What the papers say

Journalist Keith Baker reviews Friday's morning papers.

The Daily Telegraph front page announces: "IRA to end weapons deadlock at secret weekend conference".

It reports that, starting tonight, there will be an unprecedented meeting of the IRA's army convention taking place under cover of a Sinn Fein Irish language get-together in County Meath.

The Mirror has the story as well, calling it a "crunch summit", and says security sources are optimistic that the Provisionals will finally agree to make a historic gesture and give up their arms.

However, the unionist ministers are not hanging around to see.

The News Letter has a picture of them lined up in front of the cameras at Stormont yesterday after announcing their intention to resign their posts.

The headline calls it: "The midnight shift".

Crunch in days

The Irish News talks of the government being plunged into crisis but the News Letter reckons David Trimble has actually bought the process another vital breathing space.

It says the fact that this time around, the crunch will come in a matter of days, rather than weeks, should serve to concentrate minds as never before on the issues to be resolved.

And it believes that a sustained decommissioning process can propel the Assembly into a new era in which instability and uncertainty are removed.

Elsewhere, the Mail has a picture of a young British woman called Claire Fletcher who works for CBS in New York and is one victim of the anthrax terror campaign.

It turns out she opened the contaminated letter sent to the TV presenter Dan Rather.

Victim's story

But the paper says she is responding well to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.

The Mirror has a first hand story by another victim - one of its former reporters, David Wright, who now works for the newspaper in Florida where one man has already died.

He writes of his horror when he tested positive but he says he has decided to go public because fear and ignorance of anthrax are rampant and he wants to show that the terrorists cannot win.

Meanwhile, Clare Short is attracting big headlines in the Guardian with her comments on a visit to Pakistan.

The paper says she has provoked a furious reaction from aid agencies by dismissing their calls for a halt to the bombing of Afghanistan as "unreal and emotional".

Support may 'melt away'

But in a leader, the paper has a warning for her boss, Mr Blair.

"If military action has not proved decisive by this time next month", it says, "if diplomacy is still floundering and a humanitarian catastrophe is upon us, then support for his whole basic strategy may melt away as quickly as spring snow in the valleys of the Hindu Kush."

The Express carries the headline - At last some good news.

It reports that what it calls "defiant Britons" are taking to the High Street and powering a patriotic spending boom to beat the terrorist crisis.

Sick bill

It says spending went up by 13% in September compared with the same month last year and the figure has eased fears that the attacks on 11 September had dampened consumer enthusiasm.

Back home, the News Letter reports that the sick bill for the RUC is at least £17m a year.

It quotes the acting chairman of the Police Federation as saying that, in fact, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The paper says the figure accounts for lost time by officers injured on duty but it doesn't take account of compensation payments and legal fees on ill-health pensions.

Finally, the Irish News has words of praise for Bill Chapman, home on a visit from Canada, who tackled a man with a knife who had broken into his parents' house in Lisburn.

The paper says that even though the police are correct in advising members of the public against taking criminals on like this, nevertheless there will be widespread admiration for his courageous actions and it might force other thugs who consider targeting the homes of the elderly to think twice.