Malta and international press digest

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

The Times, like the other dailies, features a picture from yesterday's match between Valletta and Juventus, which Valletta won on penalties. Valletta supporters celebrated late into the night. The newspaper also reports that the EU representation in Malta will from next week offer free legal advice to the people. From the law courts, the newspaper says that the defence counsel of a man accused of drug trafficking said his client is a model of reform.

The Malta Independent leads with the Valletta-Juventus match. It also says Malta has been placed fourth in the economic globalisation index.

l-orizzont says the GWU metal workers' section has approved a resolution telling the prime minister to hold the former chairman and board members of Malta Shipyards responsible for the yard's failed policies.

In-Nazzjon features a picture of Valletta supporters celebrating. It also says the ETC is preparing to launch a register of part-time work.

The Malta Business Weekly says the first Vodafone MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) is expected by the second quarter.

The Press in Britain...

The Sun reports that 18 British soldiers seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have been given transfusions using batches of blood which may not have been properly screened. The blood was sourced from the US military.

The Daily Express reports evidence given at the the Princess Diana inquest which showed that Royal Family was routinely bugged by the British secret services.

The Daily Mirror carries an interview with Kate and Gerry McCann in which they talk about their regrets over the night their daughter Madeleine went missing. Garry is quoted as saying he wished they had never gone to the bar while Kate said she wished she'd seen the stranger watching them all.

The Times looks at the US presidential race and reports that Hillary Clinton's surprise win in New Hampshire was down to female voters.

The Guardian reports that the search for a private sector solution to the Northern Rock crisis has been widened to include wealthy Middle Eastern governments.

The Financial Times says former Prime Minister Tony Blair is joining a Wall Street bank in the first in a series of private sector positions.

The Daily Mail dedicates the whole front page to a story where RSPCA staff called at a farm in Buckinghamshire and found dozens of horses dead or just alive. The animals were bound for dinner tables on the Continent in what the paper describes as "one of the UK's worst animal cruelty cases".

And elsewhere...

Tel Aviv's Liberal daily Haaretz says that during today's meeting in the West Bank, Pr esident George Bush will tell Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the choice before him "is of a state or chaos." Bush, who began an eight day tour of the Middle East, told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that it would be to the advantage of Israel and the Palestinians to reach a final status agreement while he was still president.

The New York Times reports the United States has quietly expanded the number of "enemy combatants" being held in judicial limbo at its Bagram military base in Afghanistan . It says the military base north of Kabul now has around 630 prisoners, a far greater number than the 275 still being held at a rapidly emptying military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Pristina's Ilaria Post leads with the approval by Kosovo's parliament of a coalition government led by Hashim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader who is pushing for independence from Serbia. The independence plan has support from most EU states and the US, but Serbia and Russia strongly oppose it.

The East African Standard reports Ghana's President John Kufuor has held separate talks with both sides involved in Kenya's election crisis. Mr Kufuor, who also heads the African Union, met President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Afterwards, Mr Kibaki's spokesman said he wanted to reach out to his opponents now that the violence had subsided, while Mr Odinga called the talks "fruitful".

USA Today reports from Beijing that China is banning free flimsy plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to cloth bags making China the latest nation to target plastic bags in a bid to cut waste and conserve resources.

Vienna 's Kurier reports that a 66-year-old Austrian woman lived for almost a year with the corpse of her 85-year-old partner. Police found the remains of the man swaddled in blankets with the dwelling reeking of decomposition odours. The police are looking into whether the woman concealed his death in order to collect his pension payments.