Sunday papers

Afghanistan continues to dominate many of the papers at the end of another awful week for the country.

According to the Sunday Times,army chiefs are drawing up plans to withdraw British troops from outlying bases in Afghanistan.

In what would be a significant change of strategy against the growing Taliban insurgency, they are considering abandoning several bases including Musa Qala, the scene of bloody battles that claimed 15 British lives. Army forces would attempt to hold only the larger towns in Helmand province.

says the paper

The Observer meanwhile reports that

America's top general in Afghanistan believes Britain's 9,000 troops should be removed out of "harm's way" because the Taliban will target them in the run- up to next year's general election, it was reported last night.

For the Independent it is simply time to leave.It dedicates its front page to Patrick Cockbourn who writes that

Britain should start withdrawing, not reinforcing, its troops in Afghanistan. Sending extra troops is unnecessary and will prove counter-effective. The additional number of British troops is small, but the US is poised to send tens of thousands more soldiers to the country. The nature of the conflict is changing. What should be a war in which the Afghan government fights the Taliban has become one which is being fought primarily by the American and British armies. To more and more Afghans, this looks like imperial occupation

Meanwhile the Mail reports how tThe grieving mother of a heroic Sergeant-Major gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman has accused Labour of treating British troops like 'peasants'.

Meanwhile there is much coverage on the shootings in fort Hood.According to the Telegraph,Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.

The massacre at Fort Hood has raised numerous issues in a country reeling from shock at the tragedy. The long, costly war of attrition taking place in Afghanistan has already taken its toll on the morale of ordinary Americans. Hasan's Islamic faith has forced uncomfortable questions over the role Muslims play in the military. His profession as a military psychiatrist has caused many to wonder at the horror of a man tasked with treating wounded soldiers turning on his comrades and slaying them. Across the United States painful topics are being discussed, political arguments fought and battle lines drawn.says the Observer.

It leads with the story that Labour has a secret plan to axe spending on training for young people

Confidential papers obtained by The Observer show that, while Brown and his ministers have suggested they are raising investment in training, skills and apprenticeships, behind the scenes they are preparing some £350m of cuts for 2010-11 that will slash the number of training places on offer by hundreds of thousands.

More problems for Gordon Brown in the Telegraph which says he is facing international embarrassment after leading nations slapped down his proposal for a tax on financial transactions to raise hundreds of billions of pounds.

The Prime Minister used a speech at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in St Andrews to call for the new tax to fund future bank bailouts – despite previous government opposition to such a move.
However, within hours of his speech, both the US and Canada rejected the plan. Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said: "That's not something that we're prepared to support."

Also problems for the Tories as the Independent says that

David Cameron has been given an 18-month deadline by a powerful band of Eurosceptic Tory MPs to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels or face an "all-out war" for a referendum, it emerged yesterday.

Uncovered documents by the Sunday Times show that Labour's “open door” immigration policy knowingly risked allowing dangerous people to settle in Britain unchecked

The Whitehall correspondence, which was illegally withheld by the Home Office for four years, shows how ministers were told by the country’s most senior immigration official that his staff were to be “encouraged to take risks” when granting visas, work permits and extended residency to hundreds of thousands of new migrants.

The search is on the winners of the £90m Euro Lottery

Two British lottery players are unaware they are sitting on a record-breaking £90million fortune.
They each won £45,570,835.50 in Friday's EuroMillions game, making them the nation's biggest ever lottery winners, but neither has come forward to claim their prize.
The most likely explanation is that they have yet to check their numbers. However, the delay raises the dreadful possibility that their tickets have been lost, which may prevent them from collecting their winnings.

is the lead in the Mail

The News of the World has captured England captain John Terry's father selling cocaine

In scenes that will shock the millionaire Chelsea ace, Ted Terry, 55, fixed a deal to supply an undercover News of the World team with the illegal Class A drug.

The Express meanwhile wants the Maddy investigation repoened

Kate and Gerry McCann want the Yard’s ­renowned kidnap team to assess an avalanche of new information after last week’s emotional internet appeal, which ­generated five million hits from around the world.

Another case that could be reopened as the Independent reports that

Simon Mann has been urged by Foreign Office officials to remain silent about the coup attempt that left him languishing in an African prison, and settle for a "quiet life" with his wife and family in the UK,

The Observer reminds us how

it had been revealed to the British government some months before it was launched – revealed that "Scratcher" was a nickname given to Mark Thatcher and "Smelly" to Ely Calil. Hart was a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher's government. Even Lord Archer was thrown into the melee when phone records linked him to Calil and a JH Archer was found to have deposited a large amount of money into Mann's offshore bank account days before the coup attempt. Archer was also on friendly terms with Thatcher, but has refuted any link to the "Dogs of War" scheme, a denial backed by Mann.

Meanwhile according to the Times,Sir Mark Thatcher became an informer to the South African secret services in an attempt to avoid prosecution for his role in a botched coup in central Africa.

Finally according to the Telegraph,having an extramarital affair should not stand in the way of someone becoming an MP.

The Tory's shadow women's minister Baroness Morris of Bolton,called on Tory activists not to sack a candidate who had an affair, saying that "in this day and age" it was not a reason to stop someone entering Westminster.