Press digest

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

The Sunday Times says yesterday’s vote was a strong wave of support for Lawrence Gonzi. 

The Malta Independent says the PM reasserted his authority in the PN while Malta Today says Dr Gonzi was joyful, triumphant and in denial as further problems loom.

Il-Mument says Dr Gonzi won a strong vote of 95% while KullHadd remarks that after playing home, Dr Gonzi now needs to play away, in parliament. Illum notes how Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett were among those who did not vote yesterday.

It-Torca reports that Tony Zarb is insisting on an apology from GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia after workers in precarious jobs were called ‘rats’.  

The overseas press

As finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries began a two-day meeting in Mexico City, dominated by the European sovereign debt crisis, The New York Times quotes Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner saying European nations must do more to buffer their economies. At the centre of the dispute is the reluctance of cash-rich economies like China and Japan to contribute new money to the International Monetary Fund without a commitment from European countries to expand their own stabilization fund first. The United States has said that it will not contribute new money to the IMF. With any resolution unlikely this weekend, countries are expected to continue talks on the firewall at the annual spring IMF meeting in Washington.

Ariana TV reports that NATO forces are withdrawing from Afghan government ministries across Kabul after two US military advisers – believed to be a colonel and a major – were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry. The attack, for which the Taliban have claimed responsibility,  came as violent protests over the accidental burning of copies of the Koran at a US base continued for a fifth day. Despite an apology from President Obama, violent protests over the incident continue and at least 12 people have been killed and more than 60 wounded so far.

Pak Tribune says Pakistani security forces have started demolishing the compound where Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces last May. A large part of the building in Abottabad has been flattened by bulldozers.

The new Sun on Sunday – which fills a gap left by the now-defunct News of The World – has rolled off the presses for the first time as questions continue to be asked about alleged criminality and corruption at other News International titles. Sky News says an editorial in the new tabloid described the closure of the NOTW as a "sobering experience" and says the new publication would be "fearless, outspoken, mischievous and fun", and would hold all journalists to account.

Al Jazeera says that the Red Cross has made a further attempt to bring out people trapped in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, after a first successful rescue of civilians. The humanitarian effort came after Arab and Western states urged Damascus to “immediately cease all violence” and allow access, more than three weeks into a deadly assault on rebels in Syria's third largest city. But government forces resumed their shelling of Homs' Baba Amr district on Saturday afternoon, and attacked elsewhere, killing at least 60 civilians across the country. Some 20 members of the security forces were also killed.

Corriere della Sera reports that a Milan court has ruled that the statute of limitations has run out in a corruption case against Silvio Berlusconi. The billionaire media mogul was accused of paying British lawyer David Mills $600,000 (€446,000) to lie during two 1990s trials to shield the politician and his Fininvest holding company from charges related to his business dealings. Berlusconi had denied any wrongdoing.

Australia’s ABC says just one day out from the federal Labour caucus vote, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is looking likely to retain the leadership despite some support for Kevin Rudd. On Saturday, senior frontbencher Anthony Albanese choked back tears as he announced his plans to vote for Mr Rudd, while Victorian backbencher Laura Smyth also confirmed she had come to the same conclusion.  Both say the way Mr Rudd was taken down in 2010 is a key reason for their decision. But the Prime Minister has the support of most of the front bench and some say they would resign if Mr Rudd wins Monday's ballot.

Sanaa Radio says a car bomb outside the gate of a presidential compound in a southern Yemeni city killed at least 25 people, hours after the country’s new president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was formally inaugurated and vowed to fight al-Qaida. A security official said it was a suicide blast that bore the hallmarks of an operation by the militant group. Both al Qaida and southern separatists are active in the region.

Anatolia news agency reports Turkish surgeons have performed the world's first-ever quadruple limb transplant at Hacettepe university hospital in Ankara. The operation comes on the heels of the country's first-ever face transplant at another Turkish university hospital. Last month, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern city of Antalya successfully performed the operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby.

El Pais says tons of gold and silver from the wreck of a 19th-century Spanish warship finally arrived in Spain on Saturday, more than 200 years after a British fleet sank it. The arrival sealed the end of a five-year legal battle between Spain and the US treasure hunters who hauled up the trove – worth at least €350 million.

Shawn Levy, film critic for The Oregonian predicts that The Artist has the best chance to win the Oscar for Best Picture at tonight’s 84th Academy Award. Levy says The Artist seems to be this year's anointed film, having taken crucial prizes at the Directors, Producers and Screen Actors guilds. “There's some buzz about The Descendants, which split the top prizes with The Artist at the Golden Globes and won editing and screenwriting prizes from the guilds more recently. And there's chatter about The Help. "But The Artist has all the nominations and prior prizes that commonly predict best picture. Count The Descendants as a dark horse," Levy says. "But expect to hear a French-accented acceptance speech at the end of the night."