Press digest

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

The Times reports how a boat left Misurata just before an attack. It also reports a call by trade unions for action on the hospital bed shortage.

The Malta Independent features yesterday’s two traffic accidents which left two women and three children injured.

In-Nazzjon interviews a Nigerian woman who made it to Malta as an immigrant, escaping from Libya.

l-orizzont says €90m in trade with Libya is under threat because of the upheaval in that country.

The overseas press

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. The Washington Times quotes the bank saying world food prices wre 36 per cent above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa, and remain volatile. That has pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June. A further 10 per cent rise would push 10 million more below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 (€0.86) a day and a 30  per cent cost hike in the price of staples could lead to 34 million more poor.

 In a joint article published in The Times, The Washington Post and Le Figaro, President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicholas Sarkozy have reaffirmed the need to keep up pressure on Col. Gaddafi. They said protecting civilians was not enough – Col. Gaddafi had to go.

Earlier a defiant Gaddafi was seen on Libyan state television, Al Libiya TV,  being driving around through the streets of Tripoli. He was seen pumping his fists as he poked through the sun roof of an SUV – the same day that NATO airstrikes shook the city. But he gave no sign that he was willing to relent. Instead, his loyalists pounded rebel positions in the besieged western city of Misrata with dozens of rockets for several hours, killing at least 13 people.

Berliner Zeitung says the alliance's foreign ministers, while united in their aim to pressure the Libyan leader to go, argued at a meeting in Berlin over whether to step up military operations that have so far failed to rout him. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen appealed for more planes to conduct air strikes, with many member states unwilling to join the front line.

Al Ayyam quotes Hamas security officials in Gaza saying he body has been found of an Italian pro-Palestinian activist who had been kidnapped on Thursday. Vittorio Arrigoni was found hanged in a house in Gaza City. Two men have been arrested.

In the UK, The Independent leads on the story of Briton Lee Brown, 39, who was allegedly beaten to death in the notorious Bur Dubai police station after being arrested and being subjected to severe beatings by officers for an argument with a hotel cleaner while on holiday. British diplomats met police in the Gulf emirate at the "highest level" to demand an urgent investigation into the case.

Syria state TV says President Assad has ordered the release of hundreds of people detained during the recent government protests. The report said only those involved in criminal acts would remain in detention.

The Irish Times reports 50 more people have made clerical sex abuse allegations against priests in the Dublin Archdiocese, since the publication of the Murphy report in 2009. It brings the number of complainants to 570 people against 93 priests – nine more than previously on the records of the archdiocese. The total amount paid out in settlements has increased by €2.5 million to €13.5 million.

Meanwhile, Le Soir says former Belgian bishop Roger Vangheluwe has gone live on TV to talk about how he sexually abused two boys but does not see himself as a paedophile. Emerging from hiding, he revealed he had molested two of his nephews, and not one, as he had confessed last year before resigning as bishop of Bruges. The 74-year-old is believed to be living outside Belgium since being ordered to leave the country by the Vatican, which has yet to decide on his future.

New Straits Times reports sea piracy around the world has hit a record high of 142 attacks in the first quarter this year. The International Maritime Bureau said nearly 70 per cent or 97 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Somalia, up sharply from 35 in the same period last year. Attackers seized 18 vessels worldwide, including three big tankers, in the January-March period and captured 344 crew members. Pirates also murdered seven crew members and injured 34 during the quarter.

The Retailer says a survey in the UK has found that children's body shapes have ballooned so much, clothes designed for their age no longer fit them. As well as being taller than kids of the same age 30 years ago, waistlines of 11-year-old girls are 8cm larger while boys are nearly 7cm bigger. Up to 2,500 four to 17-year-olds had their measurements taken for the survey in which the data will be used by retailers designing clothes.