Press digest

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

The Times reports how the head of the Divorce Movement has been barred from the Church Tribunal.

The same story tops The Malta Independent, with the Divorce Movement accusing the Church of bullying.

l-orizzont says the ban on the Divorce Movement head was a case of vindictiveness.

In-Nazzjon says Labour MP Michael Falzon has been crticised for his comments backing Italy’s actions on illegal immigration.

The overseas press

Al-Ayyam quotes the rival Palestinian factions – Fatah and Hamas – saying they had reached an initial agreement on reconciliation. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, an interim government would be formed and a date fixed for elections. The groups have been divided for more than four years, with Hamas in power in Gaza and Fatah running the West Bank.

The Jerusalem Post says Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Palestinian Authority it could not have peace with both Israel and Hamas, which has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist. The Washington Times says the Obama administration responded to the news by saying that any Palestinian unity government would have to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

Reuters says it is in passion of a signed declaration by 200 members of the Baath party in power in Syria, declaring that they had resigned en masse to protest the violent suppression of protests in the city of Daraa, the centre of the demonstrations against the regime in Damascus. The news came as The New York Times said the UN Security Council had failed to agree on a statement condemning Syrian government violence. Meanwhile, Le Monde reports that five EU member-states – France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain – had summoned Syrian ambassadors in the respective countries to condemn Damascus' recent violent crackdown. The joint action was coordinated by France.

AFP says police in Paris have arrested 60 suspected illegal migrants  – mainly Tunisians but also including Egyptians, Libyans and Algerians – for breaking residency laws. France, part of the EU border-free Schengen zone, is seeking to re-impose internal frontier controls. The UN believes at least 335,000 people have fled Libya since the beginning of the conflict, including at least 200,000 foreign nationals.

The Wall Street Journal quotes US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke telling American politicians to take action to cut the deficit in the government’s finances. He described the deficit as the most important long-term economic problem faced by the United States.

Ivoir Soir says a renegade Ivory Coast militia leader, whose forces helped the country's new President Alassane Ouattara gain power, has been killed by government troops. The leader of the so-called Invisible Commandos, Ibrahim Coulibaly, was killed in an offensive on Wednesday. The Commandos had helped Ouattara gain control of parts of Abidjan during a post-poll dispute but had since fallen out.

The BBC reports that parts of central London were closed for three hours during the early hours of the morning so that soldiers, sailors and members of the air force could begin walking through the route for tomorrow’s Royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Some 1,000 people took part in the rehearsal to check timings for the procession, which includes a fleet of Rolls-Royce cars and specially-trained horses. Prime Minister David Cameron and Opposition Leader Ed Milliband spoke in Parliament about their good wishes for the Royal couple. A million extra people are expected to be in London for the wedding.

Il Tempo reports that the first groups of the one million pilgrims expected to attend Pope John Paul II’s beatification on Sunday have started trickling into Rome. More than 50 heads of state and hundreds of thousand pilgrims are expected to attend. The Vatican said in a statement that one of four small vials of blood removed from the pontiff before he died is to go on display at the ceremony. Pope John Paul II, whose papacy lasted 27 years, died in 2005 after battling Parkinson's disease.

Ansa reports that the beatification ceremony will be filmed in 3D. The latest TV coverage complements a range of multimedia that will be used by the Vatican to share the three days of beatification events with more than a billion Catholics around the world. For the special events Vatican TV, or CTV, will use a mobile unit worth €3.6 million. CTV will use 16 TV cameras, eight high-definition cameras and at least three 3D cameras all of which will be in a 14-metre mobile unit.