Press digest

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

The Times reports that Gozo ferry Captain Mario Grech has been involved in a new row over safety. It also highlights yesterday’s suicide bombing in Damascus.

The Malta Independent gives prominence to the early completion of City Gate and the open theatre and also to the inauguration of the aviation park.

The inauguration of the aviation park is also highlighted in In-Nazzjon, which also reports on criticism of the Labour leadership by Labour MP Adrian Vassallo.

l-orizzont highlights the plight of a Libyan boy suffering cancer in Malta and asks if he is being ignored by the authorities by not issuing a Schengen visa.

The overseas press

marid b kancer and ignored in maltaSome positive political developments in the eurozone have brought relief to investors in the United States and Europe. Bloomberg reports that Wall Street bounced back as Greece's moderate socialists were charged with forming a government after two previous attempts by opposition parties failed, and eurozone officials agreed to keep financing the country until it forms a new government. Elsewhere in the eurozone, Spain's government took over the ailing Bankia SA bank, a move that also boosted sentiment.

The leaders of two socialist parties in Greece have said they would work together in order to keep the country in the eurozone. Kathimerini quotes Evangelos Venizelos, leader of Pasok, saying he saw the first "good omen" in effort to forge a government that would avert the looming prospect of a new election. He spoke after meeting Fotis Kouvelis, leader of Democratic Left, who outlined a proposal for a unity government until 2014 that would strive to keep the heavily-indebted country in the euro and the European Union, while negotiating a gradual "disengagement" from the harshest austerity measures every experienced.

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn will present the European Union's spring forecast for the bloc's economy later today. The influential German magazine Der Spiegel says that one word will be a leitmotif during his speech: growth, which since François Hollande’s victory as France’s new president, has become the top item on the Brussels agenda. European leaders will meet a special summit on growth on May 23 and to adopt a "growth pact" at the next regular EU summit at the end of June. The magazine predicts that the European fiscal pact, which would not be re-negotiated, would be augmented by a separate "growth pact."

London’s Daily Telegraph says Hollande has threatened to block the eurozone's new financial treaty unless Germany agreed to renegotiate its stringent austerity measures. Benoit Hamon, spokesman for Hollande's Socialist Party, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was defending her position but she could not bypass the will of the French people."If nothing moves, the treaty will not be submitted for ratification." Merkel had hoped to ratify the fiscal pact, including an EU treaty creating a eurozone bailout fund, on May 25 in Germany's parliament, six days before Ireland holds a popular vote and ahead of French legislative elections in mid-June.

The New York Times reports the UN Security Council has condemned two car bomb attacks that killed at least 55 people and wounded almost 400 in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday. The council urged all sides to "immediately and comprehensively" implement the peace plan for Syria. Syrian officials say "foreign-backed terrorists" carried out a twin suicide car-bomb attack in Damascus. The bombs exploded near a military intelligence building during the morning rush hour.

Al Ahram says that millions of Egyptians tuned in to hear the first-ever live debate between presidential candidates. It featured the two expected front-runners in the presidential vote later this month: former Arab League head Amr Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh. As the TV debate got under way, Moussa attacked the record of his rival as a former leading member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. Fotouh, on the other hand, called the former foreign minister a remnant of the ousted regime.The first round of voting is on May 23 and 24. If no-one has an absolute majority a run-off will be held in June.

CNN reports a panel of US health experts has for the first time backed a drug to prevent HIV infection in healthy people. In a move that could prove to be a new milestone in the fight against HIV/Aids, the panel recommended US regulators approve the daily pill, Truvada, for use by people considered at high risk of contracting the Aids virus. Truvada is already approved by the FDA for people who are HIV-positive, and is taken along with existing anti-retroviral drugs. Studies showed it reduced the risk of HIV in healthy gay men and among HIV-negative heterosexual partners of people who are HIV positive by between 44 per cent and 73 per cent.

EU Observer says the European Parliament has approved regulations making the use of a mobile phone abroad significantly cheaper. The plans, which were voted in by a huge majority, include imposing a price cap on operators. From July, calls would be capped at 29 eurocents per minute, plus VAT – far less than current rates. Consumers would also be able to choose a different operator abroad from the one they use at home.

Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has apologised for his "high school pranks" after former schoolmates accused him of being the ringleader in a bullying attack on a student who was presumed to be gay. He was reacting to a Washington Post story that detailed a 1965 incident in which Mr Romney pinned down a fellow student and cut his hair at their Michigan school. The report came a day after Democrat President Barack Obama declared he now supports same-sex marriage.

Science reports archaeologists working at the Xultun ruins of the Mayan civilisation in Guatemala have reported striking finds, including the oldest-known Mayan astronomical tables. They date from the early 9th Century, pre-dating other Mayan calendars by centuries. Such calendars rose to prominence recently amid claims they predicted the end of the world in 2012. But scientists now say that the world would continue for another 7,000 years.