What the papers say

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

The Irish Times reviews political progress in Northern Ireland towards an election.

It reports that David Trimble is ready to respond positively to a move on decommissioning and an end to paramilitarism by the IRA.

Below that is a report that Jeffrey Donaldson condemns plans for a reunion by 800 republicans in Donegal to mark the 20th anniversary of the big escape from the Maze prison.

Mr Donaldson says he thinks the celebration is totally inappropriate, given that a prison officer lost his life.

Violence past and feared violence to come make the local front pages.

The News Letter reports that a prison officer knew about the plan to kill Billy Wright, who would kill him and how they would do it.

The information about this, claims the paper, has been hidden in police files for the last five years.

It includes a statement from a prison officer, dated three days after the murder, highlighting the prison authorities' failure to protect Wright.

Renewed campaign

The Irish News reports fears of a renewed sectarian campaign of violence by loyalists after bombs were left at two Catholic schools in County Derry.

The Mirror gives its front page to a report that a 96-year-old woman and her daughter were assaulted yesterday by armed robbers in their home in Gilford, County Down.

The Irish Independent leads with predictions that primary school teachers in the republic will strike this term in protest against sub-standard school buildings.

The Daily Mail has another shocker on the state of the health service.

A GP calls an ambulance for a dying woman. Her son is 1,200 miles away in Spain at the time.

"Guess who got to the hospital first?" asks the paper.

It took eight hours for the ambulance to reach Clarice Burgin and take her the 15-minute journey to Derby City General.

The London broadsheets have a range of concerns.

The Guardian says that people from ethnic minorities who want to join the police will boycott the Met, on the advice of its own black officers.

The Independent leads on the execution, in cold blood, of a seven-year-old girl, and the Daily Telegraph on the admission by the head of MI6 that the dossier on Iraq was misleading.

The Financial Times foresees a further grilling for Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon when he is called back to the Hutton inquiry.

"Fall guy Hoon" is what the Mail calls him, saying that he will be fighting for his political life.

Council tax soars

The Daily Express is outraged by soaring council taxes and calls it a betrayal of home owners.

The Mail says we are being ripped off by mobile phone companies which have increased the price of texting - a 30% increase in four years.

And the Scurra column in the Mirror says a homeless woman in a cardboard box, sleeping under David Blaine's perspex one has a sign up saying: "Pay me £6m. Homeless people have been here longer than he has".