Malta and international press digest

The following are the leading stories in the Maltese and international press today:

The Times leads with the swearing in of Lawrence Gonzi as prime minister, and reports congratulatory messages from a number of European governments. It also reports that the leadership race of the Labour Party is wide open, with deputy leader Michael Falzon and MEP Joseph Muscat seen as potential frontrunners. It also reports that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has been excluded from the new Cabinet.

BusinessToday says bank customer fees are to climb.

Malta Today says there will be ‘No ministry for Jeffrey'. It also reports that Michael Falzon will stand for the MLP leadership and that Jason Micallef intends to defend his post.

l-orizzont heads with the announcement that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando will not be getting a ministry. It also reports reactions to Dr Sant's resignation and carries an alaysis of the electoral result.

In-Nazzjon leads with the heading "A government for all the people", which is a quote from an address by the Prime Minister yesterday.

The Malta Independent leads with the swearing in of the prime minister and also discusses the leadership battle in the MLP, mentioning potential contenders Michael Falzon, Joseph Muscat, Charles Mangion, George Abela, Marie Louise Coleiro and Alfred Mifsud.

The Press in Britain

The Daily Mirror says the body of Manchester police chief Michael Todd was found at the foot of a cliff after he went missing on Monday while walking alone in Snowdonia.

The Daily Mail asks whether the chief constable killed himself because of problems in his private life.

The Times leads with a claim that plans to make school-leavers swear an oath of allegiance to Queen and country have been criticised in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Sun pictures three women torn apart by high-profile murders and says they have vowed to help heal broken Britain.

The Daily Star leads with the search for schoolgirl Shannon Matthews, which it says is the biggest police investigation since the Yorkshire Ripper.

The Express says householders are paying up to £200 a year to have their rubbish taken away privately because councils have axed weekly collections.

The Guardian claims ministers will back councils that want to take over loss-making rural post offices, as long as it does not mean adding to the £150m subsidy

The Financial Times says US stocks enjoyed their largest gain for more than five years on Tuesday after a boost of about $200bn to the financial markets by the Federal Reserve.

Metro says credit card fraud has reached a record £535m as internatioonal gangs rip off British users abroad.

The Independent's front page is dominated by Darfur. It says that three months after the UN took over peacekeeping duties the conflict has entered a violent and deadly new phase: children raped, homes looted and villages torched and thousands are forced to flee aerial bombings.

The Record says a mother is to be reunited with her kidnapped children after she tracked them down on the Internet.

And elsewhere...

USA Today reports that Barack Obama coasted to victory in Mississippi's Democratic primary, the latest in a string of racially-polarized presidential contests across the Deep South and a final tune-up before next month's high-stakes race with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania. The paper said Obama was winning roughly 90 per cent of the black vote but only about one-quarter of the white vote, extending a pattern that carried him to victory in earlier primaries in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

The New York Times leads with the resignation of the top US military commander for the Middle East amid a rift over American policy in Iran. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he had given Admiral William J Fallon permission to retire after an article published last week in Esquire magazine portrayed him as opposed to President George Bush's Iran policy. But Mr Gates described as "ridiculous" any notion that Admiral Fallon's departure signals that the United States is planning to go to war with Iran.

Washington Post reports the United States has removed China from its 2007 list of worst violators of human rights, even it still had a poor record, having tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang. Sudan, Syria and Uzbekistan were added to the list of worst human rights violators, joining Belarus, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Burma, North Korea and Zimbabwe.

The People's Daily quotes China's environmental minister Zhang Lijun promising the air would be clean in time for this summer's Beijing's Olympic games. The country was forced into making the statement after world marathon record-holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia said he would almost certainly miss the long-distance running event in Beijing because of the city's poor air quality. Considered the world's best distance runner, the 34-year-old Gebrselassie - who has asthma - fears his health could be damaged by running in the event.

Meanwhile, Sydney Morning Herald quotes Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd saying the country is on track to meet its Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission target. Australia's commitments under the United Nation's climate change treaty started today and Mr Rudd told parliament that Australia is on track to meet its target curbing carbon emissions by 2010.

Financial Times Deutschland reports Nokia, which recently announced plans to close a German plant, has been told it must repay the €41 million subsidies plus some €19 million in interest because it was closing down its mobile phone plant in Bochum. And the government of North-Rhine Westphalia wants the money by the end of the month. Nokia maintains it has fulfilled all its obligations undere the agreement and doesn't owe any money.

De Standaard says Belgium has agreed to pay over €110 million in compensation for the Holocaust. Overall, around €35 million are to be paid to individual claimants, with the rest going to a Jewish trust. The decision follows recommendations by a government sponsored commission. It found, last year, that the Belgian state had collaborated actively with Nazi Germany in persecuting Jews during the Second World War.

Voice of Lahore reports two massive suicide bombs, 15 minutes apart and 15 miles away from each other, destroyed a police headquarters and a business in Pakistan today killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 200. Three children, including girl of three, were among the victims.

Calls for New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to resign intensified after he was accused of meeting a high-priced prostitute. Editorials in the New York Daily News and the New York Post joined the call for the resignation after The New York Times reported the 48-year-old father of three teenage daughters was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month.