What the papers say

Journalist Finola Meredith takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's morning papers.

One face dominates the papers. It is the pale, strained face of Michael Jackson.

The Sun reports that the one-time "King of Pop" looked stunned as he was found not guilty on all charges of abusing a teenage boy at his home, Neverland ranch.

The Times says that the result will vindicate the star, who insisted that he was "the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta".

While OJ Simpson's trial invoked the big issues of race, sex and class, the Jackson case was only about spectacle and celebrity - the paraphernalia of fame Irish Times

But the paper believes that this huge legal victory may do little to improve his bizarre image.

It says that rumours are rife that Mr Jackson will throw a lavish "freedom party" and then flee to Europe or Africa to avoid a backlash from Americans, convinced he was guilty of child abuse.

Reflecting on the case, Shawn Hubler, in the Irish Times, says that the public relations experts have been shaking their heads for months.

Put it this way, he says, Martha Stewart's people didn't let her dance on an SUV.

It is no trial of the century either, he claims.

"While OJ Simpson's trial invoked the big issues of race, sex and class, the Jackson case was only about spectacle and celebrity - the paraphernalia of fame," he says.

The Daily Telegraph leads with a triptych of images of Saddam Hussein: stills from a video tape showing - for the first time - the former Iraqi dictator being interrogated by judges gathering evidence for his trial.

The paper says that Saddam appears alternately defiant, withdrawn and bemused.

The tape was released without sound by Iraq's special tribunal, the body established to try war crimes as well as crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide during Saddam's rule.

DUP response

Ian Paisley will tell Bertie Ahern on Wednesday that the wording of the expected IRA statement is of no interest to him, says the News Letter.

The IRA are about to release "a credible statement as a matter of urgency", according to the Irish government, however, the paper reports that the DUP has dismissed the speculation, saying that there would be "no all-singing, all-dancing response to any IRA statement".

The Belfast Telegraph reports that a victim in Northern Ireland's biggest child sex abuse scandal has claimed he lied during the original trial.

Two former Barnardo's care workers, Margaret Hewitt and Robert George Anderson, are appealing their convictions for abusing children.

Concerns that it is the end of an era for Catholic education feature in the Irish News.

The paper reports that Sister Julie McGoldrick, principal of Sacred Heart Grammar School in Newry, has warned that proposed education reforms could have a "negative influence" on post-primary schools.

She said that government planned to create centres of learning, not schools - and that many children might put greater subject choices ahead of religious ethos when selecting a grammar or secondary school.

Glorious mud

Finally, the Guardian reports on the ultimate accessory for city 4 by 4 drivers: spray-on mud.

The idea is that, with a few squirts, neighbours will think you spent the weekend hurtling along muddy lanes on the way to your country retreat.

Colin Dowse, who markets the product, says "with spray-on mud, they can make it look like they've been off-road instead of just driving to the shops and back. There is not a lot of mud in Chelsea."