Malta and international press digest

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

The Times leads with a call for action on legislation to regulate assisted procreation. The call was made at a meeting of the parliamentary Social Affairs Committee. It also carries a picture of a Cologne archives building which collapsed yesterday.

MaltaToday laments the decline of the Maltese potato as production falls.

The Malta Independent says a woman has sued after an MRSA infection at St Luke’s Hospital. It also quotes the MUT urging the government not to rush education reform.

In-Nazzjon’s focus is on a statement in Parliament by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on last Sunday’s EU summit. He insisted that job creation was the government’s top priority. The newspaper also reports how a boy was awarded €119,000 after suffering a disability in a Gozo traffic accident. It also carries a caption story about an explosion at a Bulebel pharma factory yesterday.

l-orizzont leads with proposals made yesterday by the GWU for economic stimulus.

The Press in Britain

The terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan dominates most of the British dailies. They report that Pakistani police are hunting for the unidentified gunmen who ambushed a convoy carrying Sri Lanka's national cricket team heading to a stadium in the eastern city of Lahore. The attack left eight people, including six Pakistani police, killed and eight Sri Lankan cricket team members injured. The Independent says Pakistan was in shock.

Metro says Pakistan has pledged to flush out the terrorists as the tragedy put it in a 'state of war'.

The Times declares security arrangements at all major sporting events have been cast into doubt after the attack by Islamist extremists.

The top slot in the Daily Mirror goes to former England star Chris Broad, who reportedly protected a wounded umpire by shielding him from the bullets.

The Daily Telegraph also reports that Broad turned out to be the hero of the terrorist attack but leads with a story saying that Gordon Brown was growing increasingly isolated from his Cabinet colleagues over his refusal to apologise for the recession.

The Daily Mail quotes a cardiology professor saying older people are being prescribed too many pills that could prove harmful.

The Daily Express reports President Obama has reaffirmed his belief in the "special relationship" between Britain and the USA following talks with Gordon Brown. They discussed a "global new deal" to rebuild the world economy and urged nations to cooperate in regulating financial markets.

The Guardian says Brown will use his speech to Congress to urge US politicians not to lapse into protectionism.

The Financial Times claims BP expects to freeze its dividend this year, as the company struggles to adjust to the plunge in the price of oil to about 45 dollars a barrel.

The Daily Star says Jade Goody's condition has taken a turn for the better.

Jade's condition also dominates the front page of The Sun, which speaks of her pain over husband Jack Tweed's impending imprisonment.

And elsewhere…

Pravda quotes President Medvedev saying he's willing to discuss the proposed US missile shield with Washington. But he added that any deal linking those talks with negotiations regarding Iran would not be productive

Haaretz reports US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to press hard for Palestinian statehood, putting Washington on a possible collision course with Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

Panapress says Guinea-Bissau's National Assembly speaker Raimundo Pereira has been sworn in as interim head of state, one day after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated at his home.

Die Welt reports that the German navy has foiled a pirate attack on a container ship off the Somali coast and arrested nine pirates. With the help of a US naval ship, the Germans reacted to a distress call from a German-owned ship that reported to be under fire from pirates armed with rocket-launchers and machine guns.

Kolner Stadt Anzeiger says three people remain missing after a six-storey building in Cologne, housing valuable city archives, collapsed. The collapse, thought to have been caused by the construction of a new subway line under the street on which the building stood, also dragged down parts of two neighboring buildings.

Der Kurier reports that Dieter Althaus, conservative premier of the eastern German state of Thuringia, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and fined him €33,000. On New Year’s day, while skiing in Austria, he crashed into a 41-year old woman who later died.

Los Angeles Times says holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson will be barred from all Roman Catholic facilities in Los Angeles. New York Daily News claims that a Manhattan and Los Angeles-based fertility clinic is to begin offering custom-designed babies to would-be parents.