What the papers say

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

As the new school term gets into full swing, there's a chilling front page lead to the News Letter.

"Children in firing line" is the headline on a story reporting attacks on children attending Cliftonville Primary School in north Belfast.

The News Letter says parents believe the attacks - by republicans - are in retaliation for two security alerts, claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, which disrupted the first day of term at the Holy Cross Primary School.

Education at a rather older age also features in both the News Letter and the Irish News .

Both report remarks by Education Secretary Charles Clarke at a conference of university vice-chancellors in Belfast that free tertiary education for all is simply "no longer feasible".

The News Letter reports Mr Clarke saying that taxpayers' money was better spent on improving early years education.

The Irish News says the education secretary said it had only been possible to pay for higher education out of public funds at a time when a university degree was "a privilege for a small minority".

'Suffering'

The Irish News highlights the cautious optimism expressed by relatives of the 1998 Omagh bomb victims, following the arrest of a Jonesborough couple.

But the paper also says it's unclear whether any charges would be brought and if any would be related directly to Omagh.

On the same front page - a poignant reminder that some people's suffering pre-dates Omagh by many years.

Seventy-nine-year-old Vera McVeigh is pictured holding a picture of her son Columba, abducted and murdered by the IRA 28 years ago.

Mrs McVeigh tells the Irish News she simply wants to have Columba buried beside his father Paddy who died six years ago of a broken heart.

There's a brighter note to the front pages of two of the London papers - the Express and the Independent.

The Express says the "doom-mongers" who predicted a crash in house prices have been confounded by a prediction from the Halifax that prices will, in fact, go up by 20%.

'Brink of recovery'

It quotes the National Association of Estate Agents as saying that "the sunny days have brought the buyers out".

The Independent leads with the assertion that the British economy is "on the brink of a sudden recovery" from its three year slump, citing improved manufacturing output and an increase in house building.

Environmentalists will be outraged by the Guardian's front page lead.

It reports that 13 dilapidated, heavily-polluted US navy ships will cross the Atlantic next month from their anchorages in Virginia to be broken up in Hartlepool in north-east England.

The Guardian says the ships - some almost 60 years old - pose such a threat to marine safety that to reach England they'll have to go round the North of Scotland rather than passing through the English Channel.

The Daily Mail has a less-than-enthusiastic welcome for the Public Services Forum set up on Tuesday to allow ministers and union bosses to exchange views.

Accusing the prime minister of being only interested in "fending off trouble", the Mail editorial asks if, there could be a more effective guarantee that things can only get worse now that the "brothers are back in Downing Street".

Finally, from the Daily Star, proof indeed that life as a super-star is not without its problems.

George Clooney, who regularly tops polls as the world's most eligible bachelor, complains that he can't get a girlfriend because he's mobbed by fans whenever he appears in public.

"Dinner out is an ordeal," George says, earning a less than sympathetic "Hard bloody luck!" in the Star leader column.