Papers reflect on G20 contrasts

Version 0 of 1.

Events leading up to the G20 summit dominate the papers, with several noting a day of contrasts.

What the Independent calls the politics and the protests; the Financial Times describes as the fury on the streets and the lines in the sand.

Or in the Daily Mail's phrase, the flying bricks and the razzmatazz.

The Sun has pictures of the "extremes of Britain" - one of President and Mrs Obama meeting the Queen; the other of protesters in the City of London.

'Breathless diplomacy'

The Guardian describes the round of bilateral meetings between world leaders at the G20 summit as a "day of breathless diplomacy".

"Welcome to London", its headline says, "now let the battle begin."

The paper says Prime Minister Gordon Brown is fighting to prevent Franco-German "brinkmanship" from wrecking his hopes of an agreement at the summit.

The Daily Telegraph thinks there will be a deal, with unprecedented global restrictions on pay for bankers.

Helicopter crash

The Daily Mirror's main story is on the helicopter crash off the coast of Scotland. The paper's front page has the headline: "Our 16 lost souls."

It says high profile disasters on oil platforms and in the air have blighted more than 30 years of drilling.

The paper says helicopter flights for offshore workers to and from rigs are plagued by appalling weather in the North Sea.

However the paper reports that yesterday the weather was excellent.

Foreign flavours

Finally, a study suggests that Chinese food is Britain's most popular ethnic cuisine - ahead of Indian dishes.

According to the Independent, a survey by Mintel's Ethnic Cuisine found 83% of people said they liked Chinese, while 71% favoured Indian.

However the newspaper says curry reigns supreme among supermarket shoppers.

The survey found that in 2008, of £1.32bn spent on foreign food, shoppers spent £556m on Indian meals and £367m on Chinese meals.