Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says the government is investigating whether a lack of real competition has caused local food prices to rise steeply. It also reports that there is no centralized data on hospital waiting lists.

The Malta Independent reports Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and former President Guido de Marco saying there can be no peace in the Mediterranean until there is peace in the Middle East peace. They were speaking at a UN conference on Palestinian rights being held in Malta. In another story, the newspaper reports a statement by the UN secretary general at the World Food Conference saying that food production in the world has to rise by 50% by 2040.

In-Nazzjon reports "new censorship" by the MLP as the leadership election candidates will not be allowed to address the general conference before voting for the leadership begins tomorrow. It also reports that Amadeo Minghi is to give a concert at the Astra Theatre in Gozo on November 1.

l-orizzont says Alfred Sant will resign as leader of the opposition tomorrow, when the MLP votes to elect a new leader.

MaltaToday focuses on the MLP leadership contest saying it is really between Joseph Muscat and George Abela.It says Dr Abela has been gaining in a tracking poll.

The Press in Britain...

The Independent leads with the epic five-month battle that has rewritten US politics - as Barack Obama looks poised to secure the 2008 Democratic nomination, with a very real chance of becoming the first African-American president in the country's history.

The front page of The Times also focuses on Senator Obama as he stands at the gateway of history as a black man preparing to lead his party into battle in November's presidential election against Republican John McCain.

The Guardian also leads with US politics as Hillary Clinton's campaign team appeared to signal that the New York senator was bowing to the inevitable.

The Financial leads with the state of the dollar, after Ben Bernanke surprised markets by making clear the Federal Reserve does not want the US currency to weaken further over risks to inflation.

Metro says the credit crunch is making it harder for young people to get a foot on the housing ladder.

The Daily Mail gives what it calls "the real reason gas bills are so high". It claims European power giants are buying the gas Britain can't store and selling it back at exorbitant prices.

The Daily Telegraph reports that private companies are to be drafted in to run failing NHS hospitals for the first time.

The Daily Express leads with the state of Britain's roads, saying highways are in their worst state ever.

The Daily Star reports that Britney Spears is reeling from a sex tape scandal involving her ex-boyfriend.

The Daily Mirror reports that former footballer Paul Gascoigne has been sectioned for three months after friends begged doctors to lock him up for his own good.

The London Evening Standard reports more than 40 people have been caught trying to break into prisons in the past five years. Reasons for breaking in are the sale of drugs or contraband to inmates.

And elswhere...

The International Herald Tribune quotes UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying the world needs to produce 50 percent more food by 2030 to meet increasing demand. Addressing the UN summit on the global food crisis in Rome, he also called for a need to reduce trade barriers and do away with food export bans. The summit was told farm subsidies and excess consumption by the world's rich nations were among the leading contributors to the crisis

Meanwhile, L'Osservatore Romano publishes a message by Pope Benedict which was read to the FAO delegates, saying that hunger and malnutrition were unacceptable because the world has sufficient production levels, resources, and the know-how to put an end to these tragedies and their consequences. More than 800 million people were suffering from hunger and malnourishment.

Le Parisien leads with the protest by lorry drivers and taxis in Paris around the headquarters of oil giant Total in La Defense, site of the main financial district, to protest a new tax on heavily polluting vehicles.

Le Monde reports that elsewhere in France, farmers blocked ports and oil terminals as part of protests started by fishermen last month demanding government aid to help compensate for high fuel costs.

EU Observer notes that millions of travellers to the US will have to register with the American Government's electronic travel system three days before they arrive, under new counter-terrorism measures. The latest visa-waiver rules, which come into force on January 12, will affect 27 countries, including most of Western Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Critics of the measure say it could discourage tourists or cause difficulties for last-minute business travellers

South China Morning Post says Chinese police dragged away more than 100 parents who were kneeling outside the court house in Dujiangyan, protesting the deaths of their children in poorly constructed schools that collapsed in last month's earthquake.

Al-Ayyam prints pictures of Iraqi squatters protesting in central Baghdad, calling for the Iraqi and U.S. governments to address their housing problem,

Sydney Morning Herald leads with the arrest in New South Wales of a senior police officer in connection to an international plot to import hundreds of dollars of drug-making chemicals involving suspects in the Netherlands, Pakistan and Thailand. Mark Standen, an assistant director of the New South Wales state Crime Commission faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Vienna's Die Presse reports Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik has travelled to North Africa to work for the release of two tourists held hostage by an al-Qaeda affiliate.

Santa Barbara Independent announces the death of actor-director-producer Mel Ferrer, who starred in scores of movies and directed his late wife, Audrey Hepburn in numerous others. He was 90.

The New Zealand Herald quotes police saying an elderly couple, aged 100 and 99, who drove the wrong way along a highway for more than a mile in New Zealand before crashing will probably be asked to surrender their driver's licenses. The duo amazingly managed to dodge oncoming vehicles during their wrong-way jaunt on the country's busiest highway near Wellington before their vehicle eventually collided with on oncoming car. They suffered minor injuries. The police are still trying to determine who was driving the car at the time of the incident and how they ended up going the wrong way.