Press digest

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

The Times reports that Malta has managed to buy a supply of H1N1 vaccines from the Netherlands, which had surplus supplies.

The Malta Independent reports how Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Brigadier Carm Vassallo gave a detailed account of the movements of a migrants' boat carrying 207 migrants last week. It also reports that tourists from Spain and Italy are increasing.

l-orizzont says tourist spending is projected to drop by €80 million this year, while in another story it says the national debt has risen to €3.8 billion. It also highlights dangers from dumps of asbestos pipes.

In-Nazzjon quotes the Prime Minister at the EU summit saying there are positive economic signals, but one must still be cautious. It also reports that Malta is to apply for EU funds for the building of a new junction at Kappara, instead of a new road at Ghadira.

The Press in Britain...

The Guardian says leaders of three of the most powerful countries in Europe have strongly criticised Conservative Party leader David Cameron at the EU summit over his plans to scupper the Lisbon treaty.

The Times reports patients who do not get the treatment that they need from the NHS within 18 weeks are to be given the legal right to free private care.

The Independent says drugs tsar Professor David Nutt has been sacked for challenging the Government's policy on ecstasy and cannabis, saying they are less dangerous than legal substances such as tobacco and alcohol.

According to the Daily Mail, says three weeks before he died in Afghanistan, a senior officer warned in an email that a shortage of helicopters was putting him and his men at risk from roadside bombs.

The Daily Express claims experts have hailed the end of the property slump as figures showed house prices rose year-on-year for the first time in 19 months.

The Financial Times reports Royal Bank of Scotland has struck a last-minute deal with the government that could see it break free from a state-backed asset insurance scheme within a year.

The Daily Telegraph says the age of free banking is now over as figures show half of all current accounts offered by high street banks now involve customers paying a fee to use them.

According to The Sun, the mother of Darlington teenager Ashleigh Hall who was killed after she allegedly met a man on Facebook has blasted the social networking site for failing to protect youngsters using the site.

The 20-year-old woman who was assaulted by jailed Premier League star Marlon King has told the Daily Mirror how he ruined her looks and left her a nervous wreck.

The Scotsman says senior figures within the SNP have privately accepted that their hopes of securing a referendum on independence in 2010 are dead.

The Daily Record reports that the medic who supervised a 16-year-old girl's who died after receiving massive overdoses of radiotherapy has been cleared to keep working.

The Herald says the family Lisa Norris, who died after the disastrous radiation treatment, claim there had been a "whitewash".

And elsewhere...

EU Observer reports that EU leaders meeting in Brussels have reached a compromise on climate control, strengthening their position ahead of a global summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December.

Kyiv Post says the Ukraine has announced tough measures to combat swine flu, closing schools and cinemas and banning public gatherings for at least three weeks. The move came after the country confirmed at least four swine flu-related deaths, Ukraine's first since the outbreak started in Mexico and the United States last April.

The Weekend Australian reports that Prime Minister Keven Rudd is preparing to double the size of Australia's Christmas Island detention centre in a stark confirmation that his government expects a continuing flood of asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka.

Le Parisien says former French president Jacques Chirac has been ordered to stand trial in an alleged corruption scandal dating back to his 1977-1995 tenure as Paris mayor.

Afghan Post reveals talks between Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah have broken down. Mr Abdullah, once Mr Karzai's foreign minister, is likely to pull out of next week's presidential run-off. He had put forward several conditions for the November 7 election to be credible.

The Irish News quotes official figures showing that a long-standing religious imbalance within Northern Ireland's civil service has been effectively reversed following a 10 per cent rise in the proportion of Catholic employees in just over a decade.

L'Avvenire quotes Pope Benedict saying that faith and science are both necessary for the full understanding of mankind and its place in the universe. The Pope was meeting astronomers from around the world as part of events marking the UN-designated International Year of Astronomy and celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first celestial observations by telescope.

The New York Times reports that a NASA scientist, credited with helping discover water on the moon, has pleaded not guilty to charges he tried to sell US defence secrets to Israel for $2 million.

California Globe announces the appointment of the daughter of the Martin Luther King as the first woman to head the civil rights organisation that he co-founded.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a judge has ordered Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and two doctors to stand trial on charges of illegally funnelling prescription drugs to the former Playboy model.