Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says the death toll of the Italian earthquake has passed 150, with a Maltese nun being among those who lost their home.

The Malta Independent says the Italian earthquake caused devastation in and around L’Aquila but no Maltese are reported missing. It also reports that President George Abela yesterday received the Cabinet and the bishops in separate visits.

l-orizzont also leads with the earthquake. In other stories, is reports comments by GWU General Secretary Tony Zarb saying the union expected recognition as representative of port workers. The newspaper also reports that there could be a drugs link to last week's murder of a man in St Paul's Bay.

In-Nazzjon, after its report on the earthquake, says the new President appealed for unity and the upholding of Maltese values.

The Press in Britain

Most newspapers feature news of the earthquake that hit the northeast of Italy in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The Guardian says at least 130 lives have been lost and thousands are homeless.

The Daily Telegraph dedicates its front page to the rescuers’ attempt to find trapped people as they continue to sift through the rubble.

The Daily Express claims that British MPs have capped price rises in the restaurants and cafeterias of Westminster at a cost of £5m a year to the taxpayer.

The Financial Times says the Conservative Party's pledge to crack down on public sector pay and pensions is a 'risky plan' to make state expenditure a 'battle line' in the next election,

The Daily Mirror claims two boys of 11 and nine, who were burned, battered and slashed by two young thugs, played dead in the hope of scaring their attackers away.

The Daily Star reports Jade Goody's family have hired minders to guard her grave.

And elsewhere…

Corriere della Sera says Monday's earthquake, Italy's biggest quake in almost 30 years, has left over 150 dead, 250 missing, 1,500 injured and some 70,000 homeless. More than 100 people were pulled out of the rubble alive

Tageblatt reports that Europe’s landmark environment targets, agreed by EU leaders at a summit last December, have been endorsed at talks in Luxembourg. The deal commits EU member states to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, as well as getting at least 20 per cent of energy requirements from renewable sources, and achieving an overall 20 per cent cut in energy use, also by 2020.

Chumhuriyet quotes President Barack Obama declaring that the United States was not at war with Islam. Joining President Abdullah Gul at a news conference after talks in Ankara, Obama said he was looking to ally Turkey to help bridge the divide between Muslim nations and the West, adding that Turkey and the US could build a "model partnership" between a predominantly Christian nation and a predominantly Muslim nation.

Aftenbladett says Anders Fogh Rasmussen has promised to respect all religions in his new role at the head of NATO. At the Alliance of Civilzations summit in Istanbul, a meeting that promotes dialogue between leaders of the West and the Islamic world, Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for a balance between religious respect and freedom of speech.

The New York Times quotes US Ambassador Susan Rice saying the US was asking the United Nations for "a clear and strong response" to North Korea's missile launch.

Al Sumaria says a series of six bombings have rocked Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 34 people and injuring more than 110 others.

Times of India reports that Indian separatists have been blamed for two bombs which ripped through crowded markets in the troubled north-east state of Assam, killing at least seven people and wounding 60 others.

Jamhuuriya says a British-owned vessel has been seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The 32,000-tonne bulk carrier, which was bound for China with a cargo of iron, had 24 people aboard from Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and the Philippines.

Globe & Mail reports that corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, favourite to become South Africa's next president, have been dropped. The country's prosecution service said that the process had been manipulated for political reasons. Mr Zuma always maintained his innocence.

Le Parisien quotes Paris' Public Hospital authority officials saying dozens of doctors working in teams over 30 hours performed the world's first simultaneous partial-face and double hand transplant on a 30-year-old burns victim of a 2004 accident. The operation was the world's sixth partial-face transplant but the first to include hands as well.

Le Figaro announces that French authorities on the Cote d’Azur chained up disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s €5.2 million yacht “Bull”. The action came after the courts granted a request by French investment firm Meeschaert, one of the many former investors in one of Madoff’s funds that is now suing to get some of its clients’ money back.