Press digest

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

The Times and l-orizzont lead with the drowning of a baby in a bath in Cospicua yesterday. The Times also reports that the Mintoff family has asked the police to probe the Mintoff Foundation. L-orizzont reports on less resources to the police.

The Malta Independent gives prominence to the forthcoming Notte Bianca and also says Franco Debono is making a fresh attempt to convince the PN to overturn the censure against him.

In-Nazzjon says the theme of the Independence celebrations in Hidma ghal kwalita ahjar.

The overseas press

Unemployment across the eurozone hit 18 million in July. L’Echo quotes the EU statistics agency saying this was the highest since records began in 1995. The highest rate was in Spain, at 25.1 per cent and the lowest was in Austria, at 4.5 per cent. Spain and Greece, which are struggling to tackle sovereign debt and banking crises, recorded jobless rates of more than 50 per cent in the under-25s age-group.

Ansa reports that messages of condolence have flooded in from the world’s ecclesiastical, political and cultural establishments following the news of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini death from Parkinson's after an illness lasting many years. He was 85. Pope Benedict said Cardinal Martini had served generously the Gospels and the Church.

Huffington Post says the German company which manufactured the drug thalidomide has apologised for the first time to thousands of people for the birth defects it caused. The pharmaceutical company Gruenenthal produced thalidomide in the 1950s and 1960s to help pregnant women suffering from morning sickness. The company had expressed regret in the past but its chief executive Harald Stock said Gruenenthal had failed to reach out to mothers who took the drug and their children.

El Pais reports that the deadly wildfires in a valley near the luxury resort of Marbella in southern Spain led to the evacuation of more than 4,000 people from the area. One person died and two were injured in what firefighters suspect to be the work of an arsonist.

al bawaba says aid agencies in Syria and neighboring countries are scrambling to relocate refugees sheltered in education facilities before school resumes in mid-September. The United Nations refugee agency said the total number of Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration was now approaching 230,000. Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq report no letdown in the number of people fleeing into their countries.

Manila Times reports a powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of the Philippines, killing one person and sending people fleeing to higher ground in fear of a tsunami.  The warnings were later cancelled. The head of the civil defense office told a local radio station several towns in the six affected provinces have lost power and roads and bridges were damaged.

El Universal says Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto has called for national unity as the federal electoral tribunal declared him the winner of the July election after dismissing a bid by leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to scrap the result over vote-buying claims. Lopez Obrador has said he would not accept a court ruling and has called for a mass demonstration.

According to El Mundo, new provisions come into force in Spain today, stripping illegal immigrants of their right to free health care. Under the new rules, immigrants who do not have residency cards would be denied treatment at public hospitals and health care centres unless they are under 18, pregnant or in case of emergency.

Portugal Post reports that the entire board of Portugal’s state broadcaster, RTP, has resigned after a senior government adviser suggested that its main television channel should be privitised and its other one closed. The comments led to a storm of protest in the country’s art community and among some politicians.

The Miami Herald says Republican presidential candidate in the United States, Mitt Romney, has made an unscheduled visit to Louisiana to inspect damage caused by Hurricane Isaac.  The storm, now at diminished winds, left wide areas of Louisiana under flood waters and killed five people. He made the trip just one day after accepting his party’s nomination to take on President Barack Obama in November’s election. The president is due to visit the region next Monday, the daye before Democrats start their national convention to officially nominate hims for a second foun-year term.

Mail & Guardian reports that South Africa's justice minister has rebuked prosecutors for charging 270 miners with the murder of 34 striking colleagues shot dead by police, saying the decision had caused "shock, panic and confusion" among the general public. The minister might overrule the decision by prosecutors to use an apartheid-era law to charge the miners, who were striking at the Lonmin platinum mine near Johannesburg.

ABC TV says Sydney FC is on the verge of signing Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero, who won six Serie A titles during his 19-year career with Italian heavyweights Juventus. He finished his Serie A career at the end of last season with a club record 208 goals in 513 matches. Del Piero will reportedly earn €1.65 million for the season, which runs from early October to late March.