Newsround: what Wednesday's papers say

The top stories in Wednesday's newspapers:

THE IRISH TIMES

- The paper leads with the Manchester attack reporting that the city has united against hate and fear as it refuses to bow in the wake of the attack by a suicide bomber that claimed 22 lives. As investigations into the attack and whether the bomber was acting alone or as part of a network continued, Britain raised its terror threat level from severe to critical.

- The state agency set up to tackle white-collar crime is under severe pressure after the judge in the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick heavily criticised its investigation into the banker.

- The paper reports that more than one third of Fine Gael members eligible to vote in the party's leadership contest are based in Minister for Housing Simon Coveney's Munster heartland while Leo Varadkar's Dublin base accommodates just under 10 per cent of the 21,000-strong electorate.

- In its business supplement, the paper says that there is concern over the scale of unregulated car finance deals with one in three buyers of new cars in Ireland using a form of finance - personal contract plans (PCPs) - that is entirely unregulated.

FINANCIAL TIMES

- The paper also leads with Manchester, reporting that police have identified the suicide bomber who killed 22 people, including children, in Monday night's terrorist attack as Salman Abedi, a 22-year old native of the city. It says Abedi was born in Manchester and lived with his brother Ismail in one of its southern districts.

- It also reports that London and the south of England have been subsidising the rest of the UK, according to figures that give details of how tax revenues and public spending differ across the country.

- Indicators for France and Germany suggest the euro zone recovery is broadening while business sentiment in Berlin is at its most bullish since reunification in 1991. The data will be welcome news for new French president Emmanuel Macron, who won the election on a pledge to help his country's struggling economy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel who seeks a fourth term in September's election.

- The FT Big Read takes driverless cars as its subject, reporting that money is flooding into autonomous car start-ups in Silicon Valley, along with huge amounts of hype. For the sector's evangelists, questions about sales, regulations and business models are missing the point, the paper says.

IRISH INDEPENDENT

- The paper reports that the suicide bombing in Manchester has left dozens of victims injured and missing while up to 5,000 soldiers will be deployed on the streets amid fears that the bomber had accomplices who are preparing further attacks.

- It also says that Leo Varadkar's initial plans to cut taxes and improve the country's transport network will cost €5 billion. The Social Protection Minister has set out a series of "big projects" which he would prioritise as Taoiseach, including a metro for Dublin and a motorway to the northwest.

- The taxpayer is facing a bill running into tens of millions following the spectacular collapse of the trail of former Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick, the paper says, reporting that his daughter Sarah broke down in court yesterday as Judge John Aylmer directed her father be acquitted on all charges in the third and final criminal trial against him since the financial crisis.

- The government will have to state in its formal bids to host the EU's banking and drug regulators whether it will pay their rent if they move here after Brexit. The European Council has asked member states applying to host the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority to state if they would be willing to cough up the rent for a specific period of time, or indefinitely.

IRISH EXAMINER

- Like the other newspapers, the Examiner also leads with the Manchester attacks and the acquittal of Seán FitzPatrick, reporting that the UK is braced for more attacks as prime minister Theresa May said the threat level was being raised to its highest possible rating.

- It also reports that the number of people at work is forecast to increase by 60,000 over the course of 2017 while the average unemployment rate could fall as low as six per cent. The latest CSO figures show that total employment at the end of March was 2,045,000, 68,600 more than at the corresponding point in 2016.

- In its business section, the paper reports that the average Irish household owes more than €30,000, making Ireland the fourth most indebted country in the EU behind Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, the Central Bank has found.

- The government has so far paid out over €17.2 million under the help-to-buy incentive scheme which Fine Gael leadership hopeful Leo Varadkar says he will scrap if it is found to be pushing up house prices.