Malta and international press digest

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

The Times leads with the preliminary report on the sinking of the fishing boat Simshar and quotes survivor Simon Bugeja saying an Italian fishing boat ignored calls for assistance by the fishermen on the raft.

The Malta Independent says the outcome of the report is that the sole Simshar survivor is credible...but there were four inconsistencies. It also says that Britons are disappointed that their high tech passports will be printed in Malta.

MaltaToday asks who owns Enemalta, noting that the corporation lost €133 million in two years.

In-Nazzjon says the new councilors, sworn in yesterday, heard appeals for seriousness and accountability. It also says Simon Bugeja's version on the sinking of the Simshar appeared to be the most credible.

l-orizzont leads with a GWU statement criticizing a call for tender by the Malta Council for the Arts, limiting payment for security guards for the Jazz Festival, saying this invited exploitation. It also reports how fuel prices will rise today.

The Press in Britain

The Independent leads with the Home Secretary's plans to kill-off the controversial compulsory identity card scheme.

But The Guardian says that British citizens who apply for passports will be automatically registered on the ID card database.

The Sun reports Michael Jackson's body will go on display in Neverland so that his fans can say their last goodbyes.

The Daily Star reveals Michael Jackson has left his father out of his will.

The Daily Mirror says Jackson laughed with joy on stage as he rehearsed for his tour, hours before he died.

According to The Daily Telegraph, there are new plans that could see an end to the elderly being forced to sell their homes in order to pay for care.

The Daily Mail reports that statins can cut the risk of heart attacks by 30 percent, even in healthy people.

And elsewhere...

Berliner Zeitung reports that a ruling by Germany's highest court, that the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty is compatible with German basic law, has been received in Germany and Europe as an encouraging step forward.

Meanwhile, EU Observer says Sweden will take over the EU's rotating presidency today, after what have been described as "six difficult months" of Czech leadership.

Il Piccoo says the Italian government will today report to Parliament about Monday night's gas train explosion in Viareggio as the death toll has risen to 16 and may rise further as 14 of the 36 injured are in serious condition. The causes of the accident, described like "something out of Dante's Inferno", are not yet known.

The Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini has told a forum organised by Spanish daily El Mundo that repatriating illegal immigrants without distinguishing them from asylum seekers was ''immoral''. Observers noted that Fini's comments appeared to put the speaker, who belongs to Berlusconi's party, at odds with the government's controversial policy of immediately returning immigrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Libya.

Environmental Daily quotes Greenpeace saying the Mediterranean was turning into a 'sea of hell'. The environmental organisation said climate change has filled the sea with alien species such as poisonous puffer fish while algae was coating the seabed with slime. But some experts said the picture painted by Greenpeace was alarmist.

USA Today reports that gunmen opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school, wounding at least seven. Two were taken to hospital in a critical condition. A police spokesman said two gunmen, possibly three, emerged from the green minivan and "asked for a person by name" before they opened fire.

Details have emerged of the rescue of a 14-year-old girl spotted swimming among bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight in the Indian Ocean. Yemen Times quotes one of the girl's rescuers saying he had to jump into the water to get her as she could not grab a life buoy. She was shaking so much they put four covers on her and gave her hot, sugary water. There were no reports of other survivors.

Ekstra Bladet says scientists have established the first case of the new H1N1 influenza strain showing resistance to Tamiflu. Denmark's State Serum Institute said this did no constitute a risk to public health and did not cause changes to the recommendations for the use of the main antiviral flu drug.

The Jerusalem Post says the Israeli navy boarded and seized a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists that was heading to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel's blockade.

Le Parisien says French police have detained Dutch supermodel Karen Mulder as they investigated a complaint she had harassed a cosmetic surgeon friend after he refused to carry out an operation. The blonde has modelled clothes for Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Valentino, and Versace.