What the papers say

Journalist Andy Wood takes a look at what is making the headlines in Wednesday's morning newspapers.

Motorists heading north into Belfast this morning won't find any comfort in the Irish News.

The lead story reports that work on a one kilometere stretch of the M1 will now run on well into the New Year.

A Regional Development spokesman tells the paper that "unexpected complications" mean the project to strengthen bridges on the section of motorway is now four weeks behind schedule.

SDLP Assembly member Patricia Lewsley and Ulster Unionist Councillor Jim Rodgers are among those expressing their disappointment at the news.

The News Letter turns to health matters for its front page lead with the claim from the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association that chronic lung diseases account for 800 deaths and 700,00 lost working days each year.

But it's not all doom and gloom for readers. Both papers also have pictures from last night's Christmas lights ceremony at Belfast's City Hall.

Eco-disaster

And News Letter columnist Alf McCreary - a self-confessed student of Christmas lights - says Belfast's are usually among the best in the UK.

The Southern papers - the Irish Times and the Irish Independent - are in no doubt what should dominate their front pages today, at least in picture terms.

It's the breaking up and sinking of the oil tanker Prestige, 150 miles off the Spanish Coast, captured in the same dramatic shot as the tanker's bow and stern sections are about to go their separate ways to the sea bed.

The Independent's coverage - headed "The ship of Doom" - runs on into a story which quotes the Irish Coastguard Service as believing that Ireland should escape the spillage.

The Irish Times lead story reflects on the Republic of Ireland's weakening economic scene.

It reports that the governor of the Central Bank has warned 12 banks and building societies to stick to "agreed guidelines" when giving mortgages.

'Cancer jab'

Turning to the cross-channel papers and there's a mixed bag of front page leads.

The Daily Mail says researchers have had a 100% success rate in trials to develop a vaccine against cervical cancer.

It says this could mean a routine jab being offered to young girls in as little as five years.

The Express uses the case of the Scottish bat conservation worker to highlight fears that "rabies may have returned to Britain for the first time in a century".

The broadsheets feature the sinking of the Prestige - "Sunk : all hope of averting disaster" is the Independent's view.

The Daily Telegraph talks of "fears for environment as tanker sinks with 70,000 tonnes of oil" and the Guardian opts for the apocalyptic "Timebomb under the ocean", reporting that the western coast of Spain and Portugal "was gripped by fear and uncertainty".

'Whacko Jacko'

The Mirror and Star show Michael Jackson dangling a baby over a hotel balcony in Berlin.

"Jacko the mad bad dad" is the Mirror's view of the pop star's actions while the Star says the heart-stopping incident is "the latest clue that the crumbling King of Pop has finally lost the plot".

And if you read the Telgraph arts pages you may come to the same view about the latest Bond film "Die Another Day".

The reviewer, Sukdev Sandhu, says the script "veers between plodding literalism and doubles-entendres (puns to you and me) of floor-groaning awfulness.

And Oscar winner Halle Berrry's performance?

"She exudes the sexiness of someone who has just been sent a gas bill she cannot pay".