From Beckham to European deflation

Anyone deciding which morning daily to go for on Friday will find a broad range of front-page stories grabbing their attention.

These range from the Sun's claims that David Beckham's new mansion in France may be haunted, to the Financial Times's warning of the threat of economic deflation in Europe.

Anyone who regularly uses the train to get to work will probably have more than a passing interest in a report in the Times that the cost of their journey is set to rise substantially.

The paper says a cap on the price of a season ticket is being abolished, as the Strategic Rail Authority struggles to cover the soaring cost of running the network.

The Daily Telegraph warns of crippling price rises for drivers using Britain's first toll motorway north of Birmingham.

The paper highlights remarks by an Australian firm involved in the operation that it offers the best chance in the world to impose monopoly pricing.

Tackling Mr Big

Efforts by the police to tackle big-time criminals provide the Independent with its main story.

The paper says senior officers have decided on a new approach which involves prosecuting crime barons for minor misdemeanours, rather than for more serious offences, such as drug trafficking.

The head of the National Crime Squad tells the Independent that the change has come about because of difficulties in securing convictions in more complex cases.

The aim now, says the paper, is to put the criminals behind bars, even if it is just for a few months, and then to use powerful new laws to confiscate their assets.

Month after Saddam

A month after the fall of Baghdad to the Americans, many of the papers take stock of the situation in Iraq.

The Guardian notes that the optimism on the day Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled has all but gone.

The US-led reconstruction is foundering, and the rigid police state of the former regime has given way to lawlessness on a grand scale.

Furthermore, the Daily Mirror quotes senior British defence sources who say it could take a year to find any evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

While the papers cannot agree on the main story of the day, headline writers and cartoonists appear united in trying to come up with the cleverest play on words based on the title of the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

'Celebrity' cartoons

Hence we find "I'm an asylum seeker - you'll never get me out of here" in the Sun.

And "She's a liability - get her out of there" in the Daily Express.

That is a reference to the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, who is taken to task by the Daily Star for urging viewers to shun programmes such as I'm a Celebrity.

The Times produces a list of TV shows which might constitute an ideal night on the box according to the culture secretary.

These include Emmerdale - a welcome revamp of the soap in which rural folk agree that fox-hunting is a truly awful thing.

And Groundforce - a heartwarming programme in which a good-looking middle-aged man and his loyal followers take over a sad old political party and give it a total makeover.