Newsround: what Tuesday's papers say

Up to half of 1,200 post offices face closure and FBI Russian inquiry puts Trump under pressure

Tuesday's papers

The top stories in Tuesday's papers:

THE IRISH TIMES

- The paper leads with the story that the FBI is investigating contacts between US president Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia, a development that has increased political pressure on the US president to clarify his relationship with the Kremlin.

- The tail of the Irish Coast Guard's Rescue 116 Sikorsky helicopter struck rocks on Blackrock Island 13 kilometres off the north Mayo coast before it crashed, investigators have confirmed.

- British prime minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on March 29 but it could take up to two months for negotiations to start on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, the paper reports.

- Management at Bus Éireann will tell staff in the next few days it plans to implement highly controversial cost-saving measures unilaterally. The move is likely to increase the prospect of strikes at the state-owned transport company.

FINANCIAL TIMES

- The paper also leads with FBI director James Comey's confirmation that the FBI is probing possible links between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Kremlin, a move it describes as an unprecedented public acknowledgment that pits the top US law enforcement agency against a sitting president.

- Google's European operations boss has publicly apologised to advertisers after a growing crisis over extremist content on YouTube led big companies, including Marks and Spencer and Havas, to freeze their Google ads.

- Ireland's banking sector has almost completely recovered from the 2008-2011 crisis, according to a report from ratings agency S&P entitled 'Getting back to where they once belonged'. It said the sector had largely recovered from the "severe ruptures" experienced during the crisis with recovery in the wider economy the main driver of improving creditworthiness.

- In its Companies & Markets section, the paper reports that Mars is introducing Maltesers in the US, marking its first launch of a chocolate brand in its home market in 20 years as it battles to recover some of the market share it has lost there to rival Hershey.

IRISH INDEPENDENT

- Half of the post offices around the country are not commercially viable, a new report warns, and it will cost €10 million a year to keep the entire rural post office network open.

- The Defence Forces are suffering from a "resource crisis", a retired senior army officer has said, according to the paper's front page. The claim comes in the wake of revelations about a lack of pilots in the Air Corps following the Coast Guard Rescue 116 disaster.

- Last year was the warmest on record with temperatures 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation says 2016 made history with a record average global temperature, exceptionally low sea ice and unabated sea level rise and ocean heat.

- The Cabinet is split over when Enda Kenny should step down as Taoiseach, the paper reports, with one of his closest allies urging him to remain in place until June. But several ministers are losing patience with Kenny, particularly after he cited Brexit and the political crisis in the North as reasons to delay his departure.

IRISH EXAMINER

- The paper also leads with Enda Kenny, saying a "brazen" Taoiseach intends to stay in office until the summer recess following his "successful" trip to the US last week.

- Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, who set up payment service Stripe, are among the youngest billionaires on the planet, having made the Forbes billionaires list for the first time.

- The HSE was in contact 26 times with An Garda Síochána between 2011 and 2015 about the "Grace" foster abuse scandal, HSE director Tony O'Brien has said in correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee.