Press digest

The following are the top stories in the international press today.

There are no local papers but The Sunday Times will be back on the news stand tomorrow.

According to CNN, US authorities believe an incident involving a small explosion aboard a Delta-Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit was an attempted act of terrorism on behalf of Al-Qaeda. A US Government bulletin said the passenger was claiming to have “extremist affiliation” and that “the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used". The person responsible for the incident, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was overpowered by another passenger and taken into custody. The plane, which departed from Amsterdam, landed safely in Detroit. Delta said two of the aircraft’s 278 passengers had received minor injuries.

La Republica quotes Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old Swiss-Italian national accused of assaulting Pope Benedict XVI, telling doctors she did not want to harm the Pontiff. She was admitted to hospital after the attack on the Pontiff in St Peter's Basilica on Thursday night. Meanwhile, a Vatican spokesman said 87-year-old French cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who broke a femur in a fall during the attack, would need an operation.

Meanwhile, Il Tempo reports the 82-yar-old spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics reappeared in public on Christmas Day urging tolerance for migrants in his Christmas message. In his Christmas Eve homily, the German-born Pontiff had spoken out against selfishness, as Christians across the world celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Daily Telegraph says Queen Elizabeth has used her annual Christmas message to highlight the importance she attaches to the Commonwealth, describing the group of 53 nations as "the face of the future''. She stressed that with more than a billion people aged under 25, the Commonwealth was a "strong and practical force for good''. The Queen again paid tribute to the thousands of troops from the UK and other Commonwealth nations serving in Afghanistan.

The Times has named Iranian Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old student shot dead during protests against her country's disputed June elections, as its "person of the year". The paper said she became a "global symbol of opposition to tyranny" after images of her bleeding to death during the protests in Tehran were shown around the world. "She wanted to make a difference,” the Times said.

USA Today reports a Christmas blizzard forced scores of US churches to cancel Christmas Day services as snow and freezing rain brought a holiday headache to millions across the country. At least 23 deaths have been attributed to the storm system that blanketed the central United States, closing several interstate highways, stranding thousands of motorists in whiteout conditions and coating roads in a glaze of ice during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Dawn says Pakistani fighter jets have targeted suspected militant hideouts in the Orakzai tribal area, south-west of Peshawar, killing at least 10 people. Officials say the dead were militants, but eyewitnesses sais the bombs destroyed the home of a tribal chief, killing three women and four children.

According to El Tiempo, a fire on board the Greek-flagged freighter Aegean Wind, off the coast of Venezuela, has killed at least nine members of the crew. Five injured people were also airlifted and taken to hospital on the mainland, some 160 km away from the ship’sposition.

Fox 31 News reports actor Charlie Sheen spent Christmas Day behind bars after being arrested on charges of domestic assault. The 44-year-old Two And A Half Men actor was allegedly in a fight with wife Brooke Mueller in Aspen, Colorado. Ms Mueller is the third wife of Sheen, son of screen legend Martin Sheen. The couple has twin boys, Bob and Max, who were born last March.

Bild says the Australian rock group AC/DC might have to cancel a sold-out concert, planned for Wels airport in Austria in May, because their big sound poses a danger to rare birds. BirdLife are threatening legal action if the veteran band goes ahead, saying birds nesting in the area at the time would be threatened by anthems such as Highway To Hell and You Shook Me All Night Long.