What the papers say

Journalist Andy Wood takes a look at what is making the headlines in Friday's morning newspapers.

The impact of the respiratory disease, Sars, on next month's Special Olympics features in the southern papers.

Both the Irish Times and Irish Independent report angry reaction to the Irish Government's plea to athletes from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines to stay away.

According to the Irish Times, the World Health Organisation thinks the decision is "not consistent" with its guidelines for large-attendance events.

This is mild compared with criticism in the Irish Independent from the Special Olympics Committee which talks of its "shock and disappointment".

This is the most significant return to cabinet government since Labour came to power

Daily Telegraph

The Irish Times reports that Fine Gael has backed the travel ban as "probably correct" for the sake of the games.

However, it also reports the Labour Party's view that this was an act of "blatant political opportunism and discrimination".

Kidnap ransom

The kidnap ordeal endured by a County Antrim family is featured in the News Letter.

It claims that the kidnapping ended when a ransom of £30,000 was paid.

The paper reports that detectives have not ruled out paramilitary involvement in the attack.

There is a reminder of tensions in Portadown in the Irish News story of a young Catholic mother who was warned by the police that a gang was going to burn her out of her home.

The paper's leader column focuses on the continuing twists in the "Stakeknife" story which, it says, has now moved firmly into the realms of the bizarre.

The paper links it with the discovery of four men - said to have English accents - concealed in a loft above a library in the Falls Road.

While some people may be able to make sense of all this, the paper says, all that can be said with a degree of certainty is that further twists can be expected.

Euro talk

In the cross-channel papers, the question of whether to adopt the euro is the major story.

The latest plan to involve the whole cabinet in the discussion before Chancellor Gordon Brown's statement on 9 June, is widely written up as a victory for Prime Minister Tony Blair over Mr Brown.

" Blair's Cabinet coup against Brown" is how the Independent describes it.

The paper notes that Mr Blair can now "mobilise a two-to-one majority in favour of a referendum".

The Daily Telegraph describes the move as "the most significant return to cabinet government since Labour came to power".

The Financial Times says the prime minister won a "tactical victory" over his chancellor, leaving open the possibility of a referendum on euro entry before the next election.

The Daily Mail is more direct. "Blair outflanks Brown in euro power struggle" is its assessment and the paper predicts that Cabinet members will now take the opportunity to "clip Mr Brown's wings".

Competing with the "Euro saga" for front page coverage is the decision by British Airways to suspend flights to Kenya in the face of a terrorist threat.

The Independent says that with 100,000 Britons taking a holiday in Kenya each year, this means that up to 2,000 of them will now have to be found alternative means of travelling home.

British Airways is expected to re-book them on airlines still operating or bus them to Tanzania for their flight home.

Sad news on street

Finally - from the Daily Star - sad news for Coronation Street fans.

"End of the Road for Curly and his girlie" is how the paper tags the news that one time bin-man, supermarket manager and local councillor and house-husband Curly Watts is to leave the series in the Autumn.

Writing in the Mirror, "Corrie" fan Lord Roy Hatterley says Curly's departure is for the best.

All he could have hoped for by staying on would be to become a Ken Barlow Mark 11.