Press digest

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

The Times says the visit to Malta by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, due next month, hangs in the balance because of the current controversy which has seen Switzerland blacklisting a number of high profile Libyans, including Col Gaddafi. The newspaper also reports that Spring appears near and yesterday's was the second warmest February day.

The Malta Independent leads with the plans for a new Valletta bus terminus.

In-Nazzjon says Malta will have a new, smaller bus terminus. It also quotes new MP Peter Micallef saying he was eager to work with the PN parliamerntary group and the Prime Minister.

l-orizzont quotes MEP Edward Scicluna saying that the utility tariffs were based on wrong principles and the people were right to protest. Michael Briguglio, leader of AD, said it was democratic and legitimate for the people to express their views in a public protest over the utility tariffs.

The overseas press

The International Herald Tribune says the International Atomic Energy Agency has said it feared Iran may presently be working on making a nuclear warhead, suggesting for the first time that Tehran had either resumed such work or never stopped at the time US intelligence thought it did.

The Washintgon Times reports President Obama has expressed his support for Tibetan rights in talks held at the White House with the Dalai Lama despite objections from China, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist.

The Washington Post says the UN's top climate change official Yvo De Boer was resigning after nearly four years, a period when governments struggled without success to agree on a new global warming deal.

Vjesnik reports Ivo Josipovic has taken office as Croatia's president, with a promise to tackle the problem of corruption. The law professor has also stressed that he intended to secure EU membership as soon as possible.

Dawn says more Taliban leaders have been captured in Pakistan following the arrest of the group's deputy leader. Nine men linked to al Qaida were seized near Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi, where the Taliban's deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was picked up several days ago.

Lyon's Metro reports that Interpol has put 11 people suspected in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on its most-wanted list to keep them from travelling on what are believed to be fake passports. Meanwhile, London's Daily Mail claims the MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to assassinate a Hamas leader hours before the killing of Mahmoud al-Maghouh in Dubai.

Panapress reports a coup d'etat in Niger. A spokesman for a group of mutinous soldiers said on state TV that the African country's constitution had been suspended and its republican institutions have been dissolved. He said the country was now being led by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy.

Aviation Week quotes IATA saying airlines had fewer crashes last year, but more deaths. There were 18 fatal airline accidents compared with 23 in 2008. However 685 people died in 2009 compared with 502 the previous year. The major accident rate for 2009 - 0.7 accidents per million flights - was the second lowest ever.

Meanwhile, Tribune de Genève says the Airports International Council has named Seoul's Incheon International Airport the best airport in the world for the fifth year in a row.

Diario de Noticias announces former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral has lost an attempt to overturn a ban on his book claiming that Madeleine McCann is dead. Last September, a judge granted the girl's parents a temporary injunction, halting further sale or publication of Mr Amaral's book and a TV documentary he made about the case.

Austin Chronicle reports a software engineer, furious with the US Internal Revenue Service, crashed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees. The crash set off a raging fire which sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.

In the UK, Metro devotes its whole front page to the story of a woman who gave birth to a "little miracle" after suffering 18 miscarriages. The girl, Raiya who is now a healthy 10-week-old girl, was born weighing 7lb following pioneering treatment. Her mother, Angie Baker, said she is revelling in her role, blessed with a baby who sleeps from 10pm to 6am.

Le Parisien says a rare manuscript by the 18th-Century libertine Casanova, recalling his sexual conquests and many adventures, has entered the collection of France's National Library. The French manuscript of The Story Of My Life forms the core of 3,700 precious pages acquired by the state library, after an anonymous patron spent €7 million to help acquire it from the heirs of a German publisher who acquired them in the 19th Century.