Press Digest

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

The Times leads with talks between the EU and Libya on a Libyan request for €5bln to stop migration. It also reports on Tiffany Pisani's triumph at Britain's Next Top Model contest.

The Malta Independent says nine people were injured in various incidents over the weekend. It also says Toyota, Peugeot and Ford are the most targeted cars in Malta.

In-Nazzjon says Fgura Council is under investigation for alleged breach of financial regulations. It also says the the first engines have arrived for the power station extension.

l-orizzont says European trade union federation general secretary John Monks has described comments by the prime minister as irresponsible. It also says that Arms Ltd has been receiving 2,000 ocomplaints every day.

The overseas press

Ansa some 70 Egyptians, Tunisians and Palestinians, including several children, yesterday landed off a 20-metre rusty boat at Latina, about 60 kilometres southwest of the Italian capital - the first-ever migrant landing in Lazio. Il Tempo quotes the Italian Red Cross saying the migrant routes were changing.

The International Herald Tribune says more governments have issued travel alerts about possible new terror attacks in Europe. Following on the footsteps of the United States and Britan, Sweden and Japan issued statements warning their citizens travelling in Europe of a hightened risk by Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups.

US television broadcaster Fox News, citing intelligence sources, reported that the Brandenburg Gate, the notable television tower at Alexanderplatz, and the central train station were specific targets of potential terror attacks in Berlin. The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris were also on the Fox News list as targets of a Mumbai-style attacks.

Deutsche Welle says German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere saw no reason to increase Germany's terror threat level, saying the government would continue its current state of vigilance. He warned against overreacting to the travel advisory and media reports emphasising there was no reason whatsoever to be alarmist at the moment.

Meanwhile, the BBC says at least eight al-Qaeda militants - three of whom were German nationals of Arab or Turkish origin - have been killed in a drone attack on a house in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan. US media outlets reported that the CIA had ramped up missile strikes from its unmanned drones, targeting militants who are believed to have inspired the alleged al-Qaeda plot to attack European cities.

AFP reports that a bomb planted in a car has exploded outside a shopping centre in Derry, Northern Ireland, causing substantial damage but no injuries. The police said a warning had been received just over an hour earlier and dozens of homes and businesses, including a nursing home, were evacuated.

L'Avvenire says a Vatican official has criticised the award of the Nobel Prize for medicine to 85-year-old Robert Edwards, the scientist whose work on treatment for human infertility led to the birth of some four million test-tube babies. Mgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the award disregarded the destruction of human embryos.

In the UK, jobless families could lose up to £16,000 a year after a crackdown on benefits promised by Chancellor George Osborne. The Financial Times reports angry complaints to radio phone-ins and a media backlash as Britons reacted to the Chancellor's address at the conservative Party conference. The Daily Mail says middle-class stay-at-home mothers "rose up" in anger at the coalition plans while Metro quotes Labour MP Diane Abbott as saying Mr Osborne's plans were "like a form of social cleansing" with the poor forced out of affluent areas.

Chilevision reports there were new hopes that the 33 miners trapped under ground in Chile might be brought up by the weekend, with a drill only and 160 metres away. Once the drill reached the men's refuge, within a day or two, a metal pipe will be put inside rescue capsule tube, to winch the men to the surface one by one.

Perth News says Australian police are being criticised over the use of taser stun guns as restraining devices. This follows the release of a video which shows police in Western Australia using a taser gun 13 times on an Aboriginal man who was thought to be mentally ill.

Panapress reports the authorities in Nigeria have detained an questioned Raymond Dikpesi, the director of the presidential campaign of the former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, one of President Goodluck Jonathan's main political rivals. He was held in connection with the bomb attacks on Friday that killed 12 people in the capital Abuja as Nigeria marked 50 years of independence. He was later released.

Environmental News says Oxfam has called on the US to stop subsidising exports of American rise to Haiti because it undermined local food production. The international aid agency said Haiti used to be self-sufficient in rice production but now imports 80 per cent of its rice.

Variety announces the death of comedian and actor Sir Norman Wisdom at a nursing home on the Isle of Man after suffering a series of strokes over the past six months. He was 95. He appeared in 32 television sitcoms, 19 films and won Royal approval with a string of Command Performances. He also earned international acclaim, winning fans from Albania to Argentina and China to the Soviet Union. He became so popular that Charlie Chaplin said: "If anyone's going to replace me - it's Norman Wisdom."