What the papers say

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

Both the News Letter and the Irish News lead with reaction to Tuesday's three-vehicle crash in North Down which killed a teenage boy and injured eight others.

There are strong words from one of the ambulance men who attended the scene.

Station Officer John McLintock tells the News Letter he thinks Northern Ireland is " becoming complacent" in the face of the rising death toll on the roads.

In the Irish News, he talks of the "101 unnecessary deaths" on Northern Ireland's roads this year.

"This is not just cars crashing into each other," Mr McClintock is quoted as saying: "It is families losing their lives."

The papers may be at one in their choice of front page leads - but their leader columns tackle different subjects.

Childhood obesity

The News Letter focuses on the problem of illegal dumping of rubbish from the Republic of Ireland in border areas, calling it "this most insidious form of law-breaking".

The paper says officials at the Department of the Environment cannot escape criticism over dumping operations

It calls on NIO Minister Angela Smith to get a grip and introduce a "zero tolerance policy".

The dangers of childhood obesity occupy the Irish News leader column.

The paper says that while it is appropriate that health and education agencies are "fully engaged" in tackling the problem, the food industry, parents and television advertisers should also be playing their parts.

The clear-up operations after the flash floods which hit the Cornish village of Boscastle feature prominently in the cross-channel papers.

The Express runs a front page picture showing three firemen, up to their shoulders in water, checking an upturned car for possible victims.

The Mail shows a picture of seven wrecked vehicles on their sides, upside down, or simply battered almost beyond recognition and asks how 1,000 people managed to escape the torrents.

Inside the papers, there is a wide selection of views of the shattered village, many of them taken from the air or showing residents shovelling the mud and debris from their homes.

'Hammer blow'

The Guardian reports that Boscastle's Witchcraft Museum survived while a Christian gift shop did not, earning from one villager the quip that " the devil looks after his own".

Competing for front page space with Boscastle is Thursday's A-level results and the debate about whether the exam really has been "dumbed down" over the years.

The Telegraph draws on an article written for it by School Standards Minister David Milliband to produce the headline "A-levels have become easier, schools minister admits".

However, that is because the exams now cater for students who do not perform well in conventional IQ tests.

In the Independent , Mr Milliband says results are getting better not because today's students are brighter than their parents, but because schools and teachers are getting better at getting the best out of them.

The Irish Times is ahead of the UK academic guessing game.

It says the most striking feature of the republic's Leaving Cert results - which are published on Wednesday - are high failure rates in science and maths, described by the Irish employers group IBEC as a "hammer blow".

Back finally to the Irish News, and a story which will disappoint any owners of political memorabilia who hope to sell them for a profit.

A signed copy of the Good Friday Agreement which went on the e-bay internet auction site, has so far attracted not a single bid, and that is at a starting price of 50p.