The following are the leading stories in the Maltese press today:
The Times reports on Foreign Minister Tonio Borg's visit to Tripoli and his comments that the time has come for a political solution to a longstanding problem on the delineation of the continental shelf between the two countries for oil exploration purposes. It also reports a Council of Europe report which claimed that Malta's detention policy fuels racism.
In-Nazzjon says Roberto Benigni gave an exceptional performance at the University yesterday. It also reports how SmartCity Malta will have a bigger business park than originally planned.
l-orizzont leads with the concern expressed yesterday by the GWU over inflation. It also carries a report of the cancer-causing risks associated with excessive consumption of processed meat such as bacon and sausage.
The Malta Independent leads with a Birdlife press conference where it was reported that wild bird life is flourishing as hunting declines.
The Press in Britain...
Metro's front page quotes an official report showing that violence against babies and young children in Britain more than doubled last year, with the number of children under 10 admitted to accident and emergency departments rising from 3,805 in 2006 to 8,067 last year.
The Daily Mirror reports that two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of severly disabled James Hughes was found in a house in the same street as his home. His mother's body was found with a ligature round her neck in undergrowth near the town on Monday night, just minutes from the family home.
The Daily Mail reports that cheap food is being dressed up as top-quality produce in a vast fraud costing shoppers £7 billion a year.
The Daily Express says couples who live together and buy a home must now split the proceeds equally if they break up.
The Daily Telegraph says the "green levy" on motorists announced in Alistair Darling’s first Budget will double car tax revenue to £4 billion but reduce vehicle emissions by less than one per cent.
The Guardian reports that at least one million children at 8,000 schools will be barred from lessons as striking teachers trigger acute shortages across the country.
The Independent says scientists involved in Aids research believe that a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever and some have admitted that effective immunisation against the virus may never be possible.
The Times says Gordon Brown is facing new challenges to his authority after being humbled by a show of backbench power into the biggest policy U-turn of his premiership.
The Financial Times says Gordon Brown is facing a battle to regain his authority after bowing to pressure from Labour rebels in the row over the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
According to The Herald, ramblers claimed a historic victory after a sheriff ruled that a millionaire businessman was not allowed to seal off most of his 70-acre estate.
The Daily Star says pubs banned English drinkers from marking St George’s Day with a pint but kept their doors open for Polish immigrants.
London Evening News quotes London mayor Ken Livingstone claiming he "ensnared" the Government into bidding for the 2012 Olympics, not because he wanted "three weeks of sport" in the capital but as a means of extracting funding for London from the central government. The Olympics will cost at least £9.3bn to stage.
And elsewhere...
Berliner Zeitung quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling for a global effort to stave off a looming food crisis. The chancellor said the international community needed to take co-ordinated action to lower the prices of food products, particularly in developing countries. The problem would be raised at the summit of the world's eight leading industrialised nations in Japan in three months' time.
Lisbon's Espresso reports that parties that hold more than 200 of Portugal's National Assembly's 230 seats have backed the new EU treaty.
The Copenhagen Post says Denmark has moved staff from its embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan to secret locations as new intelligence warned of a higher terror threat level against Danish interests in North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The threat level had increased since Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
The Chronicle publishes the first results from a partial recount in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections. The ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change each held on to a seat that they had originally been awarded in the March 29 poll. The MDC won control of parliament in the vote, and to reverse that result, ZANU-PF would have to pick up at least seven of the 23 constituencies where recounts are taking place.
No disruptions have been reported during the Australian leg of the Olympic torch relay. The Canberra Times reports the event was held amid tight security and a few people were detained in minor scuffles and demonstrations on the sidelines of the relay through the capital.
De Telegraf carries a picture of a Christmas card found in an Dutch antiques shop signed by Anne Frank, who hid from the Nazis for years in Amsterdam before being caught. The card, which was sent in 1937 two years before war broke out, was addressed to Samme Ledermann, one of Anne’s best friends, and postmarked from Aachen, a town just across the Dutch border in Germany. Maatje Mostard of the Anne Frank Museum said it was signed “Anne Frank” with no other hand-written message.
Chumhuriyet reports that Turkish police have detained a woman suspected of preparing to strike a police station in a suicide attack in Tarsus, near the Mediterranean coast.
Der Spiegel says German police have conducted a series of raids on 16 properties located all over the country, including in the cities of Bonn and Berlin. Dozens of documents have been seized as part of an investigation into suspected Islamist extremist activities.
Singapore's The Straits Times quotes the executive director of the UN Environment Programme saying more than 16,000 species are threatened with extinction. Achim Steiner warned delegates at a UNEP conference that the world risks wiping out a huge amount of future antibiotics and disease cures if it fails to reverse the rapid extinction of thousands of plant and animal species. Citing the findings of a coming book, he said biodiversity loss has reached alarming levels, and disappearing with it are the secrets to finding treatments for pain, infections and a wide array of ailments such as osteoporosis and cancer.