Malta and international press digest

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

The Times quotes remarks by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who said yesterday that the agreement reached with the GWU last week improves the prospects of privatisation of Malta Shipyards.

The Malta Independent focuses on EU funding being used to train workers at Mater Dei Hospital.

In-Nazzjon says the percentage of 16-year-olds who are opting to further their education had risen to 70 percent from 30 percent seven years ago.

l-orizzont leads with the fire which caused thousands of euros in damages to a farm in Salina on Saturday night. It also reports that according to a MaltaToday survey, more people have confidence in Joseph Muscat than Lawrence Gonzi.

The Press in Britain…

Most of the British nationals lead with the ground-breaking US government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Analysts tell the Financial Times the takeover is de facto nationalisation of the two companies.

The Independent says the move, marking the end of years of "laissez-faire economic policies", could prevent America from plunging into a new Great Depression and shore up the world market.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne tells The Guardian the Labour government's "economic mess" will restrict an incoming Conservative administration's actions.

The Daily Mail reports that an "unprecedented coalition", including a former Archbishop and MPs from both major parties, will today call for legislation to limit the number of non-EU economic migrants settling in the UK.

According to the Daily Express, the storm which brought a month's worth of rain to Britain across the weekend will ease off, but will be followed on Thursday by the remnants of Hurricane Hanna.

And elsewhere…

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel's police are recommending indictments against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the receipt of money from a US businessman and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. The decision about whether to indict the PM ultimately rests with the attorney general.

Canada’s National Post says Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a snap election for 14 October in a bid to strengthen his leadership after 30 months in power. This will be Canada's third election in four years.

South China Morning Post reports that only 45 per cent of Hong Kong's 3.4 million registered voters turned up to vote for half of the 30 seats in the Legislative Council election. The figure for 2004 was 56 per cent.

As President Sarkozy leads an EU delegation to Moscow for talks with President Medvedev over the crisis in the Caucasus, Euroasia Net quotes President Saakashvili of Georgia saying that he was confident of regaining the two breakaway provinces of South Ostezia and Abkhazia with the help of the "rest of the world".

El Pais says immigrants went on a rampage in a southern Spanish town overnight, setting fire to homes and cars and throwing stones at police, after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death.

Caribbean Daylight reports that hundreds of thousands of residents around the Caribbean are moving away from coastal areas as Hurricane Ike powers toward them.

Manila Times says two landslides triggered by heavy rains buried some 30 houses in a remote gold-mining village in the southern Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and 16 others missing.

Jornal de Angola says the country’s largest opposition party Unità will contest the results of the weekend's parliamentary election, the first in 16 years. With two-thirds of the votes counted, the ruling MPLA party of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos obtained 82 percent. The government has denied electoral wrongdoing.

Kurir quotes experts at Belgrade’s University Hospital that patients who slept for more than nine hours have more frequent migraine attacks.

The New York Post quotes an international report saying the number of girls in poor countries who marry before age 18 will double to 100 million in the next decade, putting many at risk from AIDS and childbirth complications. Each day, an estimated 3,500 girls marry before their 15th birthday and another 21,000 do so before they are 18.