Press digest

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

The Times dedicates a number of pages to the 50^th anniversary of the death of Giga Camilleri’s son Twannie Aquilina, eight. It also carries another articles on the case of Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech, who insists he is being framed. In another story, it says the police were requesting further ammunition with sources saying they were not being given enough and could have ended up in trouble during the recent HSBC hold-up.

The Malta Independent asks if Malta will soon get its cardinal. It reports speaker Michael Frendo requesting shorter speeches from MPs.

l-Orizzont refers to a scam which took place at Mater Dei Hospital saying this was being investigated after it was brought to the public’s attention by the newspaper four months ago. It says that the European Commission was contradicting was Minister Austin Gatt said in May on the BWSC power station extension.

In-Nazzjon says that €13 million were allocated for EU projects through Meusac. It says that the Banif Bank, which currently has eight branches, plans to continue to expand and double its workforce to 300 people.

The overseas press

Reuters reports Australian financial markets were betting that inconclusive weekend elections results would deliver a change of government, ushering in a new minority conservative administration that would scrap a planned mining tax. When financial markets opened today, trading was down. The Australian dollar lost almost one per cent against the US dollar in early trading. But volumes were light and the currency recovered most of that ground in the next few hours. Government bonds also fell in value.

ABC TV says Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has held initial talks with independent candidates to try to form a government after her Labour party lost its majority. She said she would continue to provide "stable" government as final votes are counted. Labour and the opposition Liberal/National alliance, led by Tony Abbott, were set for a dead heat of 73 seats each, missing the 76 needed for a majority. Bookmakers say the conservatives are clear favourites to form government,

According to El Universal, families rejoiced as Chile's President Sebastian Pinera hailed the unlikely survival of 33 miners trapped deep below ground for more than two weeks. The miners were able to send up a note through a shaft drilled 700 meters below the ground to alert engineers and family members above ground that they were together and alive inside an emergency shelter. However, engineers warned it would take at least four months of drilling to reach and bring out the trapped miners.

Corriere della Sera reports Italian Prime Minister Early Silvio Berlusconi has said early elections were the only way out of Italy’s political crisis. In an audio message to his party activists, he said his five-point agenda was not negotiable. He challenged former ally Gianfranco Fini to back the programme at a confidence vote next month or face a vote by December. Fini’s camp retorted that it would not accept ultimatums. Mr Fini commands the support of 34 deputies and 10 senators, without whom Berlusconi does not have a guaranteed majority in parliament.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying next month’s direct talks with the Palestinians would lead to a peace deal only if Israel’s vital interests were protected. Netanyahu said Israel’s security must be guaranteed and that the Palestinians must recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people. Any agreement, which he acknowledged would be “difficult but possible”, must mark the end of the conflict.

The New York Times says rival demonstrators have held rallies over plans to build a Muslim centre, including a mosque just two blocks from the site of the September 11 attacks by al-Qaeda, which destroyed the World Trade Centre towers and killed close to 3,000 people. The two groups were kept apart by a heavy police presence.

La Jornada reports four decapitated and mutilated corpses were strung from a bridge in a popular getaway outside the Mexican capital on Sunday, the latest atrocity as the country battles an escalating drug war. According to a statement from the attorney general's office, the genitals, index fingers and heads of four young men had been cut off. Their heads and genitals were found nearby, along with a handmade sign, threatening the same fate to those who helped Edgar Valdez, a leading drug “capo”.

Asia Observer says more than 250,000 people have been evacuated in northeast China following serious floods that have already left four dead and forced the relocation of thousands in neighbouring North Korea. Heavy downpours have dangerously swollen the Yalu river, which forms the border between the two countries, and forecasters are warning of yet more torrential rain to come. The official Korean Central News Agency said in neighbouring North Korea, more than 5,000 people have been moved to safety after parts of Sinuiju city and rural communities near the border were "completely inundated".

The Moscow Times reports some 2,000 people Sunday crammed into a Moscow square amid a heavy police presence for a banned rock concert to protest plans to build a motorway through a forest outside the Russian capital. But the concert failed to get off the ground after police refused to allow amplification gear through tight security. Several opposition activists were detained ahead of the rally, including prominent campaigner Lev Ponomaryov.

Expressen reports that Swedish prosecutors have defended their handling of a rape allegation against the founder of WikiLeaks, insisting they had made no mistakes in issuing an arrest warrant and withdrawing it less than a day later. The Swedish Prosecution Authority said an “on-call” prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange late on Friday only to see it revoked the next day by a higher-ranked prosecutor, who found no grounds to suspect him of rape as she had more information.

The New Straits Times says Malaysia’s Islamic authorities have evicted unmarried Muslim civil servants from government-owned housing if they were caught with their partners alone in a private place. The campaign was launched early this year to rid the country’s administrative capital Putrajaya of activities deemed immoral under Malaysian Islamic laws. Muslims, who make up two-thirds of the country’s 28 million people, are subject to morality laws, enforced by Islamic authorities and courts. The country’s large Christian, Buddhist and Hindu communities are not subject to such laws.

Deutsche Welle announces that two babies have died and doctors feared for the life of five other infants, all of whom had been fed with infected intravenous drips at a hospital in the city of Mainz. An investigation is now underway to find the source of the contamination.

Metro says scientists at Obihiro University in Japan believe giving potat­oes 10 minutes of electric shocks makes them nearly double their production of antioxidants which combat heart disease and cancer, and cut the risk of diabetes. It could turn the spud into a ‘superfood’, say the experts who built a ‘torture chamber’ to give the root crop bouts of ultrasonic sound waves or mild electric shocks. Antioxidant levels rose in a natural reaction usually used to survive stressful events such as droughts.

El Correo reports that hundred anti-bullfighting campaigners lay naked outside Bilbao's Guggenheim museum to rally against the beginning of annual bullfighting festival. Activists from several Spanish animal rights groups lay down arranged in the shape of a bull with their bodies painted black or red to represent the animal bleeding. The protest took place three weeks after the regional parliament in Catalonia took the historic decision of abolishing bullfighting from 2012.