Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says Malta is insisting that Italy take back the migrants rescued near Lampedusa and brought to Malta on Thursday.

The Malta Independent quotes the prime minister saying that job creation is the focal point of the Nationalist candidates for the European Parliament elections. Joseph Muscat is quoted in another story as accusing the government of being spineless. The newspaper also reports the diplomatic protest made over the migrants.

In-Nazzjon says jobs are the government's priority and the priority of PN EP candidates. It also says Malta has delivered a note verbal to Italy to protest over Thursday's migrants incident.

l-orizzont carries and front and backpage picture of Labour supporters at yesterday May 1 event in Valletta.

The Press in Britain

The Daily Mail is one of the several British dailies that feature a computer-generated picture of how missing girl Madeleine McCann would look, two years after she vanished on holiday in Portugal.

The Daily Mirror adds that Madeleine's mum Kate, 41, is hoping it will help rekindle the search - even though she admits she barely recognised it as her daughter.

The Sun says singer of band N-Dubz was in a hospital isolation unit with suspected swine flu.

A groundswell of opinion is growing that the swine flu "pandemic" has been hyped by newspapers and broadcasters eager for a scare story that boosts revenues - but The Independent says there is genuine cause for alarm.

The Daily Star leads on the horrific case of the stepfather of abuse death child Baby P being convicted of raping a two-year-old girl in London.

The FT Weekend reports The prospect of a contested takeover battle for Arsenal Football Club edged closer as US sports entrepreneur Stan Kroenke leapfrogged Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov to become the club's largest shareholder,.

The Daily Express warns how motorists face chaos this weekend thanks to dozens of roadworks clogging up routes across Britain over the busy bank holiday.

The Scotsman leads with the appointment of Carol Ann Duffy as the new Poet Laureate, the first woman and the first Scot to be appointed in the 341-year history of the post. The author is best known for her collection "The World's Wife".

And elsewhere...

As more countries confirm cases of swine flu, Tribune de Geneve quotes the World Health Organization saying existing vaccines are of no use, but that a new prophylactic drug could be made in a short period of time. WHO said samples of a new flu shot medicine would be ready to send to manufacturers by the end of this month.

The 13 countries to have reported cases so far are Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Britain, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Mexico, the United States, Canada and China. Mexico has reported 176 flu-related deaths, but only 11 or 12 so far have reportedly been confirmed as the H1N1 variety. Epidemiologists have been struggling to explain why so many deaths have occurred in Mexico and essentially nowhere else, and have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer.

In Germany, Die Welt reports a nurse in Bavaria became infected, despite quarantine precautions, after treating a patient with the virus. She is reported to have already recovered.

Le Parisien says French health minister Roselyne Bachelot reported France's first two cases of swine flu, while another is still to be confirmed.

According to The People's Daily, China also confirmed its first case in Hong Kong after a Mexican man, who arrived via Shanghai, tested positive. About 300 people at the hoel were placed under quarantine.

Chumhuriyet reports Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a major cabinet shake-up, after his Islamist-rooted party lost support at March polls. Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, becomes foreign minister, replacing Ali Babacan, who now becomes deputy prime minister responsible for the economy. The move was taken as a sign that Erdogan wants to tackle the economic crisis aggressively.

De Telegraaf says the man who tried to ram his car into the bus of the Dutch royals during a parade on Thursday has died in hospital after killing six bystanders and leaving eight seriously injured. The 38-year-old Dutchman, who missed the royal bus by four or five metres, had recently been fired and was about to lose his home.

The Washington Times quotes President Barack Obama pledging to name a Supreme Court justice who combines "empathy and understanding" with an impeccable legal background in time for the Supreme Court's session that begins the first Monday in October. The judge will succeed liberal David Souter, whose abrupt retirement announcement set off speculation the next justice could be a woman, a Hispanic or both.

Trouw says several masked robbers walked into the Scheringa Museum for Realist Art in Spanbroek, a village north of Amsterdam. They threatened the staff with a gun and then took Dali's 1941 "Adolescence" and a 1929 oil painting by the Polish art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka off the wall.

Times of India says election history was made in India when officials set up a polling station to collect just one vote in a village in Gujarat's Gir forest. The third of five phases of parliamentary elections took place yesterday with a total of 1,567 candidates fighting for 107 parliamentary seats during voting. Polling for phases four and five will be held on May 7 and 13 respectively while votes will be counted on May 16.