'Audacious' raid mulled over

Many of Sunday's papers carry accounts and pictures on their front pages of Friday night's raid by American special forces in southern Afghanistan.

The Mail on Sunday speaks of two "audacious" parachute assaults by elite troops and says the targets were located by British Royal Marines and the RAF refuelled the American transport planes en route.

The Sunday Mirror reports that the Americans "swept aside" enemy troops as face-to-face fighting erupted in the first ground action of the war against terrorism.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the United States has asked Britain for the entire SAS to be sent in to help "smoke out" Osama Bin Laden.

The paper calls the request "unprecedented" and says British generals have agreed - although one squadron will remain at home to deal with any emergency on British soil.

The Sunday Times says American and British special forces are poised to strike deep and hard at enemy positions for weeks if not months to come.

The News of the World carries harrowing accounts of Taleban soldiers kidnapping women and girls in Afghanistan while their husbands are away fighting the Northern Alliance.

It rounds on those in the west calling for a pause in the military offensive.

UK contingency plans

"Perhaps they think the Taleban are merely muddle-headed Mullahs," the paper says, "but the reality in God-forsaken Afghanistan is that they are fanatics without mercy."

The Independent on Sunday says it has seen a confidential document issued to local councils and rescue services outlining how to respond in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

It says the government believes there is a low risk of the deliberate large-scale release of germs.

The paper also says American investigators suspect the anthrax attacks there may be the work of a home-grown right-wing group.

A study reported in The Observer suggests that the events of 11 September and their aftermath will eventually cost Britain £12.6bn, or £200,000 for every person.

Protocol row

It is also estimated that it will have caused the loss of 100,00 jobs by Christmas.

"Has he no shame?" asks the headline in the Sunday Express alongside a picture of .... Tony Blair.

The paper claims the Prime Minister is overturning a century of protocol by blocking an automatic life peerage for the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, on his retirement.

The Express says the Archbishop has often been critical of the government; but it says Mr Blair is playing a dangerous game as Labour develops a worsening image for chicanery and sleaze.

The Sunday Mirror says defence and security experts are proposing that the Queen and the Prime Minister share a more modest version of Air Force One, the jumbo jet used by American presidents.

Musical subtext

It says a state-of-the-art Boeing 777 is the most likely choice for what the paper dubs: "Blair Force One".

A leading authority on the 18th century composer, George Frederick Handel, is about to publish a book claiming his music proves was homosexual, according to the Sunday Teleghraph.

Ellen Harris, Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institutue of Technology, says many of Handel's cantatas avoid giving the gender of the "beloved", and it is significant that much of his music is punctuated by long silences - denoting something that cannot be said... the love that dare not speak its name.