Malta and international press digest

The following are the top stories in the local and foreign press.

All the dailies lead with Dr Sant’s press conference yesterday. The Times says ‘Sant expects to lead party into election’. In- Nazzjon uses the heading ‘Sant returns’ while L-orizzont says ‘Sant can lead’. The Malta Independent uses the heading:' I’m coming back – Dr Sant'.

The Times also reports the press conference by Investments Minister Austin Gatt on the planned expansion of Malta Freeport, creating 500 new jobs in five years.

In-Nazzjon says there was huge demand for pre-placement shares in Maltapost. Shares go on offer for the public today.

L-orizzont reports on the front page the trial of a man facing charges of conspiracy to import drugs. Two Turkish women are said to have given details about him to the police.

The Press in Britain…

Seven British newspapers lead with the evidence by Paul Burrell, the former butler of Diana, Princess of Wales who spoke to him on her relationship with her Muslim lover, surgeon Hasnat Khan.

The Daily Mail quotes Burell saying her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, branded her a "whore" for dating the Muslim man.

The Sun says the mother deemed the Princess to be a disgrace for "messing around with Muslim men". The Daily Express says Burell told the High Court Diana had inquiries made with a Catholic priest over a possible private marriage to Khan.

The Daily Star also leads on Diana’s relationship with Khan, which sparked friction between mother and daughter. The Daily Mirror reports embarrassed Paul Burrell refused to disclose a last "secret" told to him by Princess Diana. He dismissed claims the crash in which Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed died was staged by MI6 on the orders of Prince Charles or his father Prince Philip.

The Daily Record reports the butler claimed Princess Diana used Dodi Fayed to make ex-lover Khan jealous.

The Daily Telegraph says Diana considered the surgeon, rather than Dodi Fayed, to be her "soulmate". The paper also reports on food prices rising at their fastest rate since records began, leading to the average family's shopping bill increasing by £750 a year.

According to the Financial Times, Britain will next week be told by Brussels to increase its use of renewable energy by at least six-fold. The Times reports Britain faces a £1bn black hole after the 2012 Olympics because of "ludicrous" property price projections backed by the Government.

The Guardian claims that the FBI wants its allies, including Britain, to sign up for the 'Server in the Sky' programme, an international database of biometric measurements, irises and palm prints.

and elsewhere…

Gulf News quotes President Bush saying he will go ahead with a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The controversial multibillion-euro arms deal has raised concerns in Israel and among some of its allies about the military balance of power in the region. Saudi Arabia is the penultimate stop on Bush's Middle East tour.

Columbia’s The State reports that the sensitive issue of race has burst into the campaign battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Senator Clinton is under fire from some African Americans after she seemed to suggest President Lyndon Johnson deserved more credit than Martin Luther King for civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s. Mrs Clinton hit back accusing the Obama campaign of "deliberate distortion" to win over black voters in South Carolina ahead of next week's primary.

The Brussels European edition of The Wall Street Journal says EU aid to Kenya could be cut if mediation efforts to resolve the country's election crisis should fail.

According to Afghan Daily, a suicide attack in a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital Kabul has left at least six people dead and another six injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Cyprus Mail reports seven Iraqi immigrants have ended a six-day stand-off with authorities at a British military base. They had threatened to throw themselves off a 45ft fire service tower at the eastern Dhekelia military base unless they were granted British passports. They have agreed to leave the base area and take their petition for asylum to Cypriot authorities.

The Dawn of Pakistan claims eight people have been killed and over 40 wounded in a bomb attack in the southern port city of Karachi.

Belgium’s De Standsaard reports EU regulators saying they have opened two new investigations into the US-based software giant Microsoft, after some of its rivals complained that it was breaching competition laws system.

Pregnant women who eat a Mediterranean diet could help ward off asthma and allergies in their offspring, according to a study published online in the journal Thorax, the British international review of respiratory medicine.