Press digest

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

The Times says that hunters have reported killing 2,200 birds. It also says that the priests’ sex case is nearing its end.

The Malta Independent reports that the US aims to destroy al-Qaeda.

MaltaToday says the divorce campaign has become down and dirty.

In-Nazzjon leads with the start of demolition of City Gate.

l-orizzont reports that milk prices go up by 3c today

The overseas press:

Portugal has reached agreement on a bail-out from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Expresso quotes Prime Minister José Socrates saying the three-year loan of €78 billion was a "good agreement” but it still needed the agreement of the parties in opposition. Portugal is the third member of the 17-nation eurozone, after Greece and Ireland, to take a bailout due to crippling debts after its economy and financial plans went awry. It had warned it would run out of money next month.

Many newspapers around the world say the White House has backtracked on details of how Osama bin Laden was killed and now admitted he was unarmed.  The Washington Times quotes White House Spokesman Jay Carney saying the Al-Qaeda leader had resisted efforts to capture him alive. US forces had faced immediate and sustained resistance from many other people in the compound who were armed. On Monday it was said a woman died shielding Osama Bin Laden, but Mr Carney said a woman was only shot in the leg as she rushed the attackers. He said another woman was killed earlier in the raid.

The White House has also admitted it did not tell Pakistan about the raid in advance over fears they would jeopardise the mission. In a Time magazine article, billed as CIA Head Leon Panetta's first interview since Bin Laden was killed, he said the CIA had "ruled out participating with its nominal South Asian ally early on". It reports him as saying that "it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could have jeopardised the mission. They might alert the targets."

Pakistan denied any prior knowledge of the raid, describing it as an “unauthorized unilateral action which should not be repeated”. Its intelligence agency said it was embarrassed by its failures. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Expatica he found it hard to believe that Osama Bin Laden's presence in a relatively small town could have gone completely unnoticed by Pakistani authorities. He said he would ask for further explanations when he meets Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Paris later today.

US officials say they have not yet decided when to release photos of Bin Laden's body, which Mr Carney described as "gruesome". But CIA director Leon Panetta told NBC News that, gruesome or not, a photo of Bin Laden will ultimately be released.  There was "no question" the image would be released at some point, he said.

The Washington Post says White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said earlier material seized during the raid in Abbottabad could provide leads to the whereabouts of Ayman al-Zawihiri, thought to be al-Qaeda's deputy leader and Bin Laden's likely successor.

Politico reports that US President Obama has invited his predecessor George W. Bush to join him in a visit to Ground Zero tomorrow but Mr Bush declined. Mr Obama is set to meet relatives of 9/11 victims at the site of the World Trade Centre attacks. His last visit to the site was in 2008.

El Universal says a gas explosion in a coal mine in Mexico has trapped 14 miners and injured another in northern Coahuila state, near the US border. A mine employee wearing a mask and air tank was lowered into the shaft to evaluate conditions for a possible rescue. The miners had gone down the 60-metre- deep shaft when the explosion occured. The mine, which had opened just over a month ago, employed 25 miners.

USA Today says the United States has condemned Syria of using force against protesters describing the deployment of tanks and mass arrests as “barbaric measures”. Activists said the number of arrests around the country had risen to 1,000. They reported Syrian security forces have surrounded the coastal city of Baniyas, days after tanks and troops took control of Deraa in the south.

The BBC quotes Amnesty International saying North Korea was sending an increasing number of people to political prison camps. Although information was hard to verify, it said it had obtained satellite photographs of camps in isolated mountainous regions showing evidence of both refurbishment and some new construction.

Fancy a souvenir of the US Navy Seal raid that killed al-Qaeda's leader? Exchange & Mart says a buy-and-sell website, CafePress.co.uk, was offering a variety of products, from Osama bin Laden T-shirts to baby blankets. Or one could opt for a lime-green yoga mat, emblazoned with the words "Ding dong Osama's dead"!