Press digest

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

The Times reports that Libya had called for a jihad against Switzerland. In a second story it says that compensation of €205,000 has at last been given to former prison warder Anthony Mifsud, who was wrongly accused of having aided two prisoners to escape.

The Malta Independent says the PN parliamentary group will discuss primary health care in the coming weeks.

In-Nazzjon leads with the planned €14m investment by Farsons on a new brewhouse and an investment of €2m by the government to install an IT system at the Lands Department. It also says the GWU does not want to give one of its seats in the MCESD to the FORUM of Maltese trade unions.

l-orizzont reports a shortage of medical equipment for the treatment of patients having kidney failure. It also says a Naxxar Mcast student was injured when he tried to light a small petard he found in a field near the school. Many other fireworks were found in the field ina subsequent search.

The overseas press

France 24 reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad, or holy war, against "Switzerland Zionism and foreign aggression" and said Muslims should boycott the country.

Kyiv Post leads with the swearing in of Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's new President, saying he immediately hit out at the legacy of the pro-Western Orange revolution.

The Washington Times says differences have marred a seven-hour televised US healthcare summit chaired by President Obama, aimed at securing a reform bill aimed at expanding health coverage to include millions of uninsured Americans. The Republicans said it was not acceptable and called for a fresh start.

Corriere della Sera reports an Italian appeals court has quashed a bribery conviction against British tax lawyer David Mills, saying the current trial was beyond the limit for prosecution. Mills had denied the offence but was convicted in 2009 of taking a £400,000 bribe from Italian Prime Miister PM Silvio Berlusconi. The ruling means a parallel corruption case against Mr Berlusconi could also now be dropped.

Turkish Daily News says President Abdullah Gul met with top officials to address tensions between the Islamist-rooted government and Turkey's secular military over an alleged coup plot in 2003. After three-hour of talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Army Chief of Staff Ilker Basbug, Gul said the problems would be solved within Turkey's constitution.

Frettabladid reports that talks on how Iceland would repay more than €3.8 billion of debt it owes to the UK and the Netherlands have broken down without agreement. The collapse of the Iceland-based Icesave online bank in October 2008 hit savers in both countries.

Pravda says nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead gang, most in their late teens, have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 23 years after being found guilty of a string of brutal and very public murders. The skinheads targeted people of Central Asian origin and posted videos of their attacks on the Internet.

La Nouvelle Releve reports that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has sentenced the former head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Defence to 25 years in prison. Lieut-Col Eprem Setako was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 100-day genocide.

The Asian Observer says the Afghan government has taken official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah as Nato troops worked to root out final pockets of militants.

The Sydney Morning Herald announces that Australia has called for a gradual phasing out of whaling around the world in a proposal submitted to the International Whaling Commission. The proposal calls for whaling to be brought under the control of the commission so individual countries cannot unilaterally give permits for "scientific" whaling - a reference to Japan which kills hundreds of whales each year under its whaling research programme.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has won court approval to shut down a global network of computers which it says was responsible for more than 1.5 billion spam messages every day. A US judge granted the firm's request to shut down 277 internet domains, meaning that up to 90,000 PCs would stop receiving orders to send out spam.

The New Yorker says one of Bernard Madoff's daughters-in-law has filed court papers to change her last name to Morgan, saying her family had received threats, and harassment.

Gulf News reports an aquarium and a shopping centre in Dubai have been evacuated after water leaked from a massive tank holding 10 million litres of water and more than 33,000 underwater creatures. The leak appeared in a panel joint in the tank and was immediately fixed by engineers.

Le Parisien says men seen as likely to be violent towards their wives could be forced to wear an electronic tag under a new bill on conjugal violence being debated by the French parliament. It has cross-party support and is expected to pass easily.