Papers ignore Blair's Cherie plea

Tony Blair's challenge to the media to put up or shut up over the series of allegations about his wife Cherie and her dealings with the conman Peter Foster has not worked, judging by the front pages of many newspapers.

The Independent says the nightmare on Downing Street continues, with the latest allegations about faxed papers on Mr Foster's extradition case being sent to Cherie Blair.

The Daily Mirror says it will only be time to move on, as the prime minister would like, when the full truthful story is known.

Judging by an ICM poll in The Guardian, taken after Mrs Blair made an emotional apology on television, many of us are also unconvinced.

Only one in three of those asked believed her explanation of events.

The Sun says it has taped conversations of Mr Foster in which he reportedly tells his mother that with his reputation in ruins and he must try to get some money out of it all by selling his story.

His asking price, The Sun says, is £100,000.

The paper says this exposes him as a total sleaze merchant.

Gas fears

The Daily Telegraph says it has seen a CIA intelligence report that shows Saddam Hussein has given a deadly nerve gas to Islamic terrorists with links to al-Qaeda.

The paper says that if the report proves accurate it will show Iraq lied in its 12,000 page dossier sent to the United Nations.

The Daily Express says the VX nerve gas has been smuggled out of Iraq and Europe and the United States are now under threat.

The gas is reported to have been given to Asbat-al-Ansar, a fanatical Islamic group based in northern Iraq.

The Mirror suggests one target might be the Nato base at Inchilik in Turkey.

Congestion failure

The Guardian is predicting that the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, will admit next week that the government's 10-year plan for transport will fail.

Three months into the job he has decided to make a clean breast of this latest delivery failure.

The Times says the government is dropping its pledge to cut congestion by 6% in England.

The paper says Mr Darling will admit that he is powerless to reduce congestion, and that at best the government can only hope to stabilise the problem.

Birth trends

The latest figures on birth rates from the Office of National Statistics are studied by a number of papers although they prefer to highlight different trends.

For the Daily Mail it is the drop in the birth rate to an historic low, with women on average having 1.64 children.

The paper says without immigration the population would be falling.

The Guardian highlights the rise in births out of wedlock, increasing in 10 years from 30% to 40% of all children born in England and Wales.

The Daily Express is shocked to learn that in some parts of Britain, a third of pregnant women are having abortions.

Life - the anti-abortion charity - tells the paper it is not surprised by the figures in a society where universities will give students money to fund an abortion, but will not make free child care available.