Zimbabwe election papers' focus

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Events in Zimbabwe get plenty of attention, but the Independent brings the story closer to home.

It says Zimbabwean intelligence agents are waging a campaign of intimidation against dissidents living here.

It is said to involve surveillance, threats and bogus messages, claiming that fund-raising activities have been cancelled or disrupted.

The paper quotes British security services saying the campaign increased recently in a bid to silence rivals.

Challenge Mugabe

The Guardian calls on the African Union to challenge Mr Mugabe at its summit in Egypt on Monday.

The Times says the AU must refuse to recognise "yesterday's blood-soaked parody of an election or the regime that will claim a spurious mandate".

Elsewhere in the same paper, the columnist Matthew Parris argues stopping the barbarism will take far more than simply removing Mr Mugabe.

"To rescue Zimbabwe is beyond not our capacity, but our will," he writes.

Thrifty Queen

Revelations in the Royal accounts encourage the papers to take a close look at her expenditure.

The Â£22,000 spent on a helicopter ride to the Kentucky Derby in May raises eyebrows at the Daily Mail.

The Sun, though, is impressed to learn that the Queen hasn't decorated for more than 50 years.

Hailing her as the 'Queen of Mean', the paper says "the thrifty monarch" has saved a fortune and despatches two Polish builders to Buckingham Palace.

Brown 'humiliation'

By-elections come and go, as the prime minister has said, and Henley's spell in the limelight looks likely to be as brief as he could have wished.

Labour's fifth-place finish, behind the BNP, merits only the foot of P25 in the Times.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Express say Mr Brown was humiliated.

The Sun comes over all Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, saying: "Gordon, it's time to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again."