Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to put off balanced budget targets. It also reports on the conclusion of the US election campaigns.

The Malta Independent says Obama and McCain are on the verge of making history. It also reports that Malta will host a liaison office for the EU and the Arab League but it has lost its bid to be the seat of the Union of the Mediterranean.

Malta Today Midweek says that lights out, the increase in the power tariffs, was Tonio Fenech’s idea to save Gonzi’s finances.

In-Nazzjon says the budget offers clear solutions realises 26 electoral promises.

l-orizzont says the people are demanding explanations on petrol prices.

The Press in Britain…

The powerful figure of Barack Obama dominates the front page of Metro, which reports that the Illinois Senator is on the brink of becoming the world's most powerful man.

For the Daily Mirror, the outcome of the US presidential election is clear even before results have been announced: It's a victory for Obama.

The Sun has a picture of US African-American voters waiting to cast their ballots, hours before Obama looked set to enter the White House for the first time.

The Daily Mail splashes a picture of Obama at his final rally, stating that the 47-year-old had victory in sight.

The Times has a picture of one of the long queues endured by voters, saying that "some were filled with hope, others with fear, still more with a sense of America at a crossroads”.

The Guardian reports that Americans voted in "epic numbers", having been given the opportunity to turn a new page after eight years of George Bush.

The Daily Star comments that the first challenge for the new President of the United States will be to fix the global economy - and in doing so, save up to a million UK jobs.

The Daily Express describes the US election as a culmination of the candidates' battle of experience against change.

And elsewhere…

Barack Obama has been elected as the first black president of the United States in an era-changing win. News portals around the world say his historic White House victory came as he swept a series of key battleground states, winning Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Mr Obama led his Republican rival John McCain by 297 votes to 139 as he passed the magic number of 270 needed to win the presidency.

Addressing a crowd in Chicago, the US President-elect said his victory in the US presidential election marked a "defining moment" for the US and that it showed "change has come to America". He paid tribute to election rival John McCain and thanked his "best friend and love of my life", wife Michelle Obama.

L’Observateur says UN peacekeepers evacuated a group of aid workers from the town of Rutshuru as Tutsi rebels clashed with pro-government militias in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Meanwhile, The New York Times quotes UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announcing he will travel to Africa this weekend for mediation talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.

Les Echo reports that EU Finance Ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed an 11-point plan for overhauling financial regulation as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other important international institutions.

La Provance says Barcelona is to become the headquarters of the fledgling Mediterranean Union. Foreign ministers from the bloc's 43 member states decided on the port city during a meeting in Marseilles. Malta and the Tunisian capital, Tunis, had also been in the running to host the group's secretariat.

Felesteen reports that least six Hamas militants have been killed after Israel's first incursion into the Gaza Strip since June's truce. Israel said its troops had uncovered a tunnel along central Gaza's frontier which had been dug by militants intending to abduct Israeli soldiers.

L’Osservatore Romano leads with the talks in Rome between senior Roman Catholic and Muslim clerics in a bid to defuse tensions and foster harmony between the two religions. The historic meeting is part of an initiative by moderate Muslim groups and comes two years after Pope Benedict XVI sparked outrage among Muslims for a speech seen as linking Islam with violence.

Neue Press leads with the horriific traffic death of some 20 mostly elderly people in a fire on a bus on a motorway in northern Germany. Ten passengers managed to escape. And The Times of India reports the death of 45 passengers after their bus plunged 200 meters into a gorge in northern India. Police said roads in the area are narrow and winding and the driver, which is among the dead, may have lost control.

Resonansi says Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has dismissed his army chief, Zaza Gogava, following a review of the conflict with Russia in August.

El Pais reports that a son of Osama bin Laden, who grabbed headlines by marrying a British woman last year, has flown to Madrid and requested asylum. Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, is a metals trader who had been living in Cairo, Egypt, with wife Jane Felix-Browne.

Teheran Times leads with the Iranian Parliaments impeachment of the country's interior minister after he admitted he had a fake honorary degree from Oxford University.

Environment Today quotes NASA claiming this year's ozone hole over Antarctica was the fifth biggest on record, reaching a maximum 10.5 million square miles in September. Nasa atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said the figure was considered "moderately large".