Malta and international press digest

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

The Times highlights a Church document against divorce and the point it makes that the Civil Court should have a person to defend marriage. It also reports the fatal electrocution of an engineer.

The Malta Independent also reports the electrocution and the Church document warning that divorce will make things worse, not better for society. It also quotes the GRTU as saying that inflation is a result of incompetence and inefficiency.

In-Nazzjon says the electrocution of a worker yesterday meant there had been five tragedies in less than a week. It also reports that Iceland is to apply to join the EU.

l-orizzont says unemployment rose to over 11,200 in the first quarter of this year. It again draws the attention of the Water Services Corporation to water leakage in Zebbug.

The Press in Britain

The Times reports on claims that Britain has been dumping toxic waste in Brazil and Ghana.
The Independent says the swine flu vaccine will be rushed out before its safety and effectiveness are fully known.

The Daily Express says swine flu is threatening holidays and millions of Britons face being put 'into quarantine'.

The Daily Mail claims wounded soldiers seeking compensation are being secretly filmed to check whether they are lying about their condition.

Under the headline "A Lover, A Brother, A Hero", The Sun pictures the fiancée and sister of Joshua Hammond, the 18-year-old soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Former cabinet minister James Purnell, who quit the government in June, tells The Guardian he had lost faith in Gordon Brown months ago.

The Daily Telegraph alleges BBC bosses claimed more than £1,000 each for advice on how to minimise their tax bill.

According to the Daily Mirror, Michael Jackson's sister Janet says she is willing to raise his three children.

The Daily Star claims Michael Jackson's personal doctor has ''disappeared''.

And elsewhere...

Aftonbladet reports that EU justice and home affairs ministers meeting in Stockholm heard details of the so-called "Stockholm programme" which envisages a streamlined asylum policy across the bloc. Of particular concern is that, because of inequalities in the different countries' systems, asylum seekers consider their chosen destination more important than their grounds for application.

Tribune de Genève quotes World Health Organisation officials saying the swine flu has swept the globe at "unprecedented speed", and a study warns that the pandemic could tip the world into deflation and delay the economic recovery.

The International Herald Tribune reports that the European Union and United States have led the international condemnation of the bomb attacks which ripped through two luxury hotels in the heart of Indonesia's capital, killing at least nine and wounding another 50.

Jakarta Post quotes the chairman of the Indonesian parliamentary security commission saying suicide attackers are suspected of carrying out twin bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton. The last major terrorist attack in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, took place four years ago.

Al Jazeera reports that former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani has called for the release of people jailed during protests over the result of the recent presidential election, saying that large numbers of Iranians still doubted the result. Outside, police and pro-government militiamen fired tear gas and charged thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested.

According to Corriere della Sera, Pope Benedict has spent a peaceful night following an operation to fix the right wrist broken in a fall at his Alpine holiday home. The 82-year-old Pontiff fell in his room overnight and despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to hospital. Surgeons operated on the wrist to reduce the fracture, a procedure to realign the broken bone fragments.

The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour has boarded the International Space Station. After parking Endeavour and checking for leaks, the seven shuttle astronauts clambered through hatches and were embraced by station commander Gennady Padalka and his five crewmates, taking the number aboard the ISS to 13.

Agence France-Press reports from Mbabane that a mob of schoolchildren stoned a Swazi man to death after he killed a 13-year-old girl with a spear and wounded 12 others at their school. The 25-year-old man, allegedly a drug addict, stormed into one of the classes carrying a spear and ordered the pupils to leave their room. After the children saw one of their classmates was dead, they stoned the man to death.

Diario Judicial says Argentinean football legend Diego Maradona is to appear in court in Buenos Aires following a car accident in which he allegedly crashed into a telephone box in which the two people were standing. The incident took place in 2006. He could face up to three years in prison.

Bild reports that German police had to rescue a 20-year-old man from a train station suitcase locker after he shut himself in for fun and began to suffocate. The incident happened after the man had a night out drinking with friends.