Press digest

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

The Times reports that Brussels has drawn up new rules to make banks stronger. It also reports how a man drowned after a rescue in Paradise Bay yesterday.

The Malta Independent leads with the crucial meeting today of eurozone leaders.

l-orizzont leads with SMSs by Vince Farrugia about the assault on him by Sandro Chetcuti. It also reprts that Mepa imposed, and then withdrew, an 'illegal' charge.

In-Nazzjon also focuses with the eurozone summit on the Greek debt.

The overseas press

The Irish Enquirer reports that Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched an unprecedented attack on the Vatican, accusing Catholic hierarchy of putting the preservation of the church's reputation ahead of child rape victims. In what observers described as "a damning assessment of Rome's attitude to paedophile priests", Kenny claimed the latest inquiry into clerical abuse cover-ups had exposed "a dysfunctional, elite hierarchy determined to frustrate investigations". Speaking in the Dáil in a debate on the Cloyne report, he also warned the Holy See that religion does not rule Ireland. "This is not Rome," he said. "This is the Republic of Ireland, 2011."

On Vatican Radio, spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi dismissed the criticism and denied that Irish bishops were encouraged or advised "to cover up clerical abuse or evade laws designed to protect children". Fr Lombardi said he was not speaking on behalf of Pope Benedict and claimed the severity of criticisms against the Holy See was "curious". He recalled and renewed "the intense feelings of grief and condemnation expressed by the Pope during his meeting with the Irish bishops in 2009. At the time, the Pope openly spoke of his "shock and shame" at the "heinous crimes" committed, he said.

In an interview on RTÉ Television, Dublin's Archbishop, Mgr Diarmuid Martin, accepted the Vatican "was unhelpful" in sending the 1997 letter questioning the authority of Irish bishops to agree on child protection. The Diocese of Cloyne had ignored Vatican policy issued in 2001 by Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The archbishop said that Kenny's attack on the Catholic Church should be "a wake-up call for dishonest and immoral clergymen". An outspoken critic of the Church's handling of abuse, Mgr Martin said the only way all allegations, abuse and cover-ups can be exposed was through invasive audits of each diocese.

Reuters reports that Germany and France have reached a common position on a second bailout of Greece in their effort to prevent the country's debt crisis from spreading through Europe. The accord came after seven hours of talks late into Wednesday night between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin. The Franco-German accord would now be presented to a summit in Brussels later today of all 17 leaders of the single currency area to address the Greek crisis, which in the last two weeks had threatened to engulf bigger states such as Italy.

The Financial Times says the rescue plan could include €71 billion in bail-out funds from global lenders and a €50 billion tax on eurozone banks. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet joined Merkel and Sarkozy for part of their talks.

France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has suggested that a possible way out of Libya's civil war would be to allow Muammar Gaddafi to stay in the country if he relinquished power. He told LCI Television saying that Gaddafi could stay only if " he clearly steps aside from Libya's political life". With the Nato-led air campaign against Gaddafi's forces entering its fifth month and the fighting in a stalemate, the international community is seeking exit strategies. Juppe was speaking after President Nicolas Sarkozy met in Paris with three rebel leaders from the western port city of Misrata who are seeking aid and arms to move toward Tripoli. Mr Sarkozy announced no specific measures in response.

In London, The Independent quotes Prime Minister David Cameron, defending his integrity to parliament in an emergency session on Wednesday, saying he regretted hiring a journalist at the heart of the scandal that has rocked Britain's press, police and politicians. But in two stormy hours of questioning he seemed to rally his Conservative party behind him and stopped short of bowing to demands that he apologise outright for what the Labour party leader Ed Milliband called a "catastrophic error of judgment" in hiring a former editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World as a spokesman. The prime minister would only offer a "profound apology" if Andy Coulson, who has since resigned, turned out to have lied about being unaware of illegal practices at his newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph says News International have bowed to pressure and lifted a gagging order which it had imposed on its lawyers, meaning that the full extent of the alleged phone hacking cover-up could be disclosed. The Daily Mirror suggests that Prime Minister David Cameron was under more pressure after an unnamed civil servant claimed that he had his phone hacked by the News Of The World. And The Daily Star runs an exclusive story about how celebrity couple Jordan and Peter Andre believe they had their phones hacked by the News Of The World.

The Sun leads on the arrest of 27-year-old nurse Rebecca Leighton, who is alleged to have switched saline drips with insulin and killed at least three patients at Stepping Hill Hospital. Leighton was arrested in a dawn raid. Sky News says the arrest came amid intense police activity at the hospital where staff had been ordered to work in pairs since the discovery. All drugs were being double-checked and security guards have been monitoring access to medicines.

Ekstra Bladet says an anonymous donor in Denmark has left over one million Danisk Kroners (nearly €140,500) in a clothes recycling bin outside a charity shop run by the Red Cross. A note attached said: "To the Danish Red Cross, from anonymous. Have collected for 40 years." Staff at the shop are very grateful, but the police have asked the donor to come forward so they could make sure the money was not tied to any criminal activity.