Press digest

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

The Times says that the Budget may be postponed from November 9 to allow more time for talks on the cost of living adjustment. It also quotes PL leader Alfred Sant saying Dom Mintoff was ‘manipulated' by the PN in the run-up to the collapse of the Labour government in 1998.

The Malta Independent leads with the state visit by the Bulgarian President. It also carries comments by the Chamber of Commerce calling for proper talks on the cost of living adjustment.

MaltaToday says Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi is being pushed to contest the district on which Franco Debono is elected for the PN, in an effort to oust the latter.

In-Nazzjon refers to a TV interview yesterday and says former PL leader Alfred Sant used Mathew Psaila's death and also criticised Dom Mintoff. It also reports that Malta is preparing legislation to offer banking services compliant with Sharia law.

l-orizzont refers to a GWU statement criticising the Chamber of Commerce for premature comments on an MCESD discussion document on the Budget. It also says that a PN plan to neutralise dissenters within its parliamentary group include replacing Franco Debono with Schiavone.

The Press in Britain...

The Daily Telegraph reports British MPs are to be offered a pay rise to make up for a loss of income from expenses claims. The front page of the Daily Mail is dominated by a picture of casual workers lining up at a Royal Mail sorting office. The paper claims the so-called "strike breakers" have not had their references checked or been vetted for criminal records.

The Independent reports that the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King' has launched a "stinging attack" on the behaviour of the banking industry.

Mr King's call for a break-up of banks to prevent them becoming "too important to fail" leads the front page of the Financial Times.

The Daily Express quotes a report which suggests mortgage-payers are to benefit from a lenders' war.

The Sun says 48-year-old Paul Mason - who at 445 kg is dubbed as the "world's fattest man" - requires emergency surgery to reduce his weight or he will die. He eats 20,000 calories per day, compared to the average male's intake of 2500.

The Guardian says the Obama administration is concerned about the Conservative Party's European policy.

The Daily Mirror reports BNP head Nick Griffin has accused two former army chiefs of being like Nazi war criminals.

The Daily Star quotes Katie Price aka Jordan saying that she and her ex-husband Peter Andre had shared their bed with another woman.

And elsewhere...

L'Osservatore Romano says that the Vatican was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism while retaining aspects of their Anglican liturgy and identity, including married priests. Until now, disaffected Anglicans had joined the church primarily on a case by case basis.

Afghan Times reports that President Hamid Karzai has accepted a presidential run-off with his main rival Abdullah Abdullah on November 7^th. The country's election commission ordered the new election after a UN-backed panel threw out nearly a million of Karzai's votes from the first ballot, bringing his total number of votes below 50 per cent.

Dawn says two suicide attackers have bombed an Islamic university in the Pakistani capital, killing four people and wounding 18 others. It comes days after the army launched a critical offensive on a Taliban stronghold near the Afghan border.

The Washington Times reports the US Senate has given final approval for a plan to permit terrorist suspects held at the controversial Guantanamo Bay security prison in Cuba to be shipped to US soil to face trial, largely mirroring what is permitted under current law. The plan was buried in a budget bill for the Homeland Security Department.

Abrar says an Iranian-American academic, Kian Tajbakhsh, has been convicted over his alleged role in the post-election unrest in Iran and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. The protesters claimed the ballot was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Die Welt quotes a 59-year-old German doctor, Mechthild Bach, denying she deliberately killed 13 cancer patients with morphine overdoses. A court in Hannover heard the treatment was not appropriate for most of the patients, the doses were too high in the other cases and the patients, aged between 52 and 96, were not all terminally ill.

Hello! magazine publishes the first pictures of Jaycee Lee Dugard reunited with her mother 18 years after she was kidnapped in the US as an 11-year-old girl. Ms Dugard, now 29, was abducted outside her Californian home in 1991. In the 18 years during which she was hidden from the world, she was allegedly kept in a back garden compound owned by Phillip Garrido, 58, and gave birth to two children fathered by her captor.

La Tribune de Genève reports that film director Roman Polanski has lost an appeal to be freed from a Swiss prison ahead of his possible extradition to the US for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. The Swiss Criminal Court rejected offers from Polanski to post bail or go under house arrest, saying there is a high risk of him fleeing.

USA Today says Howard Barton Unruh, who killed 13 people in a 1949 shooting spree in New Jersey, has died aged 88.