Press digest

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

The Times reports a call by the Prime Minister for a fresh effort to draw up a Social Pact. It also reports that the family of Gnr Matthew Psaila has filed a judicial protest against Alfred Sant for offending the memory of the late soldier.

The Malta Independent also reports the judicial protest by the Psaila family. It also reports that lawyers have denied that the Lockerbie bomber has died.

In-Nazzjon reports that Nationalist MP Franco Debono will head a parliamentary committee on the consolidation of laws, while Jean-Pierre Debono will head a committee on assisted procreation.

l-orizzont reports how two men were jailed for negligence which caused the death of two women when a building collapsed during excavation works in St Paul’s Bay. It also quotes John Bonnici, new president of the Forum of Trade Unions, calling for measures to boost the economy.

The Press in Britain…

The Daily Mail says the national postal strike began today after Communication Workers' Union leaders refused a last-minute plea to turn their backs on 'suicidal' industrial action.

The Scotsman says British MPs are to study the handling of the case of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as part of a wider probe into relations between Westminster and Holyrood. Reports that al-Megrahi had died were denied by his lawyers.

The Daily Telegraph reports Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has launched an unprecedented attack on a key Conservative policy by insisting that scrapping the Human Rights Act would bring "shame" on Britain.

The Guardian quotes BBC director general Mark Thompson defending the corporation's decision to invite the BNP leader Nick Griffin on to Question Time, and challenges the government to change the law if it wants to censor the far-right group.

In an interview with The Times Mr Griffin thanks the BBC and praises the "hysterical" reaction of the political elite for giving his British National Party unprecedented publicity.

The Daily Express says the number of Britons who will live beyond 85 is to soar from 1.3 million to 3.3 million in the next 24 years, while those aged over 90 will more than triple.

The Daily Mirror reveals former England footballer John Barnes, once Britain's highest-paid player, has been declared bankrupt over unpaid tax.

Metro says that despite the fact that a million people have been added to the DNA database in the past two years, fewer crimes are being solved.

And elsewhere…

EU Observer reports that the European Commission has unveiled new proposals to streamline the bloc's asylum policy. The new rules would standardize and speed up asylum procedures spreading the burden more equally among the 27 members. Asylum applications would be processed within six months.

Tageblatt says that EU environmental ministers meeting in Luxembourg have agreed to a set of demands for a global climate deal to be hammered out in Copenhagen in December but could not agree over funding of the deal.

The International Herald Tribune reports that Iran has agreed to reduce its nuclear stockpile, sending the bulk of its enriched uranium to Russia and stripping it of most of the material it would need to make a nuclear weapon. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that Iran and the US, Russia and France have signed a draft deal he hoped would be approved by the nations’ capitals by tomorrow.

Afghan Times says President Hamid Karzai's chief political rival Abdullah Abdullah has told reporters he would not accept that the agreed November 7 run-off election be organised on the same terms as the August presidential vote. He said he was preparing a list of conditions for election organisers.

Philadelphia Enquirer says a US pharmacy college graduate has appeared before a federal court charged with conspiring with two other men in a terror plot to kill two prominent US politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in US malls and American troops in Iraq. Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested on Wednesday morning.

The Times of India confirms that 21 people were killed and another 17 were trapped for hours when a passenger train smashed into the rear carriage of another train at the site near the Taj Mahal in northern India. The rear carriage of the second train was reserved for women and disabled passengers.

Kuwaiti Times reports that the country's highest court has granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband's approval.

Louisiana’s Daily Reveille says a justice of the peace is facing a US federal lawsuit for refusing to perform a marriage ceremony for a black man and a white woman.

Russia’s Tvoi Den newspaper reports that a 50-year-old miner from the Ural region has sold his signed photo of French actress Brigitte Bardot for €1,400 to pay for an operation.