Malta and international press digest

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

The Times, like the other newspapers, carries a picture of a victorious Barcelona team after the Champions League final last night.

In other stories, The Times says the European Commission has discussed a package of assistance on illegal migration.

The Malta Independent says 2kg of cocaine were found on a passenger from Panama who flew in on a flight from Brussels. It also features works on Boiler Wharf, Senglea, which is being turned into a quay for cruise liners.

l-orizzont says 11 percent of the people are below the poverty line.

In-Nazzjon new features the work on Boiler Wharf and carries comments by the Prime Minister on more opportunities for Gozitan youths.

The Press in Britain

The Daily Express says holidaymakers will be enjoying a spending boost this summer thanks to a huge surge in the pound's value against the euro and dollar.

The Daily Telegraph continues its exposé on MPs' expenses and reveals that Tory MP Julie Kirkbride used taxpayers' money to fund a £50,000 extension to her constituency flat so that her brother could live in the property.

The Guardian quotes Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg saying Britain's politicians should be barred from taking their summer holidays until the crisis sparked by the expenses row is resolved.

The Times says the BNP is facing an inquiry after leader Nick Griffin paid a £5,000 political donation into his personal bank account without declaring it.

According to the Financial Times, General Motors moved closer to US bankruptcy as the political dispute over the fate of its international operations intensified in Europe.

The Independent reports on a scientific breakthrough that has allowed researchers to create genetically modified monkeys that suffer from human illnesses.

The Daily Mail says the French have done a U-turn by suddenly inviting the Queen to next week's D-Day events.

According to The Sun, Britain's Got Talent favourite Susan Boyle became embroiled in a foul-mouthed row with police outside her London hotel.

The Daily Mirror splashes with a picture that sums up the outcome of the Champions League final: Cristiano Ronaldo looking glum after seeing his team lose 2-0 to Barcelona. Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side lost to the better side

And elsewhere...

Börzen Zeitung announces that the European Commission has unveiled plans for a radical overhaul of the bloc's financial monitoring system to better protect investors hit by the economic crisis and to improve cross-border institutional supervision.

The International Herald Tribune quotes Amnesty International saying the world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb fuelled by an unfolding human rights crisis which underlies the world's economic problems.

Il Mattino reports Italian police have arrested at least 41 alleged members of a crime ring in Naples. They were charged with drug trafficking, extortion and illegal weapons possession.

Dawn says that 30 people have been killed and at least 250 wounded after a suicide car bomber targeted buildings housing police and intelligence agency offices in eastern Pakistan. The attack was followed by gunfire. Al Qaeda is suspected to be behind the attack.

Asia Times reports growing tension has led to threats of military strikes by North Korea with Pyongyang denouncing plans by South Korea to search suspect ships as tantamount to a "declaration of war". As US and South Korean warships circled the waters near the disputed maritime border, the UN Security Council continued its attempts to hammer out a new resolution against Kim Jong-il's regime, thought to have restarted its nuclear programme.

Pravda leads with the blast-off of a Russian space capsule on an historic mission to double the crew of the international space station. On board the Soyuz craft are three astronauts - a Canadian, a Russian and a Belgian. In future, the space station could take as many as 13 people, as the crew hosts short-term visitors.

Phoenix News reports Exodus Tyson, the four-year-old daughter of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, has died a day after her head apparently slipped inside a cord hanging under the console of a treadmill.

Bangkok Post says a rare healthy panda cub has been born in a Thai zoo, the country's first after years of failed attempts. The staff artificially inseminated Lin Hui. a giant seven-year-old on February 18 but were unaware that was pregnant.

According to new research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, experts at the University of Alberta in Canada claim playing music to babies in hospital can ease their pain and help with feeding. However, the authors called for more rigorous studies before recommendations are made on the use of music to help babies develop.