Malta and international press digest

The following are the leading stories in Maltese and foreign newspapers:

The Times says that teachers have threatened to close schools in the face of attacks by students and parents but leads with the appeal by hunters and trappers to the prime minister to open the spring hunting season.

The same two stories form the front page of The Malta Independent. It says hunters are "exasperated by the current state of affairs" while the teachers' union claims the situation "has become unbearable".

In-Nazzjon prints a picture of Pope Benedict addressing the UN General Assembly but its lead story is about further investment at the airport.

l-orizzont claims that Malta is part of a "cocaine route" used by Malaysian girls to supply the drug to Europe. It quotes the Asian thestaronline saying the girls are in a Madrid house where they are being raped and forced to act as couriers.

Il-Gens Illum suggests that the police reversed their decision taken earlier yesterday to interrogate the children living at the Lourdes Home in Gozo, following reports of physical, mental and sexual abuse. It also announces that the nuns involved in the scandal are being removed from the Gozo home.

The Press in Britain...

The Times leads with an account by one of its journalists of his time inside a Zimbabwean prison. Jonathan Clayton was arrested on an immigration charge. The paper suggests the strain is beginning to tell on Robert Mugabe following his first major speech in the wake of last month's disputed elections.

The Guardian says that senior Bush officials pushed for the aggressive interrogation of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, "hoodwinking" America's most senior general in the process.

The Independent carries testimonies from Israeli soldiers in which it claims they confess to abductions, beatings and torture - "the horror they have visited on Hebron".

The Daily Express reports on allegations that £300m of taxpayers' money are being wasted on unnecessary sickness benefits - just to meet Government targets.

Research undertaken by The Daily Telegraph shows families are having to cut back on groceries, eating out and holidays as the economic squeeze starts to have a profound effect on household spending.

The Financial Times says Royal Bank of Scotland is set to reveal about £4bn of fresh losses from the credit turmoil.

The Daily Mail recounts the tragic story of a baby who died after what is alleged to have been "a series of 30 hospital blunders".

Quiz show presenter Anne Robinson is pictured in The Sun with what it calls "a shocking trout pout". But the Robinson denies having had another facelift.

According to the Daily Mirror, Shannon Matthews' mother Karen is on suicide watch in prison after threats from other prisoners.

The Scotsman has the extraordinary story of a rape victim held hostage at knife-point for 12 hours who managed to scrawl a message to police in condensation on a window when her attacker briefly fell asleep.

And elsewhere...

The New York Times leads with the short meeting between Pope Benedict and Rabbi Schneier at the city's Park East Synagogue. The Pope, who became the first leader of the Catholic Church to visit a Jewish place of worship in the US, greeted the Jewish community with the traditional "Shalom". Earlier, addressing the UN General Assembly, Pope Benedict called on member states to protect their people from human rights violations and advocated collective action to solve world issues. The pontiff warned that countries that acted unilaterally on the world stage undermined the authority of the United Nations. His agenda in New York, his last stop before returning to Rome, also includes visiting Ground Zero and celebrating Mass at Yankee Stadium.

Tageblatt says EU Justice and Interior ministers have agreed to tighten existing anti-terror laws by punishing incitement to terrorism through the internet. Meeting in Luxembourg, they said that public provocation to commit terrorist attacks, as well as recruiting and training people for terrorism will be punishable offences throughout the EU. The new measures would also allow EU law-enforcement agencies to demand cooperation from internet providers in order to identify suspects and ensure that offending material is taken off-line.

Durban's Daily News reports a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe has left the South African harbour and is heading towards Mozambique. Zimbabwe, which does not have direct access to the sea, has previously imported weapons through Beira port in Mozambique.

In another development the pro-opposition Zimbabwe Independent suggests President Mugabe and his vanquished Zanu-PF "are plotting to storm back to power through overwhelming force", as election officials are expected to begin a partial recount of votes from the March 29 elections despite opposition protests. The recount in 23 of 210 constituencies could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party losing its majority to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. An MDC bid to stop the recount was rejected by the country's High Court.

Le Monde reports climate negotiators from the world's biggest polluters have failed to agree on specific goals for cutting emissions of gases that cause global warming. French president Nicolas Sarkozy, at the talks in Paris, said global warming threatens food supplies and risks sparking a dozen Darfur-like conflicts.

Ha'aretz reports former US President Jimmy Carter defied American and Israeli warnings and met the exiled leader of Hamas and the militant group's deputy chief, Khaled Mashaal. Hamas sources said Carter had asked Hamas to stop rocket attacks on Israel and to enter talks for the release of an Israeli soldier abducted two years ago. Washington labels Mashaal a global terrorist and Israel accuses him masterminding suicide bombings and kidnappings.

Houston Chronicle says a child welfare worker told a court that numerous women at a polygamous church ranch in West Texas may have had children when they were as young as 13. The testimony came during a hearing to determine the custody of the 416 children swept up in a raid on the San Angelo ranch two weeks ago. The state claims the children were physically and sexually abused. The judge ordered that DNA tests are carried out to determine the children's fathers.

President Putin laughed off questions at a press conference about an affair with a champion gymnast. The Moscow Times says 55-year-old Putin reacted icily when questioned about the rumours during a visit to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Sardinia. He told journalists that "there is not one word of truth". So alluring was the idea of romance between Mr Putin and Olymnpic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva that publications all over Europe rushed to reprint a report by Moscow Korrespondent that the former KGB officer had divorced his wife Lyudmila secretly and would marry his lover on June 15. As the newspaper apologised yesterday, a spokeswomen for Ms Kabaeva, who was elected to the Duma as a member of Putin's United Russia Party, labelled the report "madness".