Press digest

The following are the top stories on the front pages of the local and overseas press:

The Times leads with the PN parliamentary group meeting on divorce yesterday, quoting the prime minister saying the people should decide. It also reports that two men were accused of the HSBC hold-up.

The Malta Independent quotes the prime minister saying the debate on divorce should be left to the people.

In-Nazzjon leads with the arraignment of two suspects in the HSBC hold-up. It also reports that Geitu Mercieca has resigned from his post as GWU deputy general secretary.

l-orizzont says that EMCS Ltd consultancy firm, which has been awarded a Tourism Authority contract, is a shareholder in a company owned by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil. It also carries a call by the MUT for the government not to charge for vocational courses in secondary schools. The minister of education denied there would be charges for the courses.

The overseas press

La Tribune reports that unemployment in the OECD area in the first quarter of 2010 has hit a post-war peak of 8.7 per cent, which corresponds to an increase of 17 million. The OECD Employment Outlook 2010 shows unemployment has grown on average by 2.9 per cent between December 2007 and last March. Spain and Ireland top the list with increases of 10 and eight per cent while at the lower end of the stick, with less than one per cent, are Germany, Austria, Belgium , Norway and Poland.

New Europe quotes the European Commission saying that the ratio of pensioners to workers in Europe was set to double in the next 50 years and warning that this was a pension time-bomb which must be tackled now. In 2008 there were four people of working age - between 15 and 64 - for every one aged 65 or over but by 2060 that would fall to two to one. Pension policy remains the remit of national authorities.

Corriere della Sera reports that an opposition MP, Franco Barbato, was taken to hospital after a heated debate about funding new social centres for young people sparked a brawl in the Italian parliament. He had accused Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni of pushing the bill to advance her own political agenda. He was punched in the eye.

Il Tempo says two people were injured in clashes with police in riot gear when a protest by survivors of last year's Abruzzo earthquake turned violent near Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Rome residence. The protestors were angry at the slow pace of reconstruction following the April 2009 quake that killed 308.

France 24 reports that an investigation into allegations that L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and her late husband André illegally funded Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign has been ordered by a Paris prosecutor following up on claims that the billionaire's financial advisor gave €150,000 in cash to Eric Woerth, treasurer for Sarkozy's UMP party and now also Labour Minister. The limit for donations to political parties in France is €7,500.

Die Welt says Germany has formally agreed to take in two prisoners to be released soon from the US Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The two men accused by the US of being terrorists cannot be sent to their home countries because of the risk of torture.

Metro says suspected al Qaida terrorist Abid Naseer, who was granted permission to remain in Britain, has been arrested after the United States issued a warrant for his arrest. The 24-year-old Pakistani national was arrested last year as part of a massive counter-terrorism operation in Manchester and Liverpool.

According to Gazeta Polska, a Polish court has agreed to extradite an alleged Israeli agent to Germany after he was arrested in Warsaw. Uri Brodsky is suspected of involvement in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January.

Az-Zaman says more than 40 people have been killed and over a 100 wounded in bomb attacks on Shia pilgrims converging on a shrine in northern Baghdad. At least 30 died when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd and 11 others in other bombings across the capital.

The Irish Times says Prime Minister Brian Cowen has been accused of losing compassion and failing to understand what was happening in homes across the country as hundreds of people demonstrated against cuts to disability services.

Avvenire reports that Cuba's Roman Catholic Church has said that the communist government has agreed to free 52 political prisoners and allow them to leave the country. This would be the island's largest mass liberation of prisoners of conscience in decades.

USA Today says a court hearing for three suspects in the Russia spy case was postponed today amid speculation the US and Russia are arranging a prisoner swap.

Pravda reports two Moscow art curators face prison after being accused of staging a show that allegedly mocked religion. One of the paintings depicted Christ as Mickey Mouse, another as Vladimir Lenin, to the anger of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Le Monde says former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was jailed for seven years in France after being convicted of laundering drug money. Noriega has already spent 20 years in US custody for drug trafficking and was extradited to France in April to stand trial on charges there.

Il Grecale reports cash-grabbing motorists brought a road to a standstill after an Italian lorry overturned and spilled two million euro - in coins. Local police said it was impossible to establish how much money had been stolen but it is believed that motorists, acting quickly before police arrived, made off with at least €10,000.