Press digest

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

The Times says a board of inquiry will investigate the causes of fireworks factory explosions.

The Malta Independent says that Gozo is in shock following the Gharb fireworks factory explosion. It also says that the Chief Justice is stepping down 'with nostalgia'.

In-Nazzjon carries comments by relatives and friends of the Gharb fireworks factory. It also says that Gharb council will hold a referendum on new applications for fireworks factories.

l-orizzont says the death toll from the Gharb fireworks factory explosion has risen to six with the passing away of Raymond Farrugia in hospital and including an unborn baby.

The overseas press

A Financial Times research has revealed the European Union's flagship fund to help workers dismissed as a result of the recession has all but ground to a halt, failing to disburse any money for applications made in the past 11 months. The paper found that only €140 million of the nearly €2 billion that could have been spent by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) since its inception in 2007 has been disbursed.

A Wall Street Journal analysis shows Europe's recent "stress tests" of the strength of major banks understated some lenders' holdings of potentially-risky government debt. Some banks did not provide as comprehensive a picture of the institutions' holdings as European regulators claimed. The paper quotes industry and regulatory officials saying the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, the London-based group that coordinated the tests, faced intense pressure from national regulators and politicians across Europe to craft the tests in a manner that would portray the continent's banking system as healthy.

Kathemerini announces that a new Greek cabinet would be sworn in today after Prime Minister George Papandreou reshuffled his cabinet in a bid to boost economic and social policy areas and appease voters angry with tough austerity measures. The ministers of development, labour and health have all been replaced but the key post of finance minister unchanged - a move interpreted as a sign that the socialist government would not be swayed from its tough economic programme.

The Times of London says plans for a referendum to decide whether to reform the British voting system have cleared their first hurdle in the House of Commons. MPs backed plans for a naional referendum on whether to introduce proportional representation to replace the current first-past-the-post system.

Le Parisien reports trade unions in France have began large-scale industrial actions to protest government plans to raise the age of retirement from 60 to 62. Today's 24-hour-strike is set to hit public transport, banks, air traffic and the postal service. Some secondary school teachers went on strike yesterday, protesting against plans to cut 7,000 jobs in education. They were joined by rail workers in the evening.

Meanwhile, Metro reports that London commuters faced further travel misery as the Tube strike in London entered its second day. More than 10,000 workers were striking over pay and the loss of 800 station and platform-based jobs. London Underground said these were not needed due to ticket machines, but the unions insisted the cuts would endanger passenger safety.

Al Ahram says 11 employees for the Egyptian Culture Ministry and a vice-minister are to stand trial accused of negligence in connection with the theft of a Van Gogh painting worth millions of dollars from a museum in Cairo last month. When the theft took place, none of the museum's alarms and only seven of its 43 security cameras were functioning.

The Sun reports that a former British boarding school headmaster has been jailed for 21 years after being convicted of sexually and physically abusing 12 boys aged between eight and 13 in a ‘reign of terror'. The abuse took place between 1978 and 1983 at a private school founded by Slade, who beat pupils with a slipper, a cane and a table tennis bat and ordered them to write essays about the beatings.

El Tiempo says a 70-cm tall Colombian has been named the world's shortest living man by Guinness World Records. Twenty-four-year-old Edward Nino Hernandez, who weighs only 10 kilos, grew only 40 cm since birth. Mr Hernandez, who earned some money dancing at department stores, was also playing the role of a drug dealer in a film.