Malta and international press digest

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

The Times quotes experts who said that Malta will weather the international financial storm.

The Malta Independent leads with the one-day strike by university lecturers today. It also reports that the government is to put its energy tariff proposals to the MCESD today. The new energy pricing system is to be formally announced in the forthcoming budget.

In-Nazzjon says Glenn Bedingfield has visited the European Parliament twice as he prepares to take over from Joseph Muscat in Brussels.

l-orizzont reports how a drug abuser told a court that he sold two buses to fund his habit. It also looks ahead to the co-option to Parliament of Labour leader Joseph Muscat later today. He will also be sworn in as Opposition leader.

Malta Today Midweek focuses on the hacking of the government e-mail system, describing it as ‘E-mailgate’. It also says that an audit on travel spending by the Foreign Ministry found irregularities but makes no mention of then Foreign Minister John Dalli.

The Press in Britain…

The Financial Times says Gordon Brown is facing growing pressure to extend the guarantees on savers' bank deposits after Ireland promised to underwrite the debts and savings accounts of its six largest lenders.

The Mail says the Prime Minister is drawing up a drastic emergency plan to rescue the City as he vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to restore financial stability.

The Mirror reports Gordon Brown tried to calm jittery Britain as he pledged to guarantee up to £50,000 in savers' accounts by raising the current £35,000 threshold to £50,000 – amid fears more banks could collapse around the world.

Metro says families have raided their savings for the first time in half a century to meet spiralling living costs. The Scotsman says shares in Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) have plummeted fuelling speculation that its takeover by Lloyds TSB would be killed off.

The Express reports traders have been accused of betting millions of pounds in a gamble which puts the rescue of Britain's biggest mortgage lender at risk. The £12.2bn takeover of HBOS was thrown into fresh doubt after its shares took a hammering in a day of high drama in the City.

And elsewhere...

Wall Street Journal reports that US Senate leaders are set to vote in a surprise move to resurrect the $700bn Wall Street rescue plan. But they risk a backlash as their proposal includes a set of business tax breaks already rejected by the lower House of Representatives.

Börzen-Zeitung reports that the European Commission has told the United States to live up to its special responsibility to solve the global financial crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the United States to pass a financial system rescue package by the end of this week.

Georgian Times quotes EU foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana saying he is confident that Russia will respect a peace plan which calls for its forces to pull back from deep inside Georgia.

Belorusskaïa Gazeta says President Lukashenko has urged the West to lift sanctions against his ex-Soviet state, despite charges by OSCE monitors that a weekend election had fallen short of accepted standards.

De Telegraf quotes the Dutch food safety watchdog saying it has found slightly elevated levels of melamine in cookies imported from China.

La Tribune leads with the agreement signed between France and India on bilateral cooperation in the development of nuclear energy. The agreement covers increased cooperation in energy and research and could eventually land French firms contracts worth some €20bn euros, for the construction of nuclear power stations in India.

Il Mattino reports that Italian police have issued more than 100 arrest warrants as part of a crackdown on the Camorra mafia in Naples.

Panapress reports that three pirates have been killed in a gunfight among themselves on a Ukrainian ship they hijacked off Somalia's coast.