Press digest

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

The Times says a team led by a Maltese surgeon is developing a procedure that could revolutionise tumour cancer treatment. It also reports that almost half the members of the police force have filed a judicial protest that they have not been paid for overtime.

The Malta Independent confirms that the Budget will be held on November 9. It also reports on the police judicial protest and the ongoing unrest in Iraq.

In-Nazzjon reports that Edward Zammit Lewis is being backed by Joseph Muscat for part-time general secretary of the PL. ( see also http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091010/local/edward-zammit-lewis-interested-in-pl-general-secretary-post ) It also reports compensation given by a court to the heirs of a traffic accident victim and a man injured at work.

l-orizzont carries complaints about poor service at the government dispensary in Paola.

The Press in Britain

The Independent leads with the impassioned pro-European speech made by Foreign Secretary David Miliband who called on the EU to "get our act together" or risk being sidelined by America and China.

According to The Guardian, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has asked two of his most senior civil servants to lobby discreetly within Europe for Tony Blair to become its new president.

The Financial Times reports ING revealed the EC had forced it into a sell-off of its insurance and investment management business.

The Daily Express looks forward to the warm temperatures of an Indian summer expected across the UK this week.

The Times reports that a leading expert on climate change has urged people to become vegetarian in order to prevent global warming.

The Daily Mail says record numbers of middle-aged people are being "criminalised" by target-chasing police.

Employers face registering staff with the government's anti-paedophile database, even if they don't work with children, says The Daily Telegraph. In a second lead the paper says 1,100 babies with Downs are aborted every year.

The Scotsman reports unions and the Royal Mail will resume talks aimed at averting a fresh wave of strikes that could lead to a massive backlog of 150 million letters.

The Daily Mirror claims Royal Mail could be forced to send home 30,000 workers hired to clear the backlog created by the postal strike.

Metro leads with the story of a 'boy racer' policeman who has been jailed for killing a grandmother during a joyride at speeds over 100mph.

The Sun reports on a sobbing clubber who accused Premier League ace Marlon King of punching her in the face and breaking her nose.

The Daily Star says the X Factor has exploded into a fierce bullying row.

And elsewhere...

EU Observer quotes an EU Commission warning that as of 2007, around 2.2 million people carried the HIV/AIDS virus in the EU and nearby countries, an increase of 700,000 from 2001. According to Commission figures, around 730,000 of these live within the EU's 27 member states. France, Italy, Spain and Portugal have relatively high infection rates - ranging from 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent. In Estonia, the rate stands at around 1.3 percent.

Courant says the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who faces two counts of genocide and nine other charges or war crimes and crimes against humanity, will start at The Hague this afternoon - with or without him. Karadzic boycotted the start of his war crimes trial yesterday claiming he had not had enough time to prepare, His decision enraged survivors who had travelled to The Hague by bus from Bosnia to see him finally face justice.

The International Herald Tribune reports a US military helicopter crashed yesterday while returning from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three Drug Enforcement agents. Four more troops were killed when two helicopters collided over southern Afghanistan, making it the deadliest day for U.S. forces in this country in more than four years.

Afghan News says President Hamid Karzai has rejected a call by rival presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah to sack the head of the Afghan election commission. Abdullah claimed commission chief Azizullah Lodin had "no credibility" after a UN-backed panel threw out more than a million fraudulent first-round votes. But Karzai insisted Azizullah he had done nothing wrong.

Die Presse claims Iran has hinted it could agree to ship some low-enriched uranium abroad for processing as reactor fuel as the world awaited its reply on a UN-drafted nuclear plan aimed at easing tensions with the West. However, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also left open the possibility Iran may snub the proposal and instead seek to buy the nuclear fuel it needs for a research reactor that makes medical isotopes.

USA Today says two pilots have told US investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptops in violation of company policy while their Airbus passenger jet overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles. The Northwest Airlines pilots told the National Transportation Safety Board they were not fatigued and did not fall asleep.

Virginia Globe says the company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic is planning a possible expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck next year. The first expedition to the North Atlantic shipwreck since 2004 is revealed in a filing by RMS Titanic in a US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.

The San Antonio Express-News reports an American who confessed to sexually abusing a child over a three-year period was sentenced to 80 life sentences. Scott Lee Zulfer, 44, pleaded guilty to 69 charges of aggravated sexual assault and 11 charges of continuous sexual abuse from 2006 to 2008. District Attorney Amos Barton said he sought a life sentence for each count against Zulfer "just in case he lived through the first 79".