Malta and international press digest

 The following are the top stories in the Maltese and international press.

THE  TIMES

Man charged with Pembroke muder.

The Mepa Auditor has slammed the authority  for lack of law enforcement.

Malta is one of several EU member states to be rapped by the EU for not conforming to EU rules of asylum rights.

Spice Girls launch concert tour.

A UHM study has found that the price of some 30 everyday items rose over the past few months. The increases were at importation rather than by retailers.

IN-NAZZJON

The police have made a number of arrests as part of their investigations into  the Balzan HSBC hold-up but there is no main suspect.

The National Euro Changeover Committee has opened 59 centres in as many localities to give information on the euro.

Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett said the government has carried out all the road projects it promised in 2003.

L-ORIZZONT

An Egyptian who had been suspected of killing a Gozitan woman who was found in a well has now been accused of burgling her house.

Mepa has decided to allow the use of a centuries-old gun battery in Birzebbugia for private commercial use despite opposition by, among others, former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici.

THE MALTA INDEPENDENT

GRTU continues to complain over closure of half of Manwel Dimech bridge. New  traffic management proposals are being made.

The Press in Britain...

The Guardian says a report by the CIA and 15 other US intelligence agencies indicated that Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, despite President Bush's assertion that Teheran was trying to build a nuclear bomb.

The Sun covers the return home of British teacher Gillian Gibbons who was jailed in Sudan for allowing the naming of a teddy bear Mohammed.

According to The Daily Telegraph the number of cancer cases in the UK is expected to reach 300,000 a year and The Independent reveals a  five-year plan  which would make it possible for up to a third of the 14,500 cancer patients treated in UK hospitals each day to be cared for at home.

The Times says teenagers are taught about sex so badly in schools that many are left in ignorance about how to avoid sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. Many children's charities and sexual health experts had written to the newspaper to outline the serious failings.

The Daily Mail claims new restrictions are being imposed on couples seeking IVF treatment: only one embryo can be used in fertility treatments thus putting an end to multiple births.

The Daily Express  reports that the price of fruit and veg has soared to a three-year high ... and shooting higher as demand outgrows supply.

The Daily Mirror leads on the remarkable case of John Darwin who has turned up alive and well more than five years after he was believed to have drowned in the North sea... and the Sun reports that his wife has gone missing after she moved to Panama.

The Scotsman's front page lead reveals the police have been called in to uncover a mole at the heart of the Scottish Labour Party in a new twist to the donations row being faced by its leader, Wendy Alexander. The continuing crisis facing Labour north of the border over illegal donations is also the lead in The Record which reports Labour MSP Charles Gordon was warned two years ago it was illegal to accept donations from a tax exile.

... and elsewhere

Milan's Corriere della Sera quotes Italian Premier Romano Prodi saying a summit of all his centre-left allies would be held soon to map out common ground on electoral reform. The small parties in the coalition had expressed fears that the talks on the reform were moving ahead without them and they even threatened to halt parliamentary work on the budget unless a summit meeting was called to discuss the issue.

Brussels' De Standaard says the the European Commission has taken urgent emergency precautionary measures following outbreaks of bird flu in Poland and Romania. The Commission also confirmed  measures in force for the past weeks in the UK, even if no new cases were reported since the outbreak on November 19 at a turkey farm in Norfolk.

Toronto's The Globe and Mail reports Canada's ambassador has been expelled from Iran. Calling the move entirely unjustifiable, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier suggested the expulsion of Ambassador John Mundy, who was recently appointed and yet to have his credentials accepted, was a tit-for-tat move by the Iranian government over Canada's refusal to accept the candidates Teheran had proposed thus far.

The International Herald Tribune publishes the result of a survey conducted for three major TV stations, include ABC and the BBC, which shows that Afghans are becoming more weary of the American presence and that the Taliban are gaining support. Support for the American presence declined to 42 per cent from last year's 57 per cent, while 23 per cent of respondents openly supported the Taliban - a figure three times higher than last year's.

The Bush Administration has asked Congress for supplementary funds to help the Palestinians. The Washington Post quotes US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying the $400 million were meant as an unprecedented move to offer better opportunities to the Palestinian people.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has closed 92 charities linked to Hamas. Al-Zaman quotes officials saying this was part of an intensifying West Bank crackdown on the Islamic militants who seized the Gaza Strip last June and were challenging renewed peace talks with Israel.

The Los Angeles Times reports that an American Catholic priest has been jailed for 10 years and four months for abusing two minors. The 59-year-old, who has already spent three years in preventive custody, had admitted his responsibility for the crimes which took place between 1994 and 1997.

Rome's Il Tempo reports that over 700 inmates serving life terms in 50 Italian jails were in their third day of a hunger strike to demand an end to what they define as ''a never-ending sentence''. Last June, of the 1,295 serving life sentences in Italy, 310 lifers had made a collective request for the reinstatement of the death penalty for themselves' because they were ''tired of dying a little bit every day'' and preferred ''to die once and for all''.

Plump babies may really be happier babies. Canadian and British researchers reported in the December issue of Biological Psychiatry that a study found people who had a low birth weight were more likely to have depression and anxiety later in life. Adverse conditions in the womb that interfere with a baby's growth may also cause brain differences.