Mansion mystery dominates papers

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The fate of millionaire Christopher Foster and his family occupies many front pages after their home was burned down.

"Massacre at the mansion," writes the Sun. "Scenes of appalling slaughter" greeted police who found the family's horses and dogs shot dead.

The Daily Telegraph says Mr Foster believed he was the victim of a "vendetta" and "appeared to have become obsessed with security" in the months before the fire.

One theory detectives are investigating is that he was targeted by a "hit squad" the Daily Express claims.

'Putin's cronies'

The Daily Mail vents its anger at the foreign secretary for his reaction to Russia's formal recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions.

David Miliband should recall the UK's support for Kosovo, it says, "before he leaps on to his moral high horse and rattles his sabre at Moscow".

The Daily Mirror, on the other hand, thinks Britain should get even tougher with Russia - targeting its finances.

We should show our "resolve" by cancelling visas given to "Putin's cronies" living here, its leader says.

'Waves of rhetoric'

As Barack Obama prepares to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination, the papers consider his rise to political stardom.

The Independent front page likens "Obama's dream" to that of Martin Luther King.

"The glorious waves of Barack Obama's rhetoric have washed over us, leaving us warm, tingling and refreshed like a Hawaiian surfer," gushes the Guardian.

But the Times warns against "any displays of mass hysteria" which could "feed Republican mockery about 'Obamamania'".

Hell of happiness

A remote region of Powys has come top of a list of Britain's happiest places.

The Times seems rather surprised: "There is no Tesco, no Marks & Spencer and the residents - heavily outnumbered by sheep - are among the poorest in the land."

Even more shocking, the paper writes, is that Edinburgh was voted the least happy place - "even more dour than Glasgow".

The Independent, meanwhile, reassures those in less cheerful places with the words of George Bernard Shaw: "A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth."