Papers focus on fight against crime

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The Daily Mail leads with a report claiming that life sentences for what it calls "killers and rapists" have halved in length since 1997.

The Independent notes that 98 people were murdered in the past two years by ex-prisoners who should have been under supervision after being released early.

The Daily Express says treatment given to criminals is "shamefully soft".

It asks readers to call in or text to answer the question "is Labour's fight against crime an utter shambles?"

English 'chokers'

The Independent says England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff led his side to "the most stunning defeat in the game's history" in the Adelaide test.

For the Daily Telegraph, Flintoff looked weary after losing to Australia despite a strong start.

"Chokers" is the headline on the back of the Mail.

The Independent prints a quote about England's batsmen from a Sydney paper: "Like medieval royals with syphilis, they went suddenly mad."

'Mars mission'

Most of the papers follow up the announcement by NASA that there will be people working on the moon in 20 years.

Some of them will be in science labs preparing for a manned mission to Mars, says the Times.

The photo on the front page of the Guardian shows a footprint on the moon from 1969 and says the next people there will "measure cosmic rays".

The Sun features a colour illustration of industrious astronauts under the headline "the crater escape".

Iconic dress

Much has been made of the auction - for £467,200 - of the Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

"Never has a little black dress gained a more iconic status," a Guardian writer gushes.

It was an "eye-watering sum" for a dress, paid anonymously by phone, the Independent reports.

The Mail has only one question. Its headline asks the question: "Did Posh buy Hepburn's dress?"