Papers braced for 'inevitable war'

The report from the chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix has left most of the papers with no doubt war against Iraq is all but inevitable.

The Sun believes: "There's no turning back" while the Guardian traces "Another step towards war".

But the Financial Times thinks "the case for more time and more co-operation is clear" and it calls on Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W Bush to reveal any unseen evidence they have on Iraq's weapons.

The Daily Mirror agrees.

It can find no proof in the Blix report that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and intends to use them.

The paper labels the Iraqi president a lying, cheating, devious tyrant but also accuses Mr Bush of being a gung-ho leader, who wants to get his hands on Iraq's oil and win the populist votes by deposing an evil tyrant.

Share slump

The 11-day share price tumble on the stock-market is blamed by the Daily Mail on fears over war with Iraq, terrorism and the health of the economy.

But the Daily Telegraph lays the blame for the slump at the London Exchange at the door of the Chancellor Gordon Brown.

The paper concedes investors are worried about Iraq but argues that does not account for the index "vying with Germany for the title of the world's worst performing stock market this year".

"This is a Brown bear market", it moans "made all the more sore-headed by his growling tax-and-spend programme".

Hussain's 'heroes'

The chances of England's cricketers playing their forthcoming World Cup match in Zimbabwe are assessed on many of the sports pages.

The Guardian reports the players differ from the England and Wales Cricket Board because they cite moral and political doubts over the match for their decision".

That argument cuts no ice with the Mirror's chief sports writer who launches a stinging attack on the team captain, Nasser Hussain.

Oliver Holt accuses "Hussain and his motley crew of buckling under the weight of hypocritical moralising that has been shovelled their way".

Asylum attack

The Tories' plans to detain asylum seekers until they have been screened by the security services are used by many of the papers to revisit the debate on the country's immigration policies.

The Daily Express reports the number of people claiming asylum has "smashed through the 100,000 barrier".

Comments by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, criticising the tabloids for their coverage of the asylum issue are ridiculed on the front page of the Sun.

The Sun reports how Mr Blunkett had told a church audience how he was horrified by an article in the paper which said the flood of asylum seekers "was polluted with terrorism and disease".

Adverse adventures

The Guardian reports on the escapades of the pair of adventurers who had to be plucked from an emergency dinghy cast adrift in the South Atlantic.

Steve Brooks and Quentin Smith had to use a satellite phone to call for help when their helicopter ditched into the sea between Chile and Antarctica.

The paper reports their last expedition also ended in farce when the Russians threatened to send in military planes to intercept them as they tried to cross into Siberia.