Malta and international press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times reports a "clampdown on illegal roadworks" with Minister Austin Gatt having issued directives to the Malta Transport Authority for immediate action when illegal works are undertaken by local councils or other bodies. All such works require prior ADT approval. It also reports that the EU Budget committee has approved assistance of €700,000 for Maltese workers dismissed from their textile factories.

l-orizzont leads with a warning that parents have to be extra careful of the medicine doses they give their children following research which has shown that wrong dosage can cause long-term harm. The issue came to the fore in the UK over the past few days. It also reports how a 21-year-old man from Mellieha allegedly committed credit card fraud to fund his drug habit.

In-Nazzjon reports how all passport control procedures on flights between Malta and Schengen countries will be lifted on Sunday.

The Malta Independent leads with the suspended sentence handed down against Norman Lowell. It also carries a front page picture of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla at the end of the president's successful state visit to Britain. On the backpage is carries yesterday's announcement that Emirates Airline is to start daily flights between Malta and Dubai.

The Press in Britain...

'Terminal Disgrace' is how the Daily Mail describes the widespead chaos as Heathrow Terminal Five was inaugurated with 34 cancelled flights, hours-long baggage delays and hundreds of environmental demonstrators protesting against the airport expansion. The new terminal cost 4 billion pounds and is the first addition to Heathrow in 20 years.

That story is repeated in The Times, which forecasts misery for thousands of families heading on holiday this weekend.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the feel-good factor is at its lowest ebb as the 'growing gloom' over the economy is driving voters away from Gordon Brown.

The Guardian claims that the Chancellor will award Britain's financial watchdog new powers to clean up the City by adopting a US-style whistle-blower system that will grant immunity from prosecution in return for evidence about market manipulation.

The Financial Times reports that the credit crunch yesterday forced three of the UK's biggest lenders to tighten up the supply of home loans in moves that are 'likely to put further pressure on the property market'.

The Daily Express leads with news that councils are squandering millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on bloated salaries for 'an army of town hall bureaucrats'.

The Independent uses its front page to reproduce a letter by 17 members of the House of Lords urging a moratorium on asylum removals following the plight of Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian teenager facing execution if he returns to Iran.

The Daily Star claims snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan has landed himself in trouble after sexual comments he reportedly made at a press conference in Asia.

The Sun celebrates President and Madame Sarkozy's ‘spot of ooh la la' into their state visit during a boat ride down London's River Thames with the heading "Je Thames".

And elsewhere...

Le Monde reports President Sarkozy is to use his EU presidency to "sound out" EU member states over a possible boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Alongside Gordon Brown, he acknowledged they remain divided on the possiblility of such a boycott over Chinese repression in Tibet. He said the UK, as host of the 2012 (London) games, is in a different position as it will have to take the Olympic torch from China. The two leaders agreed on a multi-billion euro defence deal, vowed to press Washington on climate change and to curb the spread of nuclear weapons technology.

Les Temps reports the Speaker of Tibet's parliament-in-exile wants the 47 UN Human Rights Council members to conduct an inquiry into recent unrest in the Chinese province. Karma Chophel, in Geneva to seek support, warned that growing Chinese repression in Tibet is driving Buddhist monks and nuns to commit suicide. Earlier, Lhasa Evening News reported that monks in the Tibetan capital disrupted a Beijing-orchestrated press tour for foreign journalists and accused the Chinese government of lying about the situation there.

DeTelegraaf says Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has posted a controversial film critical of Islam on the internet. The 15-minute film features violent imagery of terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid intertwined with Koranic texts. The planned release had sparked angry protests in Muslim countries.

Le Courrier des Balkans reports that some 2,500 Bosnian Serbs have held a pro-independence rally in the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The demonstrators were demanding a complete break with and eventually be attached to Serbia, which they consider their motherland.

Al-Iraq Al-Jadid says Iraqi lawmakers plan to hold an emergency session today to discuss ways of ending violence in Basra. Parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani said representatives of Shi'ite and Sunni parties in parliament, including those loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had agreed to attend the session.

Cromos quotes Colombian officials saying Ingrid Betancourt, the 46-year old kidnapped over six years ago by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, is seriously ill. She is believed to be suffering from Hepatitis B and a skin-eating disease. The Colombian authorities have called on her abductors to let medicine through to her.

Harare's The Herald reports that Zimbabwe had warned that "illegal" reporting will be dealt with severely. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu alleged that the BBC, CNN and the New York Times were not welcome because they represent what he called "imperialist propaganda". He said the government had accredited some 300 foreign journalists for the elections in which longtime President Robert Mugage is fighting for political survival.