Papers ponder fires and floods

The extremes of weather both here and abroad lend an Old Testament feel to much of the day's news with fire, floods and a downpour of fish in Norfolk.

The Guardian leads with the battle being waged in the western United States against hundreds of wildfires.

It says some are so well established they may rage until October or November, when the snow begins to fall.

"How The West Was Burned" is the Mirror's headline above a picture showing fire-fighters running for their lives from a mountainside engulfed in flames.

The Independent says experts believe there is a link between the fires in America and devastating floods in north-eastern India.

Scientists believe global warming has begun to de-stabilise the world's climate, says the paper.

That is something the people of Great Yarmouth are no doubt taking seriously after, as many papers report, the day it rained sprats.

A shoal of the two-inch long fish was dumped on the town after apparently being lifted into the clouds by a mini tornado out to sea.

For the resort's cats, notes the Guardian, it was a memorable Sunday.

Mass for Leo

A day to remember, too, for the Blairs, whose Tuscan holiday is continuing to fascinate the British press.

The Times says a mass not heard for three centuries was revived in honour of three-month-old Leo when the family attended a service at a chapel next to the estate where they are staying.

The Express speaks to the baker who made a giant cake for a party for Leo held at the Villa Cusona.

The prime minister, he reveals, appreciates good pastry.

The Daily Mail has been totting up what an ordinary family would have to pay to vacation in the style of the prime ministerial family since Mr Blair came to power. The total figure comes to about £130,000.

Tributes to Sir Alec

Later editions of Monday's papers change their front pages to mark the death of Sir Alec Guinness.

The Telegraph says he was one of Britain's greatest actors, who grew up in poverty but will leave a fortune amassed mainly from his 2% cut of the director's royalties from the Star Wars films.

The Sun pays tribute, calling him a man of many faces who has left the world of acting in mourning.

The Express is calling on ministers to close a legal loophole which, it claims, allows British paedophiles convicted abroad before 1997 to return to the country unchecked, and exempt from the Sex Offenders Register.

Those who abuse in faraway countries are unlikely to be able to control their twisted urges here and the government must toughen the law, says the paper.

Finally, the Guardian tells how the photographer responsible for one of the most famous images of the 20th Century is going to court to defend his copyright.

Alberto Korda's portrait of the young Che Guevara became an almost overnight icon for rebellious students, appearing on posters and t-shirts around the world.

But when it was used by a London advertising company to promote a new brand of vodka, he decided to sue in the High Court.

He argues that not only was Guevara an opponent of the sort of capitalism practised by the international drinks firm concerned, he was also virtually teetotal.