Malta and international press digest

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

All newspapers prominently feature the press conference given yesterday by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, where he spoke on the Maltese response to the current crisis in the banking sector abroad.

The Times says the minister stressed that the Maltese banking system has not been affected by the crisis.

In-Nazzjon says the government has guaranteed deposits up to €100,000, giving peace of mind to depositors.

The Malta Independent reports that a negative impact on the Maltese banking system is remote.

l-orizzont quotes Mr Fenech saying local banks are not facing problems.

In other stories, The Times reports that ST Microelectronics faces a hefty increase in its electricity bills once the surcharge capping is removed.

In-Nazzjon reports that the European Parliament’s Budget Committee has allocated €5 million for burden-sharing as part of the migration policy.

The Malta Independent says a man was jailed for raping a 10-year-old girl.

l-orizzont wonders how effective voluntary burden-sharing will be, given that in three years EU countries have only taken 48 migrants from Malta.

The Press in Britain…

The Daily Express calls the £500bn bank rescue package the "biggest economic gamble in our history".

The Daily Mail claims the so-called "Grand Bank Nationalisation" could cost every taxpayer £16,000.

Metro says as a result it means every taxpayer will become a £16,500 banking shareholder.

The Daily Mirror says the biggest economic rescue plan in British history was sealed over a late night takeaway curry.

The Daily Telegraph says the unprecedented bank bailout appears to have prevented a full-scale financial meltdown.

Frantic traders are pictured on the front of The Independent above the headline "The Global Gamble".

The Guardian claims Gordon Brown has risked £500bn of public money in the bank rescue package.

The Daily Star says the full extent of football's £3bn debt mountain has been revealed as a result of the world's economic meltdown.

And elsewhere…

Business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes that central bankers around the world have taken drastic action to bring stability to jittery stock markets.

Washington Times says the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy has entered the most dangerous shock in financial markets since the 1930s.

Le Figaro reports the European Union and Russia formally got their relations back on track yesterday when President Sarkozy of France and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, met for talks on a common future.

Kyiv Post leads with Ukrainian President Yushchenko’s dissolution of Parliament and calling for new elections.

The Daily Georgian Times says that Russian forces have completed a withdrawal from buffer zones around Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Chumhuriyet reportsTurkey's parliament has extended by one year the military mandate to carry out operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

The New York Times says the UN General Assembly has voted to ask the International Court of Justice to rule on whether Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia is in accordance with international law.

Himalayan Times says 18 people were killed when aYeti Airlines twin-propellor aircraft crashed while landing at Lukla airport, about 150 kilometres north-east of the capital Kathmandu.

El Universal reports the burial of one of Mexico's "half-tonne men" was delayed for four hours while carpenters built a coffin large enough to hold his giant body.