Thursday's papers

The Iraq inquiry features in most of the papers with the Independent reporting that

Gordon Brown was accused of strangling the inquiry into the Iraq war at birth yesterday by refusing to let it make public sensitive documents that shed light on the conflict.

as it says that

A previously undisclosed agreement between Sir John Chilcot's inquiry and the Government gives Whitehall the final say on what information the investigation can release into the public domain.

The Mail adds that

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg ambushed the Prime Minister in the Commons, angrily accusing him of trying to 'suffocate' the Chilcot Inquiry.

Meanwhile what was happening in the inquiry itself is reported.Tony Blair received intelligence that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction had been “dismantled” 10 days before Britain invaded Iraq says the Telegraph

Questioned by the panel of the Iraq inquiry, Foreign Office officials said they believed Saddam's nuclear programme had been dismantled and they had no evidence of his trying to supply chemical or biological weapons to terrorists.adds the Guardian

The Times leads with yesterday's victory for the banks.

Consumer groups reacted with dismay as the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks in the long-running legal battle over £10 billion in overdraft charges. Millions of customers had hoped to be reimbursed. Instead, the banks can keep the cash.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that new laws created in the wake of Sir David Walker's report will compel banks to say how many of their staff earn more than £1m, but 'high end' earners' names will not be revealed

British policing has “lost its way” amid the “noise and clutter” of Government targets, initiatives and new laws, the chief of inspector of police has said. is the Telegraph's top story.

Denis O’Connor, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, told The Daily Telegraph that forces have “drifted away” from the core basics of frontline policing and serving the public.

The Sun has an exclusive

A CABBIE told last night how he helped to capture fugitive killer Jane Andrews after she climbed into the back of his taxi.
Darren Auckland, 40, told police he picked up Fergie's mud-caked former aide in the early hours yesterday near the Kent prison she fled.

An archive containing the contents of more than half a million pager messages sent on 11 September 2001 was published yesterday by the internet site Wikileaks. It provided an uncensored and sometimes deeply moving first-hand account of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

reports the Independent

Meanwhile the Times reports that according to leaked government documents

A controversial new £6 tax on telephone lines to fund the introduction of superfast broadband internet will leave nearly two million households paying up to three times the levy initially proposed by ministers

Tens of thousands of civil servants may be moved out of London in a dramatic downscaling of Whitehall under Labour plans to cut public debts and instil a culture of "smarter government''.says the Guardian

Leaked sections of a report to be published in a fortnight reveal that the government wants a review into the possibility of relocating some of the 132,000 civil servants and 90,000 employees of "arm's-length bodies" currently based in London and the south-east.

More problems for the government as the Express leads with the main topic of PMQ's yesterday as the Prime Minister was accused of allowing taxpayers’ cash to go to Muslim schools linked to Islamic extremists.

David Cameron singled out the handing over of £113,000 of taxpayers’ cash to two schools with links to extremists. In an angry exchange in the Commons he said the money had been given to the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation to run the schools, in London and Slough.

President Barack Obama will attend the Copenhagen climate change summit next month, increasing the possibility that an international deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be agreed. reports the Telegraph

Meanwhile the Mail reports that

Cutting a sausage a day from the average British diet is necessary to save the planet, scientists claim.
Their controversial report, which partly blames meat-eaters for climate change, was backed by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn's department last night.

The Christian Brothers religious order is to give €161 million (£146 million) in cash and property in reparation for its role in decades of child abuse in Ireland.reports the Times

The Brothers said that €34 million in cash would be used to help victims of abuse, whose plight was identified in a government report in May.

Finally it emerged tonight that Peter Mandelson joined Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son at a country house shooting party.

Mandelson and Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi were guests at Lord Rothschild's Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, the Spectator said. The magazine reported that Cherie Blair was also in attendance, although neither she nor Mandelson are reported to have taken part in the shoot.

reports the Guardian