What the papers say

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

Belfast has a new Lord Mayor, Martin Morgan, and the Irish News leads with his decision to keep the tricolour in the mayor's parlour at the City Hall.

"Unionists have accused him of alienating the Protestant community," says the paper.

Mr Morgan says he does not think it appropriate to remove either the tricolour or the union flag during his term of office, and that he is going to add the flag of the European Union too.

The News Letter leads instead with a report that the former minister responsible for roads, Peter Robinson, has been charged with obstruction for allegedly blocking the Albertbridge Road in East Belfast during a street party for Ulster Day last September.

I think it is important that if people actually have evidence that they produce it

Tony Blair

The main picture on that page sets a cut out of missing loyalist Alan McCullough beside a picture of a boat taken away from Carrickfergus harbour for forensic examination on Monday.

The Irish Times leads on international news, with the support of French President Jacque Chirac for George Bush's latest peacemaking efforts in the Middle East.

A local story says the British Government is about to shore up David Trimble's position before the coming Ulster Unionist Council meeting by saying that some of the home batallions of the Royal Irish Regiment will be retained in the event of the full implementation of the joint declaration.

The prime minister's problems make the lead in all the London broadsheets.

The Daily Telegraph lead says both Bush and Blair are under fire.

The paper claims the US president is facing a senate enquiry into the quality of intelligence used to argue that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while Blair is besieged by doubts at home about whether the intelligence which justified war had any substance to it.

The Independent leads with a quote from Mr Blair directed at those who accuse him of adding spin; "I think it is important that if people actually have evidence that they produce it".

'Kidnap Con'

The Guardian reports that cabinet members were directly briefed by the intelligence services in February.

Speculating on why this didn't convince Robin Cook that Iraq was a threat, the cartoonist Austin suggests: "He may not have seen the bits in invisible ink".

Nearly all the tabloids lead with what the Express calls the "Beckham Kidnap Ordeal Scandal", and what the Star calls the "Posh Kidnap Con".

The case against five men accused of plotting to kidnap football star David Beckham's wife collapsed on Monday after it emerged that the News of the World had paid an informant for the story, and that the informant himself had initiated the kidnapping idea.

Big Brother is still big news and the Star considers the antics of dirty Fed warrant an editorial.

"Channel Four should chuck him out," the paper says.