Press digest

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

The Times says that job agencies have targeted pilots at Air Malta.

The Malta Independent reports the protests held in Brussels ahead of the EU summit yesterday.

In-Nazzjon quotes Fr Peter Serracino Inglott saying the introduction of divorce is premature . It also focuses on the job-creation aims of the EU.

l-orizzont says the government is in panic four months before an education reform comes on stream.

The overseas press

Reuters reports European leaders have agreed to increase their financial rescue fund to the full €440 billion by June, but avoided discussion of Portugal which was under pressure to seek a bailout following the resignation of its government. Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned on Wednesday after parliament rejected new austerity measures that he had hoped would allow the country to avoid following Greece and Ireland in needing to ask for EU/IMF financial assistance.

The Irish Times quotes Prime Minister Enda Kenny flatly denying a U-turn on efforts to secure a new interest rate deal on bailout loans. Ahead of a summit of European leaders in Brussels and with the interest rate debate suddenly off the agenda, he said he wanted to see analysis of stress tests on the banks first. The tests should show the full financial damage done by the property crash and downturn.

The Evening Standard says International Criminal Court prosecutor says he is “100 per cent” certain that his investigation would lead to charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said during a visit to Cairo his team was looking into six incidents of violence against civilians and trying to identify those who participated in and ordered the attacks. He would brief the UN Security Council on his findings in May and present his case to the international court’s judge soon after.

Brussels’ Le Soir reports that NATO agreed late yesterday to take over part of the military operations against Libya – the enforcement of the no-fly zone – after days of hard bargaining among its members. But attacks on the ground would continue to be run by the coalition led by the United States, which has been anxious to give up the lead role. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance operation would proceed in parallel with the bombing campaign carried out by coalition aircraft.

Al Jazeera reports there was less military action in Tripoli last night than the previous five nights since the no-fly zone was imposed. Yesterday, French fighter jets hit aircraft and a military base deep inside Libya as the US reduced its combat role in the international operation that is working to thwart Muammar Gaddafi's forces by land, sea and air. The Associated Press says Libya's air force has been effectively neutralized, and the government has taken part of its fight to the airwaves. State television aired pictures of bodies it said were victims of airstrikes, but a US intelligence report bolstered rebel claims that Gaddafi's forces had simply taken bodies from a morgue.

Haaretz reports Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a new wave of rockets that landed deep inside Israel, defying Israeli retaliatory attacks and threats. As the violence threatened to escalate the day after a deadly Jerusalem bombing, Israel got a boost from visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said no country could tolerate the "repugnant" attacks on its soil.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, at least 25 people were killed and dozens of buildings destroyed when a strong earthquake struck Burma near the Thai border. A Burmese official warned there could be "many more casualties" in the town of Tarlay, close to the epicentre. Shockwaves were felt as far away as Bangkok, almost 800 kilometres from the epicentre, Hanoi and parts of China during the, which the US Geological Survey (USGS) measured at magnitude 6.8.

Vancouver Sun reports Canada's three opposition parties planned to topple the conservative government in a vote of no confidence in Parliament today and trigger the country's fourth election in seven years. Prime Minister Stephen Harper faced allegations – supported on Monday by a Parliamentary committee – that he acted in contempt of Parliament by failing to disclose the full financial details of his tougher crime legislation, corporate tax cuts and plans to purchase stealth fighter jets.

USA Today says the US Census Bureau's first set of national-level findings from 2010 on race and migration show a decade in which rapid minority growth, aging whites and the housing boom and bust were the predominant themes. The final count: 196.8 million whites, 37.7 million blacks, 50.5 million Hispanics and 14.5 million Asians. Hispanics and Asians were the two fastest growing demographic groups, increasing about 42 percent from 2000. Hispanics, now comprise one in six Americans; among US children, Hispanics are roughly one in four.

Data obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed that 13 children under the age of 10 had been issued with gun licences in the UK during the past three years. The youngest was a seven-year-old. The figures, from 51 forces around the UK, showed that 7,071 licences were issued to under-18s between 2008 and 2010,