Press digest

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

The Times says a no-show by MPs forced a parliamentary sitting to be adjourned. It also reports how a 58-year-old man was critically injured when a roof collapsed.

The Malta Independent leads with the chaos in Cairo. It also reports that the government is considering a tagging system for prisoners on bail.

In-Nazzjon quotes Paul Borg Olivier saying that the PN had a duty to take a position on divorce,

l-orizzont says Jeffrey Pullicino Orland is not prepared to surrender as Austin Gatt leads opponents of divorce.

The overseas press

London’s pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reports that shots were fired and fires burned into the night on the streets of Cairo after yesterday’s violent clashes between supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak. Supporters of President Mubarak charged into Cairo's central Tahrir square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt's leader of 30 years.

Al Jazeera says there has been widespread condemnation to the clashes in the Egyptian capital. UN Secretary-General Bank Ki Moon, visiting London, expressed concern and urged restraint by all the sides. He said the world should not underestimate the danger of instability across the Middle East. The US Secretary f State Hilary Clinton told the Egyptian Vice-President Omar Suleiman there needed to be accountability.

In a rare interview with the Wall Street Journal, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the Middle East as suffering "a kind of disease" due to decades of stagnation, and stressed that it is up to Middle Eastern leaders to "keep up with change, as a state and as institutions." Al-Assad also clarified his vision for Syria, saying that he intended to push through political reforms this year that aim to initiate municipal elections, grant more power to non-governmental organizations, and establish a new media law.

Brisbane’s Courier Mail says the most powerful cyclone to strike northeastern Australia in nearly a century howled inland early today, tearing off roofs, flattening trees and cutting electricity to more than 170,000 people. As the sun rose after a night of furious winds and torrential rain, authorities advised residents to stay indoors until safety could be assessed in the still-dangerous conditions. Police said utility and transportation teams were surveying the extent of damage.

Chicago Tribune reports a fearsome storm spread a smothering shroud of white over nearly half the nation, snarling transportation from Oklahoma to New England, burying parts of the Midwest under two feet of snow and laying down dangerously heavy ice in the northeast that was too much for some buildings to bear. Tens of millions of people stayed home. Chicago's 20.2 inches of snow was the city's third-largest amount on record. In New York's Central Park, the pathways resembled skating rinks.

EU Times says Brussels has called on all airlines to share passenger data for flights entering and leaving the bloc in a bid to combat terrorism. The EU already has data sharing agreements with the United States, Canada and Australia, and some member states already keep track of passenger information, but the current proposal represents the first attempt to forge a bloc-wide passenger data sharing agreement. The European Parliament, however, has already signalled opposition to the proposal.

The Washington Times says a Republican drive to repeal the year-old health care law ended in party-line defeat in the Senate, leaving the Supreme Court to render a final, unpredictable verdict on an issue steeped in political and constitutional controversy. The vote was 47-51.

Relatives and friends of a Cuban woman have celebrated what they say was her 126th birthday, though that claim to longevity is not recognized internationally. Cuba's Prensa Latina agency says Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodriguez has a civil registry document that states she was born on February 2, 1885, in the town of Ceiba Hueca, where she still lives.

Los Angeles Times reports Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband has been hospitalized along with the 93-year-old actress. Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, 67, collapsed in an elevator at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre, where doctors are trying to clear an infection that developed after Gabor's recent leg amputation.

The Moroccan belly dancer Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi allegedly paid to have sex with when she was 17 has told daily La Repubblica she was marrying her disco-manager boyfriend in three weeks’ time. Karima El Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby Rubacuori 'heart-stealer', said she would then have a church wedding. Italy has been in a state of shock since prosecutors said last month that they were investigating allegations Ruby had been among a number of prostitutes to take part in alleged sex parties at one of the premier's homes. Both Berlusconi and Ruby, who is now 18, denied ever having sex.