Press digest

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

The Times quotes the Chief Justice insisting on correct behaviour by the judiciary. He was speaking at the opening of the Forensic Year yesterday.

The Malta Independent carries a picture of the huge container ship CMA CGM Pegasus which was christened at Malta Freeport yesterday under the Maltese flag. It also quotes Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri calling for a re-evaluation of the Commission for the Administration of Justice.

In-Nazzjon also features the christening of the ship. In another story, is says that Malta saw the steepest decline in unemployment in the EU.

l-orizzont says Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has been unable to reply to questions on BWSC and its subcontractors made in May. It also says that the biggest number of complaints to the Ombudsman involved the Office of the Prime Minister.

The overseas press

President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala says the United States committed a crime against humanity almost 60 years ago when it deliberately infected hundreds of Guatemalans with gonorrhea and syphilis. He told the BBC he was very angry when he learned that American doctors had conducted medical trials involving psychiatric patients and prisoners without these giving their consent.

The Washington Independent says President Barack Obama has now apologized to Mr Colom, telling him the experiments ran contrary to American values. However, no offer of compensation has yet been made, but an investigation would be launched into the trials which took place between 1946 and 1948.

Tribune de Genève quotes the International Labour Organisation saying global employment is unlikely to recover from the financial crisis until 2015, two years later than previously forecast. The ILO blamed austerity programmes.

The Wall Street Journal says the FBI has said it has cracked a big fraud operation involving the theft of about $70 million carried out by members of a network based in the Ukraine. The used a computer virus to steal details of bank accounts in the United States.

The Guardian of Nigeria reports that car bombs have killed at least eight people in the capital Abuja as the nation was marking 50 years of its independence. Earlier, the militant group Mend (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) had threatened to target the festivities. The group fights of a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wells.

El Pais says more than 40 people have been arrested in Spain on suspicion of laundering money for the Latin-American rebel group, the Farc. The suspects are alleged to have sent millions of dollars from drug trafficking to Latin America.

Corriere Adriatico reports that two American balloonists who disappeared in the Adriatic while taking part in an air race are feared to have died. The experienced balloonists Richard Abruzzo, 47, and Carol Rymer Davis, 65 – were part of a group of 20 ballooning teams that took off from Bristol on Saturday. Earlier, Mrs Abruzzo said she firmly believed they would be found alive.

Jamaica Observer says rescue crews in Jamaica dredged rivers and dug through debris and thick mud to look for bodies as the number of dead rose to six and another 15 were missing after Tropical Storm Nicole unleashed floods and mudslides. About 300 people remain in shelters across the island. Nearly 100,000 people remained without power and tens of thousands without water.

Globe & Mail reports the former head of Nelson Mandela’s children’s charity Jeremy Ractliffe is being tried on charges of possessing uncut diamonds that featured in a recent war crimes trial. Supermodel Naomi Campbell told the International Criminal Court in August she was given uncut diamonds while in South Africa for a Mandela charity fundraiser in 1997 which was also attended by former Liberian leader Charles Taylor. Campbell said she passed the diamonds to Ractliffe, who quietly kept them.

El Pais reports that Spanish soccer club Real Madrid has sent signed jerseys to the 33 miners who have been trapped underground nearly two months in Chile and invited them to attend a match at the club's stadium once they were released. Earlier this month Barcelona striker David Villa, whose family have worked in mining for generations, sent two signed jerseys to the 33 miners. One of the trapped workers, 55-year-old Franklin Lobos was a professional soccer player in his youth who made the Chilean national