Expenses return to the headlines

MPs' expenses are back in the headlines amid reports that not all of the reforms proposed by the parliamentary watchdog may be implemented.

The Daily Mail says Sir Ian Kennedy, who is charged with rewriting the rules, has concerns about the plans.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Sir Ian has acted as an adviser to Tony Blair's ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell.

It says he was even the spin doctor's "phone a friend" on the TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

Battle cry

Gordon Brown earns mixed reviews for his defence of the government's strategy in Afghanistan.

For the Times, it was a "resilient and coherent" case for continuing British involvement in the war.

The Daily Mirror agrees Mr Brown was persuasive, but warns that President Karzai must be left in no doubt about meeting the conditions for support.

But the Daily Express says there is no chance of Mr Karzai or any other Afghan leading a crony-free regime.

Horror and heroism

A picture of the Fort Hood gunman, Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, dominates the front page of the Independent.

He is described as a disgruntled soul and a loner - but, the paper asks , who saw anything to suggest a capacity to commit evil on this scale?

The Sun focuses on the policewoman who, it says, brought the massacre "to an end with a bloody gunfight" .

Sgt Kimberley Munley, 34, felled Hasan with four shots, the paper says, despite having been shot in the leg.

Appliance of science

The Guardian has news of a setback for scientists trying to emulate the big bang - it says the Hadron Collider near Geneva had a power cut during tests.

The fault was traced to a bird eating a piece of bread on the high voltage supply equipment above ground.

But Daily Mail tells of an even more embarrassing mechanical failure suffered by Rod Stewart.

It says the singer started his newly-purchased Ferrari California in a busy street - and promptly stalled .