What the papers say

Journalist Malachi O'Doherty takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's morning newspapers.

Soldiers from Northern Ireland are off to the Gulf perhaps to join an invasion of Iraq.

That makes the front page lead in one local paper and warrants hardly a mention in the other.

The front of the News Letter carries a picture of men of the Royal Irish Regiment training in Canada with machine guns for what the caption calls the war on terror.

The paper says that up to 700 soldiers from Northern Ireland are preparing for war, though Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is quoted telling the Commons on Monday that none of the steps taken represents a commitment of British troops to military action.

The Mirror has little doubt that the 500 from Northern Ireland are off to war: "Ulster soldiers head for Gulf to take on Saddam".

Campaign

Inside, the paper steps up its campaign against war. A full page editorial urges readers to sign the petition and argues that the coming war is for the sake of American oil interests and the re-election of a dangerous president.

For the Irish News, the lead is the threat to Belfast sex shops from the city council which has refused them licences to operate legally.

The paper says that sex shops have been operating illegally in Belfast city centre for 20 years, in some cases operating beside shops selling school uniforms and baby clothes.

The preparations for war make the lead in the Irish Times.

There is a story from correspondents in Baghdad and London saying that the US and Britain are maintaining pressure on Iraq and quoting US Secretary of State Colin Powell saying that the world must not shrink from military action if president Saddam Hussein fails to disarm.

'Tax evasion'

The Irish Independent gives its front page lead space to a tax trawl in the south that puts the heat, as it says, on 40,000 suspected tax dodgers.

The story says the revenue commissioners have identified 21,500 non-resident accounts which it believes are being used for tax evasion.

The Guardian and the Independent lead on the build-up to war and the despatch of troops. Both carry maps of the displacement of forces around the Gulf region.

The Daily Telegraph leads instead on the raid on the Finsbury Park mosque, the arrests there and the discovery of a CS gas canister and a blank firing imitation firearm.