What the papers say

Journalist Grania McFadden takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's morning newspapers.

Both Belfast papers lead on Monday's road crash, which claimed the lives of five people near Newry.

The News Letter reports that the daughter of one of the victims passed the wreckage of her mother's car on her way home from the Special Olympics, and recognised the registration number.

The Irish News says two other victims, Claire Collins and her brother Edward, were cousins of Poyntzpass murder victim Damian Trainor.

The Irish Times notes that the accident brings the death toll on Northern Ireland's roads to 82 this year.

The Irish Independent reports that the hunt is on for four athletes who attended the Special Olympics, and who have gone missing.

Missing athletes

One colleague told the paper the athletes had been anxious to remain in Ireland for another week to go sightseeing. But it is believed they have no passports and no tickets home.

The Irish News believes members of the Sudan and Pakistani teams are also unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times warns that if the government in the Republic proceeds with plans to end tax breaks for film production in Ireland, it will sound the death knell for the industry in the south.

A report published by Screen Producers Ireland argues that without tax incentives, production activity will decline by 80%.

The paper's editorial says Irish film-making is still a cottage industry, and to remove tax incentives now would undo many years of hard work.

There is widespread unease in the national papers over the announcement that babies could be created by IVF using eggs taken from aborted foetuses.

The Independent says the issue raises grave ethical questions.

The Mail describes the nightmare prospect of a child whose biological mother was never born.

But one scientist tells the Daily Telegraph that such treatment could help solve a worldwide shortage of donor eggs for both fertility treatment and medical research.

The Independent's front page is taken up with other matters. It carries a picture of a Palestinian woman wandering through what is left of her orchard on the Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army ploughed its way through the area.

The paper speaks to a factory owner whose building was left in smithereens by army wrecking crews as they pulled out of the region. He said: "I cried in blood. All my savings of 20 years are blown away."

'Eminem's da man'

The Guardian reports that the Pentagon is planning to develop a new generation of weapons, including huge hypersonic drones and bombs dropped from space, which will allow America to strike at its enemies with lightning speed from its own territory.

Several papers introduce their readers to Liaqat Ali, an asylum seeker who has been elected to Manchester Council.

Mr Ali, from Pakistan, needs an interpreter to understand council business. The Express is outraged that hard-pressed taxpayers should be expected to pay for a translator.

Finally, while some listeners might require a translation of rap singer Eminem's hard-hitting lyrics, poet Seamus Heaney has no problem appreciating them.

Several papers report that Heaney has declared Eminem the saviour of modern verse. He said the singer's sometimes violent and homophobic lyrics had inspired a similar interest in poetry as the works of Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Or as the Times headline puts it: "Heaney says Eminem's da man!"