30 minutes of jogging or cycling three times a week has amazing results for people with heart problems – the UK’s biggest killer

Finally the Times reports that the Army’s youngest holder of the George Cross has clashed with the Ministry of Defence over the “lack of respect” paid by ministers to servicemen who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Lance Corporal of Horse Christopher Finney, 25, who left the Army in July and now works at a call centre for an insurance company, said that he was disillusioned with military life and angry with the Government, claiming more respect was shown to celebrities than to dead soldiers.