Financial report in the spotlight

The Independent is in no doubt another hefty blow will be dealt to regulators with the publication of a report into affairs at life insurer Equitable Life.

The Financial Services Authority stands accused of maladministration - what the Daily Telegraph highlights as "a decade of regulatory failure".

The rebuke, it says, will prove deeply embarrassing to Gordon Brown.

He ran the Treasury, which oversaw the regulators during much of the time under scrutiny in the report.

Crime figures

England and Wales are nations which the Daily Mail says are now living in the shadow of the knife.

It reports that it has seen official figures which show that offences have spread from urban areas to the shires.

The Daily Mirror reveals that one in five young people claim that they or their friends have been threatened with a blade in the past 12 months.

The Times says ministers will use results of the British Crime Survey to show crime is falling.

'Sorry Darling'

There are mixed reviews for the Chancellor's decision to postpone this autumn's two pence rise in fuel duty.

The Sun reckons he has given hard-hit drivers "a break". But the Daily Express believes he has done nothing to quell motorists' anger.

It reports that motoring organisations called the change "an inadequate drop in the ocean".

The Daily Mirror echoes the reaction of the drivers' groups, stating: "Sorry Darling... it's not good enough".

Getting the bird

The Daily Express pictures vicar Graham Minors under attack from dive-bombing seagulls which have nested at St Petroc's Church in Bodmin, Cornwall.

The clergyman has adopted a hard hat and umbrella to fend off the birds which are protecting a chick.

An unwanted animal intervention of a different kind at a cricket match.

The Daily Telegraph shows a dog "watering" the stumps, much to the players' amusement. The match was appropriately enough played in Barking.