Press digest

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

The Times says a Detention Service officer has been suspended for describing migrants as monkeys.  It also follows up JPO’s e-mail to the PN Executive.

The Malta Independent quotes Franco Debono saying ‘the worst is yet to come’ as a reaction to the PN Executive’s decision. It also reports on the chance to sanction structures which were not build according to the sanitation law.

In-Nazzjon said Air Malta workers are positive about Air Malta’s future. It also reports on yesterday’s press conference about new opportunities for the specialisation of family doctors.

l-orizzont says Franco Debono will not back the government for as long as Austin Gatt is in the Cabinet.

The overseas press

As reports emerged that the Syrian regime might be preparing to use chemical weapons, world leaders have condemned the latest massacre of more than 200 people in central Hama province as a "blatant violation" of UN special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan. ABC quotes UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying the attack cast "serious doubt" on President Assad's commitment to a peace plan. The US, France and the UK all condemned the violence and called for coordinated action from the UN Security Council. Annan, who said that he was "shocked and appalled" by reports, told the UN Security Council that it must warn President Assad of the consequences of ignoring its resolutions.

Meanwhile, The New York Times says envoys to the Security Council held their first talks on rival Russian and Western draft resolutions on Syria, with Moscow spurning calls for sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government. Annan on Monday will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks on the crisis in Syria.

According to Berliner Zeitung, the German government has sought to reassure Jewish and Muslim parents that they would continue to be able to circumcise their sons according to religious tradition, despite a local court’s ruling that the practice amounts to bodily harm. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said Jews and Muslims would not be punished for breaking the law if they carry out circumcisions on young boys. Jewish tradition requires that boys be circumcised eight days after birth.

Euronews reports relatives of the 32 people killed in the Costa Concordia shipwreck have sailed to the Italian island where the cruise ship struck a reef six months ago to remember their loved ones. The Concordia capsized near Giglio, an island off the Tuscan coast, on January 13. Two of the victims have not been found.

The Daily Mirror says Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife Eva, one of Britain's richest women. The 48-year-old was found dead at the couple's London mansion on Monday. Sso far, a post mortem has failed to discover the cause of her death, but it is thought she may have been dead for up to a week before her corpse was discovered.

The Daily Mail reports security firm G4S has said it stands to lose up to £50 million after it announced it was unable to provide enough security guards for the London Olympics. It comes after it emerged 3,500 extra servicemen would be needed to provide security at the games. Meanwhile, The Times reports the British Royal Air Force was prepared to use lethal force against any threat to the Olympic Games. New airspace restrictions are coming into force in London, with a prohibited zone declared around a 50-kilometre radius of the capital as of this weekend.

The death has been announced in Los Angeles of Oscar-winning United States film producer Richard Zanuck, famous for films including Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy and a string of Tim Burton movies. He was 77. Variety recalled the Hollywood veteran won an Oscar in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy, and the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award, the following year.

Celebrity news website TMZ reports that Sylvester Stallone's 36-year-old son Sage, also an actor, has been found dead at his home in Hollywood. He appeared in the 1990s as Rocky Balboa Jr, the son of his father's title character.

The Guardian reports English footballer John Terry has been cleared of racially abusing rival player Anton Ferdinand. Chief magistrate Howard Riddle said he was not convinced Terry had committed the offence. He said there was a great deal of evidence to show that Terry was not racist, and found him not guilty. The Football Association will resume its own inquiry into the incident next week. The allegation, which Terry always denied, cost him the England captaincy before the European Championship and divided the football world.