What the papers say

Journalist Finola Meredith takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's morning papers.

The Belfast Telegraph carries a report on continuing concerns over swine flu jabs.

It focuses on the experience of a 15-year-old special needs pupil, Rhys Fletcher, who ended up in hospital hours after getting the injection. He has since been discharged, but Rhys's mother said the safety of the vaccination programme has been called into question.

Over at the News Letter, the concern is more about tractors holding you up when you're rushing to the international airport at Aldergrove.

There could be a decade or more of delays, says the paper, because there are still no concrete plans to build a motorway route to the airport - despite calls from politicians, airlines and other businesses.

"The Archbishop of Tuam is discouraging people from going to Knock in search of apparitions," reports both the Irish Times and Irish News.

Dr Michael Neary has taken the unusual step of criticising those seeking out an apparition at the Marian shrine.

Earlier this month, 5,000 people gathered at the shrine in the hope of a repeat of the famous sighting of 1879.

During the gathering some people said they could see the sun shimmering, changing colour and dancing in the sky.

But, Dr Neary said that "wasn't healthy", and that the original apparition was "neither sought nor expected".

The Daily Telegraph is among several papers to report that more babies with Down's Syndrome are being aborted than ever before.

A new study has shown that the number of women who chose to terminate their pregnancies after they were told their babies had the condition has trebled in the last 20 years.

Doctors attributed the rise to the growing number of women who put off having children to later in life, along with improvements in screening.

But Simon Barnes, the Times writer who has an eight-year-old son with Down's Syndrome says having a child with the condition is "not a big deal".

"All you need is unconditional love," he says, adding that his son Eddie is "a valid, useful and cherished member of his society - why should he be anything else?"

The Times leads with a call to "give up meat to save the planet".

'Bear facts'

This call comes from a leading authority on global warming, Lord Stern of Brentford.

He says that we're going to have to turn vegetarian if we're to conquer climate change.

As far as he's concerned, "meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases", what with all the methane coming from cows and pigs.

As the Times reports, his remarks have "provoked anger from the meat industry".

And it might not be so easy giving up those juicy steaks, Lord Stern admits he is not a strict vegetarian himself.

The Guardian looks at the truth about bears. It reports that "they're not violent and they don't eat honey".

Wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers has been getting up close and personal with North America's black bears for many years, hand-feeding them treats to get closer to the bear families.

It's a risky business, but he has never been hurt - he says that it's humans who are the more dangerous animals.

And no, unlike AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh, they're not too keen on honey, instead preferring a good feed of ant larvae.

But neither are they particularly friendly. Even Rogers' favourite bear June, doesn't really like him, he says, instead looking on him as someone who had better be ignored.