Press digest

The following are the top stories in the local and international press today:

The local press

The Sunday Times leads with an interview with former Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said who insists he had done nothing wrong but says he had been considering his resignation for a while. In another story it says that 10-year-old Siamese twin from Gozo, who lived after she was separated from her late sister, was doing well and had a bright future ahead of her.

The Malta Independent on Sunday also leads with Dr Said’s resignation. He tells the newspaper he would have done the same if this meant reuniting a three-week baby with her mother.

Malta Today says that PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier was to face criminal charges on VAT irregularity. Malta’s Commissioner in the EU John Dalli tells the newspapers the Nationalist Party needed a new direction.

It-Torca says that the promised reform at the Pitkalija never materialised. It also speaks on the lack of security at Enemalta sub-stations and investments in Malta with mafia links.

Il-Mument says Malta has enjoyed the best increase in exports among EU countries. It says that the best cruise liner in the world is to embark on cruises for Malta. The newspaper also quotes Dr Said saying he was determined to increase his work in politics.

Illum says that an internal exercise was going on within the Labour Party to improve its image. It says that the constitution had been amended some years ago to protect guilty MPs. In another story, Children’s Commissioner Helen D’Amato insists certain benefits should increase.

The international press

Az-Zaman reports Israeli settlers have hauled all kinds of construction equipment into Revava, a Jewish settlement deep inside the West Bank – just hours before the end of a government-mandated moratorium to settlement building. Danny Danon, a pro-settler politician in Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said activists would lay the cornerstone for a new neighbourhood after the restrictions formally end latet today.

The Washington Times says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was racing to broker a compromise before the deadline in the hope of averting a breakdown in the newly-revived peace talks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and top Israeli officials, including the defence minister and Mr Netanyahu’s chief negotiator, are all in the US working on the issue. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, home to 300,000 Jewish settlers, as part of a future state.

Manchester Evening News reports Labour's new leader has pledged to work "every hour of every day" to remove David Cameron from Downing Street. Ed Miliband received rapturous applause when he attended an evening reception in Manchester held by Labour's London region, just hours after winning the dramatic leadership contest. He defeated his bigger brother David Miliband by just 1.3 per cent. It has been suggested that Ed would move the party to the left.

Deutsche Welle says German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, stressed German credibility and trustworthiness in a bid for a seat on the UN Security Council. Germany, together with other global players like Japan, India and Brazil, has long harboured a desire for a permanent seat on the Security Council. He also advocated a shake-up in the council, claiming the UN no longer reflected the architecture of today's world.

L’Arena reports victims of child abuse by Catholic priests in Italy have gathered in Verona, and called for such abuse to be made a crime against humanity. Organiser Salvatore Damolo, a former victim and an ex-priest, said the aim was to give victims a platform to talk about their experiences. Italian bishops say around 100 cases of abuse have been investigated by Church authorities in the past decade. But organisers of the conference say the true number of victims is much higher.

Aftonbladet says police in Sweden have released a man arrested over a bomb scare on a passenger plane. The PIA Boeing 777, carrying 273 people, was flying from Canada to Pakistan when officials contacted the pilot to tell him about the threat. Police officials said the man, aged between 25 and 30, was not on any international no-fly lists and had cleared a security check in Toronto, Canada. He did not resist when police took him into custody. Investigators questioned the man at a police station, and he was later released.

Chilevision reports that the specially-built cage to rescue 33 men trapped underground in a mine in Chile has arrived at the mine head. The man-size tube made of steel mesh and sheets will lift the men out one by one once one of the three rescue holes being drilled reach the group. If all went well, the miners should be free by early November. Meanwhile, a Chilean court has frozen €7.25 million in assets belonging to a mining company to fund the huge rescue operation.

The Sydney Morning Herald says a new safety campaign has been launched in Australia the number of people drowing tripled in three to 82, of whom 26 were tourists or migrants. The figures have prompted the organiser of volunteer lifeguards at Australian beaches, to persuade airlines to show a safety video on flights bound for the country.

El Universal reports that police in Mexico say they have arrested the man they say has replaced the top member of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel killed by soldiers last July. Also known as “The Tiger”, 44-year-old Margarito Soto Reyes, is aid to have shipped a half-ton of drugs to the US each month.

Sporting Times quotes the president of the Commonwealth Games Mike Fennel saying more work was still needed before the event in India and that security of athletes was of "great concern". Mr Fennell said India had done much work to resolve the problems in recent days. A collapsed footbridge, falling ceiling tiles, a dengue fever outbreak and the Games Village being "unfit for human habitation" caused an uproar in India and abroad, raising questions over the country's ability to host the Games.

Three British tabloids – the Sunday Mirror, the News of the World and the Daily Star – report that David Beckham's lawyers have served prostitute Irma Nici a $25 million (€18.5 million) libel writ at a New York hotel where she had been holed up since her three-in-a-bed allegations were published in downmarket US magazine “In Touch”. The 21-page document, already lodged with the Los Angeles court, accuses publisher Bauer and editor Michelle Lee of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress, despite being expressly warned that the story was total fabrication.