Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has turned down calls for a summit meeting on immigration. It also reports the arraignment of a cleaner accused of the May 8 murder of a woman in Cospicua.

The Malta Independent reports how Ryanair has asked to set up a base for two planes in Malta and increase routes to the island.

Malta Today says a €200 million contract for an extension of the Delimara power station was awarded despite strange claims. The contract was awarded to a Scandinavian company which had only presented a prototype, the newspaper says.

In-Nazzjon leads with a press conference by the Prime Minister who said that the environment was linked to job creation. It also says that talks between the government and the Medical Association have continued.

l-orizzont says the MHRA has belied NSO figures on tourism. The sector, it says, is in a disastrous state.

The Press in Britain

All UK newspapers focus on the fall-out from the expenses crisis. The Guardian tells how the Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, resigned in the expenses row.

The Financial Times reports that the Speaker made history in just 30 seconds.

The Independent asks whether this was a new dawn for democracy.

The Daily Express says Mr Martin will get a £77,000-a-year pension for life and a peerage - despite being shamed as the worst Commons Speaker in 300 years.

The Daily Mail is outraged at the likely terms of Mr Martin's severance.

The Daily Telegraph says Mr Martin paid the price for mishandling the expenses crisis.

Metro carries the same story, saying "the Lords beckons for shamed Martin".

According to The Times, the Speaker's resignation and the shake-up of MPs' allowances made for a 'momentous day' in Parliament.

The Daily Mirror says the tough clampdown on MPs' expenses capped a day of drama at Westminster.

The Sun reports the ousted Speaker is the biggest casualty of the expenses scandal so far.

And elsewhere...

The Washington Times reports that President Barack Obama has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he must stop Jewish settlements and should grasp the "historic opportunity" to make peace with the Palestinians.

USA Today says President Obama has announced new standards for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions and tougher goals for fuel efficiency to help wean America from dependence on imported oil.

Le Monde reports that French farmers emptied milk churns onto streets of Brittany, the Loire Valley, and Alsace, and burned tires in a protest over low dairy prices.

Geneva Times quotes the WHO saying drug manufacturers would not be able to start making a swine flu vaccine until mid-July at the earliest and it would then take months to produce it.

Space Observer says shuttle astronauts have sent the restored Hubble telescope off on a new voyage of discovery, now considered better than new following five days of repairs and upgrades. The Atlantis shuttle mission was Nasa's last service call to the telescope, which will never be seen up close by humans again.

Asian Times quotes the mother of a pregnant British woman accused of drug smuggling in Laos that her daughter was not raped in prison. Jane Orobator visited her daughter Samantha in prison for the second time on Tuesday. Ms Orobator, of south London, has been held in jail in the country since last August.

Bakersfield Californian says a man accused of biting out the eye of his four-year-old son, and mutilating the other eye, while high on the potent hallucinogenic drug PCP, will appear in court on charges of torture and child cruelty. According to police, Angelo Vidal Mendoza appeared to be under the influence of the mind-altering drug when he attacked the boy. The father then left the house in a wheelchair and attempted to chop off his own feet with an axe.

Times of India reports a doctor committed suicide in court just minutes after it rejected her appeal for acquittal on charges of aborting a baby because it was female.

The Australian says dietary habits that lead to obesity in humans can also be seen in wild rainforest monkeys. Scientists in Australia have said the discovery suggested human eating patterns have much older evolutionary origins than had been assumed.