What the papers say

Journalist Mike Philpott takes a look at what is making the headlines in Thursday's morning papers.

The arrest of an Algerian man, who is being questioned over links to al-Qaeda, makes the lead in the News Letter.

The paper says he was detained in Belfast and is now being held at Gough Barracks in Armagh.

The Irish News opts, instead, for a harrowing account of the inquest into the death of Rebecca McKeown, a severely disabled girl whose family was at the forefront of the campaign to build the children's hospice.

The story says the coroner struggled to hold back tears as she heard how Rebecca suffered a serious sexual assault before she died.

The appearance of Martin McGuinness at the Bloody Sunday inquiry attracts headlines in Northern Ireland, London and in Dublin.

The Irish Independent and the Irish Times both report on his assertion that the inquiry has become obsessed with him.

'Nightmare over'

The Daily Telegraph accuses him of demanding the full truth about state violence while being less than frank about his own role during three decades of murder and mayhem.

But the News Letter comments that the appearance of this middle-aged grandfather at the Guildhall was a powerful symbolic statement that the war is over.

It says he appears to be genuinely focused on making peace - and the substantial IRA decommissioning that occurred recently happened because of his influence.

None of this redeems the suffering that many people have endured, says the paper, but his evidence had a quality of the past tense about it, indicating that the nightmare really is over.

The Irish News has sympathy for the 400 workers who found themselves without a job this week, 285 of them after the closure of the Shop Electric stores.

The paper says staff and customers alike are entitled to feel aggrieved at the way the closure was handled.

And to lose your wage packet only weeks before Christmas must be especially grim.

There is only one story for the cross-channel papers - the appearance of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr at the Old Bailey in connection with the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The Daily Telegraph has all the appearance of a tabloid, its front page dominated by that iconic picture of Holly and Jessica in their Manchester United shirts, taken only minutes before their disappearance.

Bowing out

Most of the accounts focus on the assertion by the prosecution that Ian Huntley will admit that the girls died in his home, but will deny murder.

The Guardian says this bombshell was dropped almost casually into the proceedings towards the end of the day.

Several papers pay tribute to Iain Duncan Smith on his last day as Conservative leader.

The Sun says he bowed out with a few good jokes and a great deal of grace as he took part in Prime Minister's Questions.

There is much coverage of the apparently increasing divisions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

The Mail says relations between the two men have lurched from the "icy to the poisonous", to such an extent that they could potentially destroy New Labour.

Finally, headline of the morning has to be "Dog Shoots Man".

It appears in the Guardian, which reports that a hunting dog in France managed to pull the trigger of a shotgun in the boot of his owner's car. The man is being treated for minor injuries.