Malta and international press digest

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

The Times says the European Commission will today discuss illegal immigration. It also reports that the MUT has directed teachers to work to rule.

The Malta Independent features a preview of the ‘clash of the titans' in the Champions League between Manchester United and Barcelona today. It also says people suffering easting disorders are ending up at Mt Carmel Hospital.

MaltaToday contrasts the party election billboards ahead of the June 6 election. It also says an Israeli company has vowed it would not surrender the fight for the power station extension contract.

l-orizzont also reports the launching of court action by an Israeli company whose bid for a contract for the power station extension was rejected.

In-Nazzjon says 20,000 new jobs were created in four years. It also says PL candidate Edward Scicluna wants payment for health services.

The Press in Britain

The Daily Express says investigators believe the key to solving Madeleine McCann's disappearance may lie within 500 yards of her family's holiday apartment in Portugal.

According to The Daily Telegraph, more than 40 ministers who claimed accountancy bills on their expenses should have paid tax on claims like ordinary taxpayers.

The Times says David Cameron and Gordon Brown are locked in a race to appear the more radical reformer in the wake of the MPs' expenses fiasco.

"Power to the People" says The Independent, quoting all three major party leaders who have urged for an overhaul of Britain's discredited political system.

The Daily Mail reports Buckingham Palace voiced anger last night after the French snubbed the Queen over next week's 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

The Guardian says a former civil servant is set to sue the Home Secretary over MI5's alleged complicity in torture meted out by Bangladeshi intelligence operatives.

The Daily Mirror leads with a shocking story of an 83-year-old woman believed to have kept her deceased mother in a freezer for two decades.

With the sudden departure of a senior executive, the Financial Times reports that Shell is planning a major restructure to combat problems caused by plunging oil prices.

Metro quotes the daughter of a suicidal patient saying the NHS 'wasted' a donor organ on him rather than save a more deserving patient.

The Daily Star says Katie Price has been caught up in a new sex tape controversy involving a former Big Brother housemate.

The Sun reports Katie Price's ex-lover Dane Bowers used her as an 'alibi' after being nabbed for suspected drink-driving near her home early yesterday.

And elsewhere...

Panapress reports that Libya has asked the EU for more help in fighting illegal immigration. The EU promised Libya, which has long land and sea borders, €20 million last February.

EU Observer says the European Commission has invited "each and every citizen" to submit their views on plans for a massive reform of Europe's ailing fisheries policy. EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg wants as much response as possible during an eight-month consultation on the fishing crisis. Asian Observer says ministers from 45 European and Asian nations wrapped up a meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday and, in a surprise move, they agreed on strong statements condemning North Korea's nuclear test and Burma's treatment of dissidents.

Yonhap news agency reported this morning that North Korea has launched its sixth missile since testing a nuclear weapon. On Monday, the Communist state shot up three short-range ground-to-air missiles, the same day it conducted an underground nuclear test that shocked the world. It launched two more off its east coast yesterday.

Irrawady says Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told a court she did not think she was violating the terms of her house arrest when she gave "temporary shelter" to John W Yettaw, a surprise American visitor who swam uninvited to her lakeside house earlier this month.

The Washington Times says President Barack Obama has nominated US Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. The 54-year-old is the first Hispanic in history to be picked to wear the robes of a justice.

USA Today reports that the Supreme Court of California has upheld, by six votes in favour and one against, a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. However, it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the law took effect will stay married.

Toronto Star says Canada's governor general ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart in a show of support to the country's seal hunters - a display that the EU has called "too bizarre to acknowledge". Earlier this month, the EU voted to impose a ban on seal products on grounds of cruelty,

Phoenix Post reports that Exodus Tyson, the four-year-old daughter of former boxer Mike Tyson, is in an "extremely critical condition" and on a life support machine after accidentally strangling herself on a cord dangling from a treadmill. Mike Tyson is at her bedside keeping vigil.