Hotter than Cold War
Is Russia Threatening to NUKE POLAND?

'Cold war' comparisons on Georgia
BBC

Events in the Caucasus continue to top the news agenda for most papers.

"We'll nuke Poland" is how the Sun reports Russia's threat of a nuclear strike, because Poland is to host parts of US missile defence shields.

In the ratcheting-up of the rhetoric, both the Sun and the Daily Mail perceive a "new Cold War".

The term is also used by the Times and Daily Telegraph, which says the crisis is like a "Cold War-style" face off between Moscow and Washington.

'Rein in' Russians

However the Telegraph's reporter in Tbilisi cautions against Cold War comparisons, saying history "rarely repeats itself so precisely".

But the Guardian says Russia's threat to Poland has "heightened the risk of a new era of east-west confrontation".

Pictures of Russian soldiers apparently looting a bank in Gori prompt The Sun to ask where Prime Minister Gordon Brown is.

It wonders why Mr Brown has not joined Mr Bush, Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel in trying to "rein in" the Russians.

Hull 'bucks trend'

The Daily Mail's front page is devoted to problems closer to home, with reports that "Middle Britain" is suffering a homes "repossessions crisis".

It says 39,000 people are on the verge of losing their homes, as the "spectre" of the early Nineties returns.

But one place that is bucking the economic malaise is Hull, according to the Financial Times.

Football club Hull City's accession to top-flight football is helping the area "turn the corner", says the paper.

Medal haul

And in Olympics coverage the beaming British sprint cyclists appear on a number of the front pages, clutching their gold medals.

The trio - who won Team GB's third gold of the Games - "stunned" the "sneering favourites, France", says the Sun.

Their feat heralds the start of what the Telegraph says could be "a weekend of record success" for GB's athletes.

The Independent expects the "greatest medal haul" since the London Games of 1908, when the Brits won 56 golds.