Press digest

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

The Times quotes the international CEO of Arriva saying that it will take months to  perfect the bus service but the service will be fantastic.  It also reports how legal history was written when a man accused of drug trafficking was let free because the only evidence was a police statement taken when the man was not receiving legal aid.

The Malta Independent reports that the pilots’ union is calling for political decisions to be taken on Air Malta. It also reports how alcohol sales will be allowed from partitioned sections of concert venues.  

In-Nazzjon says Arriva has promised an improvement in the bus service and more workers and being brought in to operate the system.

l-orizzont reports under big letters that a care worker employed by a private company at Mater Dei was dismissed after joining the GWU.

The overseas press

The announcement of the News Of  The World's closure has sent shock waves throughout British politics, business and the media. Metro says the paper was dying of shame after years of illegal phone hacking. The Independent claims the Sunday tabloid had been sacrificed to save the chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks. The Daly Mirror reports there was fury that Brooks clung to her job as 200 staff faced the sack. There have been repeated calls for Brooks to resign. But Mr Murdoch stood by her again, saying he was satisfied with her conduct.

The BBC says the168-year-old tabloid is accused of hacking into the mobile phones of crime victims, celebrities and politicians. On Thursday, the Met Police said it was seeking to contact 4,000 possible targets named in seized documents. News International chairman James Murdoch has said no advertisements would run in this weekend's paper. Instead, any advertising space would be donated to charities and good causes, and proceeds from sales would also go to good causes.

The Guardian says Andy Coulson, a former editor who used to be David Cameron's director of communications, would be arrested this morning over suspicions that he knew about, or had direct involvement in, the hacking of mobile phones during his time as editor of the News of the World. The paper also says that a former senior journalist at the paper will also be arrested in the next few days.

Voice of America reports that police in the US state of Michigan have launched a manhunt after seven people – five women, a man and a child – were found shot dead in two houses in the city of Grand Rapids. Police said the 31-yar-old suspect was believed to be armed and had led officers on a high-speed chase, after which a neighbourhood in the north of the city had been cordoned off.

The Jerusalem Post says Israel has stepped up security at Tel Aviv airport, ahead of the arrival of 500 pro-Palestinian activists, most of them French nationals, on Friday. The so-called "flytilla" comes as the Greek authorities have blocked the sailing of an aid flotilla trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The moves come on the first anniversary of the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, when nine Turkish activists were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the lead ship, causing an international outcry.

Syria has accused the US of "interfering" in its affairs after the US ambassador to the country travelled to the flashpoint city of Hama. Al Thawra quotes the Syrian foreign ministry saying the visit by Robert Ford was "obvious proof" of US involvement in continuing protests in the country. Earlier, the US State Department said Mr Ford's visit was to show solidarity with protesters. and hopes to stay in Hama for anti-government protests which normally follow Friday prayers. Tanks are stationed outside the city and at least 22 people have been shot dead in recent days.

The Egyptian Gazette says that demonstrators are returning to the centre of Cairo ahead of planned protests against the slow pace of change in the country. The protest has been called by opposition groups who have been complaining that not enough has been done to change the Egyptian government after almost six months after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power.

Al Ayyam reports that the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has appeared on state TV for the first time since he also died in a rocket attack on his presidential compound. Speaking in an address recorded in Saudi Arabia, where he is being treated for his injuries, Saleh said he had undergone eight successful operations.

Texas Tribune says a Mexican citizen has been executed in the United States for the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Texas in 1994. The execution by lethal injection went ahead despite a series of last minute appeals.

Panamericana TV reports celebrations are underway in Peru to mark 100 years since the official rediscovery of the ancient city of Machu Picchu, the Inca city in the Andes. When American historian and explorer Hiram Bingam found the site in 1911, it was most hidden beneath dense jungle. Almost a million tourists a year visit the site.

Dagbladett says surgeons in Sweden have carried out the world’s first synthetic organ transplant – an artificial windpipe. It was coated in stem cells from a 36-year-old African man who has cancer.