Tuesday's papers

Another day and once again Afghanistan is on the front of many of the papers.

According to the Guardian,

Gordon Brown raised the prospect of agreeing a timetable for international withdrawal from Afghanistan, in a speech in which he claimed that almost half of al-Qaida's leadership had now been killed. Brown said he hoped a UN- sponsored London conference in the new year would set a timetable for a transition to Afghan security forces taking charge of their own country.

It adds that

Delivering the traditional prime minister's foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in the City of London, Brown said the damage already inflicted on al-Qaida gave international forces the chance to set a timetable for pulling out.

Meanwhile the Times in an exclusive claims according to a new army field manual published yesterday,British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold” and Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Army matters on the front of the Independent which reports that

A former soldier who had kept his silence for six years broke ranks yesterday to accuse his superior officer and former comrades of the brutal beating and torture of Iraqi prisoners which ended in the killing of an Iraqi civilian.

Donald Payne said that the soldiers had acted out of revenge over the murder of three Royal Military Policemen and the killing of an Army captain who had been blown up while delivering humanitarian aid to southern Iraq.

The Telegraph leads with the story that terrorist suspects under control orders have received more than £600,000 in taxpayers' money for items including household bills and telephone costs.

Home Office figures published in Parliament show that since April 2007, the department has spent £611,470 on “living costs” for people put under effective house arrest on the advice of MI5.

says the paper

Transport costs are one of this morning's themes.According to the same paper,Rail passengers face fare rises of up to 15 per cent from January as train companies try to disguise the biggest inflation-busting increases.

Meanwhile the Mail leads with the story that petrol prices are set to soar past 110p a litre - £5 a gallon - in the run-up to Christmas adding that

Motorists will suffer further misery in the New Year when the Government imposes a planned 2.5 per cent increase in VAT.
Experts blame the continuing rise in forecourt prices on speculators, who are stockpiling massive amounts of oil.

The arrest of the man suspected of being Nightstalker takes centre stage in the Sun which reports

Ex-wife Janet told last night how suspected serial rapist Delroy Grant went berserk if there was a "speck of dust" in their house - and flipped as she was about to have their second boy.

The Times reports on the reselection of Liz Truss who remains the Tory candidate for South West Norfolk

The local party was deciding whether to deselect her after reports about her relationship in 2005 with Mark Field, the City of London MP, surfaced the day after her original selection in October. Although some details of the affair were in the public domain, the newspaper reports were the first time that many in the local party had been made aware of it. Several felt that Tory high command’s failure to mention the fact in briefings amounted to a breach of trust.

The paper adds that The victory for Mr Cameron — by almost four to one in a secret ballot indicates that a majority of grassroots Conservatives are prepared to back the leader’s modernising project in order to return to power.

Meanwhile a poll in the Guardian suggestd David Cameron is closing the deal with voters over his suitability to serve as Britain's next prime minister,

Barcak Obama is in China and the Independent reports that he used his first day in China to offer a carefully worded critique of Beijing's record on freedom of speech, telling an audience of students that it was good for leaders to be forced "to hear opinions that [they] don't want to hear".

The Telegraph meanwhile reports that Barack Obama left his 2.6 million fans on Twitter, the social networking website, bemused, disappointed and mildly irritated by admitting on Monday that he had never used the service himself.

Finally when in Rome......

When an elderly gent places an order for 500 leggy lovelies to attend a party in Rome, scenes of a saucy nature would seem to be guaranteed.
Not, however, when the customer happens to be Colonel Muammar Gadda

reports the Mail

Rather than invite the dark-eyed beauties to see his etchings Silvio Berlusconi-style, the 67-year-old Libyan dictator suggested they convert to Islam.