Press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press. The newspapers in Malta will not be published tomorrow, Good Friday.

The Times says the EU is keen on having talks with Malta on the new Frontex rules with a view of keeping Malta within Frontex operations. It also says that it is up to the government alone to decide whether or not to open a Spring hunting season and Brussels will not tell Malta what to do.

The Malta Independent says Malta commemorated March 31 yesterday. It also reports that the Vatican gave three reasons why it was not responsible for child abuse after cases reported in Kentucky.

In-Nazzjon says e-commerce in Malta is growing faster than the EU average.

l-orizzont reports about the new website calling for a referendum on the Piano City Gate development.

The overseas press:

European Voice reports that unemployment across the 16-nation eurozone climbed to 10 per cent in February – the first time it has reached double figures since the euro was introduced. Separate figures showed eurozone inflation hit a 15-month high in March, rising to 1.5 per cent from 0.9 per cent in February.

Avvenire says the Pope has urged Catholic priests to be "heralds of hope". Noting that 2010 is the Year for Priests, Benedict augured that priests everywhere be conformed ever more closely to Christ as heralds of his message of hope, reconciliation and peace.

Meanwhile, the American TV station ABC says that even Pope Paul VI was aware of sexual abuse by Americans priests. Lawyers for the victims quote a 1963 letter sent by Fr Gerard M.C. Fitzgerald, head of the Order of the Holy Spirit, after a visit to the Vatican during which the pope had asked his opinion on the Church in the US. Fr Fitgerald, who died in 1969, had recommended that certain paedophile priests be relieved of thei duties.

The Moscow Times says at least 12 people have been killed in Russia’s Dagestan region after two bomb blasts rocked the town of Kizlyar, just two days after the twin bombs hit Moscow’s metro. Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombings on Moscow's subway that killed 39 people. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised the culprits would be brought to justice.

Afghan Times says 13 people were killed and 45 other injured in a bicycle explosion in Afghanistan as they gathered to get free vegetable seeds as part of a British drive to discourage opium poppy growing. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which President Hamid Karzai blamed on "enemies of the Afghan people who are against peace".

The New York Times quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying the international community went "far beyond expectations" when it pledged $9.9 billion over more than three years to rebuild earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

De Morgen reports that a Belgian parliamentary committee has voted to ban the full Islamic face veil. If the move is ratified on April 22, as expected, Belgium would become the first country in Europe to enforce such a ban.

EU Observer says the European Commission and the Netherlands, which hosts the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, have both praised the Serbian parliament declaration condemning the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

USA Today reports the FBI has claimed renegade Christian militia was just days away from killing a police officer and then bombing mourners at his funeral. The paramilitary group hoped to spark an uprising, which would see the government overthrown. They were only days away from carrying out the plan when FBI agents raided camps in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Eight men and one woman were arrested at the weekend.