What the papers say

Journalist Mike Philpott takes a look at what is making the headlines in Wednesday's newspapers.

Students are the subject of two of the main headlines in Belfast.

The Irish News focuses on the Queen's University dentistry student struck down by meningitis. It says she's making good progress after emerging from a coma on Sunday.

The Belfast Telegraph reports on the uncertainty facing students right across Northern Ireland as we wait to see if the minister for employment and learning, Sir Reg Empey, accepts the recommendations of the Browne report on university fees.

The paper says public consultation on the issue won't start until February of next year, which leaves parents "with a long and anxious wait".

The News Letter concentrates on the latest development in the story of the Presbyterian Mutual Society and says a deal for savers "could be reached within days".

The paper says Secretary of State Owen Paterson has indicated that the details will be available when the spending review announcement is made next Wednesday.

Mine rescue

The latest developments in the mine rescue in Chile came too late for the papers, but the Mirror, the Irish Times and the Daily Telegraph all have front page pictures of rescue workers trying out the steel capsule that's being used to winch the men to the surface.

The world is holding its breath, says the Mirror.

The Independent has an aerial shot of the scenes at the surface, with makeshift accommodation and lines of television satellite trucks.

"The Dawn of Hope", says its headline. It describes it as "one of the most extraordinary rescue missions of all time".

But a psychologist who specialises in trauma studies says the rescued men could experience what he calls a deep low after the jubilation of reaching the outdoors after more than two months trapped below ground.

The science editor of the Mail agrees, and says it could take months before the men's body clocks readjust to daylight.

The Times looks at a remarkable coincidence of numbers.

Spooky numbers

There are 33 miners, they were trapped in the 33rd week of the year, the rescue shaft was completed after 33 days of drilling, and today's date - the day of the first rescue - is written as 13/10/10. Add the figures and they come to 33.

The Irish Independent reports that the Republic's economy has "turned the corner" and that a leading global credit agency is predicting a faster recovery than in other European Union states.

The paper comments that good news is a scarce commodity in the Republic, but at last there's a chink of light at the end of a long tunnel.

It urges the nation to use this piece of news as a source of resolve "for the difficult weeks and months ahead".

Remarkably, given the events of recent months and years, the Irish Times reports on a survey which finds that Irish people are less likely to be sick or depressed than their European neighbours and are among the happiest on the continent.

Finally, back to the big rescue story, which features in Matt's cartoon in the Daily Telegraph.

His drawing shows two men in a pub. One of them is draining a pint glass and saying to his companion: "Right, I must go home. My wife thinks I'm stuck down a mine in Chile."