Press digest

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

The Sunday Times features an interview with Fr Brendan Gatt, who says Holy Communion can be refused only in the most extreme cases, and that does not include cases of cohabiting couples. It also features the launching of Corporate Village Malta.

The Malta Independent on Sunday leads with the launch of Corporate Village Malta. It also reports that Mepa could not object when Enemalta switched off precipitators at the Marsa power station.

MaltaToday says a survey showed that 66% of the population think corruption is increasing, and the government cannot rein it in.

Il-Mument says that after the second round of elections held yesterday for administrative committees, the PN candidates will run 11 of the 16 committees. It also reports on the corporate village and on the two years since the election of Joseph Muscat to the leadership of the PL.

It-Torca says the Hondoq ir-Rummien project in Gozo will raise social tensions. It also says that work on City Gate has started without the creation of the promised autonomous fund to finance it.

Kullhadd quotes former PN candidate Mario Tabone Vassallo saying one could not be a Christian and vote for the BWSC project. It also says that Education Minister Dolores Cristina knew for months about the shortcomings which led to the suspension of funds for the EU education projects.

Illum says Sliema Council is being investigated over the granting of direct orders.

The overseas press

Haaretz reports that an Irish-registered aid ship, intercepted yesterday by the Israeli military while trying to break the blockade of Gaza, was in the Israeli port of Ashdod. Israel says its soldiers boarded the Rachel Corrie from the sea and did not meet any resistance. The crew and activists from the vessel were being questioned at Ben Gurion airport while Israeli officials organised their deportation.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the ship was carrying hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and cement. The Israeli Defence Force said all goods on board would be inspected in Ashdod before being transferred to Gaza by land. Hamas has said it would refuse to accept any aid from the Israeli-intercepted flotilla as long as the blockade remained in place.

Chumhuriyet says Turkish officials have released details of autopsies carried out on the nine dead activists, victims of the Israeli raid earlier in the week. The reports indicated a total of 30 bullets had been found in their bodies. One of the activists was shot four times in the head - contradicting the Israeli assertion that their commandos used minimum lethal force.

The Irish Times reports that the takeover of the Rachel Corrie by Israel prompted indignation from the Dublin-based Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. As hundreds of people marched through Dublin, coordinator Kevin Squires said the vessel seizure had been "another brazen act of Israeli piracy on the high seas". He said people in Ireland were very angered by the latest Israeli outrages of the last week.

France 24 says thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets of London, Paris and other French towns on Saturday, denouncing the Israeli raid earlier in the week. An estimated 10,000 people gathered in Istanbul, some shouting slogans accusing Israel of murder.

Y-net news quotes UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay saying Israel's blockade of Gaza was illegal and should be lifted. She said that even if the blockade is proven legal under international law, Israel's military operation against the flotilla on Monday must be analysed from the perspective of Israel's obligation to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The Jerusalem Globe says Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has defended the blockade, saying it was meant to keep weapons out of the hands of the Iranian-backed Hamas and he would "not allow the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza."

Al Ahram announces that a court in Cairo has upheld a ruling urging the government to consider stripping of their citizenship Egyptian men who are married to Israeli women. The new decision is seen as a sign of negative feeling towards Israel in Egypt, despite a 1979 peace treaty.

Reuters report Pope Benedict held a surprise meeting with a Turkish Cypriot Islamic leader from the divided island on Saturday, underscoring his view that inter-religious dialogue should be used as an inspiration for reunion. The brief but symbolic encounter with 88-year-old Sheikh Nazim took place outside the small Holy Cross Church, which is in the buffer zone, a no-man's-land splitting Cyprus east to west and patrolled by United Nations troops.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has downplayed the existence of tensions between Tehran and Russia. In an interview with Lebanon's LBC TV, he said "tensions between Iran and Russia exist, but that Russian politicians behave cautiously with regard to their interests". His words follow a warning by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that Iranian leaders must "listen to the voice of the world community," or face new sanctions.

Deutsche Welle says that during a press conference in Germany with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Medvedev indicated that new sanctions against Tehran were in the offing, that agreement on the sancntions exist and that Iranian leaders should begin to heed international warnings.

The Los Angeles Times says the special cap funnelling oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill appeared to be having some success. Admiral Thad Allen of the US Coast Guard said 6,000 barrels of oil were captured in the first 24 hours after the procedure which started on Thursday.

The Washington Post says President Obama has nominated retired Gen James Clapper, a top Pentagon official, as his next intelligence chief. He replaces Admiral Dennis Blair, who resigned in May after a run of security failures, as director of national intelligence, which oversees 16 agencies in the intelligence community.

Meanwhile, President Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries. According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House.

Polygamous South African President Jacob Zuma is battling another scandal concerning his private life, this time involving newspaper reports that his second wife is pregnant after an affair with her bodyguard, Phinda Thomo. A letter from "concerned family members" sent to Ilanga, the Durban Zulu newspaper, said that Thomo, who presumably knew what traditional penalties await a Zulu warrior who impregnates a chief's wife, committed suicide when the affair was revealed. The Star newspaper said on Saturday that the National Intelligence Agency had been called in to investigate the reports. Zuma's office has denied the allegations.