Press digest

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

The Sunday Times reports that a local contractor had been using hazardous waste for several years to produce concrete without permit. It also reports that a Maltese, Bianca Zammit, was injured when she was shot during a protest in Gaza yesterday.

The Malta Independent also gives prominence to the incident involving Bianca Zammit in Gaza. It also reports that the police described yesterday as having been ‘relatively quiet' as the spring hunting season opened.

MaltaToday says the Europen Investment Bank is examining the auditor's report on the power station extension contract. It also reports on the nomination of Karl Gouder to parliament and the shooting incident involving a Maltese woman in Gaza.

Illum reports that Nationalist MPs have expressed concerns over the auditor's observations about the power station extension contract.

It-Torca carries comments by Lawrence Grech that he is sure the victims of abuse will never get justice. It also carries a story about the lack of accessibility for wheelchair users to Valletta and Mdina shops and attractions.

Il-Mument quotes Avvenire, the daily Catholic newspaper, as saying the visit to Malta had added a bright page in the Pope's album of overseas trips. It also reports that Karl Gouder will become a new Nationalist MP in Parliament.

KullHadd says that Robert Arrigo is expected to be given direct responsibiity for Enemalta. It also says that Paul Borg Olivier opted out of the vote for the nomination of a new MP because he feared losing.

The overseas press

Britain's Ambassador to the Vatican has met senior officials of the Holy See to express the Government's regret after an official document suggested Britain should mark the Pope's visit this year by asking him to open an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage and launch a range of Benedict-branded condoms. The document, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, also suggested the Pope could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by "sacking dodgy bishops" and launching a helpline for abused children.

Mercury News reports a jury has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay a further $18.5m to a man who was sexually abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster. Earlier this month the jury decided that the Boy Scouts were negligent for allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with Scouts after he admitted he had molested 17 boys.

La Nacion announces that Paul Schaefer, former Nazi military medic who led a cult of German refugees to Chile, has died in a Chilean prison where he was serving a sentence on charges of child sexual abuse, murder and torture. He was 89 when he died of heart failure in a prison hospital.

The Washington Times reports Europe was facing mounting pressure to quickly bail out debt-stricken Greece amid fears the crisis could spread to other Eurozone nations and threaten the global economic recovery.

Wiener Zeitung says Austrians go to the polls today to choose a new president, with the incumbent Social Democrat favoured to win. His opponent, 51-year-old Barbara Rosenkranz, a mother of ten who describes herself as a housewife, is only expected to receive around ten per cent of the vote.

Die Welt reports that opponents of nuclear power joined hands to form a 120-kilometer human chain across northern Germany. They were protesting Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to revoke a law that would shut down nuclear plants by 2020. The protests come just days before Monday's 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Al Quds Al Arabi says Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has called on President Barack Obama to impose a Mideast peace deal. Abbas spoke a day after meeting with US Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, who has tried in vain for more than a year to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Thai Post quotes a protest leader saying the Red Shirts were pulling out of talks with the government since the prime minister rejected their revised demand that he dissolve Parliament in 30 days, instead of immediately. The breakdown dashed hopes for an imminent peaceful resolution to the deadlock.

USA Today says choppy seas, strong winds and rain have halted the clean-up of an oil spill around a massive drilling rig which exploded and sank off the US. Eleven workers are still missing, presumed dead, from the Deepwater Horizon rig which sank on Thursday about 50 miles (80km) from the coast of Louisiana. The cause of Tuesday's massive blast on the rig is unknown.

Aftonbladet says Princess Madeleine of Sweden has broken off her engagement to lawyer Jonas Bergstrom. They got engaged last August. The reasons for the break-up were not disclosed, but Norwegian magazine Se og Hoer published an interview this week with a woman named who claimed she had spent a night with the princess' fiancé at a popular Swedish skiing resort last year.