The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the GWU is requesting an €8 m deposit from Malta Freeport as guarantee for damages caused to it when the Freeport was granted a €1m garnishee order. It also reports that a shop-owner was slightly injured in a hold-up at a mobile telephone shop yesterday. In another story, the newspaper reports that the MUMN has demanded protective clothing for theatre nurses, warning that it may have to resort to industrial action.
The Malta Independent says the GWU has filed an application for the revocation of the garnishee order. It also reports that the European Association on Public Health says Malta lacks researchers in the health sector.
l-orizzont says foreign trade union support for the GWU is growing in its dispute with Malta Freeport over union recognition. It asks if there will be a boycott of Malta trade.
In-Nazzjon quotes the Malta Dockers Union blaming the GWU for having created the ‘senseless’ dispute with Malta Freeport and saying it could endanger port worker jobs. It also reports that a new air service is to link the airport with Gozo. The service will use an amphibious fixed wing aircraft.
The Press in Britain
The Times says Gordon Brown has sent personal letters to senior Conservatives slurred by his former head of strategy but has stopped short of an apology.
The Daily Telegraph leads with the emails scandal which, it claims, is closing in on Gordon Brown.
The Guardian has a report on troops injured in Iraq as Britian prepares to withdraw forces from the country.
The Daily Mirror claims Mel Gibson's wife could take the biggest ever celebrity divorce settlement if she is awarded half his £460m fortune.
The Sun focuses on Jade Goody's widower Jack Tweed who could be sent to jail later today for assaulting a taxi driver.
A mother tells the Daily Express why she told police her son was involved with hard drugs.
The Daily Mail announces record numbers of middle class home-owners are trying to move to smaller properties.
According to the Daily Star, Prince William has blown up the engine of his £2 million RAF plane after a "schoolboy error".
And elsewhere…
As deadly political violence continued on the streets of the Thai capital, the European Union has expressed "great concern" at the situation. Lidove Noviny reports that the EU's Czech presidency called on protesters "to refrain from further violent action," adding that they only risked harming "the stability and the reputation of their country”.
The New York Times leads with the UN Security Council’s unanimous condemnation of North Korea's recent rocket launch and announced it was expanding sanctions against the reclusive communist nation.
The Washington Times says that the United States has announced a major policy shift by lifting travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans. Washington hopes the new measures will induce the communist state to pursue democratic reforms.
The Washington Post quotes President Barack Obama saying he was proud of the US forces who successfully rescued Richard Phillips, the cargo ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates after a five-day hostage siege.
Meanwhile, the East African Standard reports pirate hostages were feared at risk of a violent backlash from their captors in the wake of the successful American action. Around 230 foreign sailors are still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off the coast of lawless Somalia.
The Los Angeles Times reports that music producer Phil Spector has been convicted of murdering 40-year actress Lana Clarkson, who died of a gunshot fired into her mouth while seated in the foyer of his mansion in 2003
El Correo has reported that several CDs found in France at an Eta hideout in 2004 showed the group had considered attacking Spain's King Juan Carlos with a surface-to-air missile while he flew by plane or helicopter, firing on the aircraft from near an airport or military base. The newspaper said French anti-terrorist police who found the CDs also found the remains of a spent missile cartridge, which it said showed Eta had carried out a firing test.
Gazeta Polska says the death toll of a fire that ripped through a homeless hostel in Poland, has reached 21 people.
The Irish Independent reports a dissident republican Easter demonstration in the Londonderry passed off without incident. A masked man appeared from the crowd of around 200 and read a statement, claiming responsibility for the murders of the Sinn Féin former Stormont administration head and British spy Denis Donaldson in 2006.
Florida Post says a passenger landed a twin-engine plane in Fort Myers after the pilot died in flight. The passenger had a licence for single-engined planes but was not trained to fly the larger King Air craft. An air traffic controller helped the passenger and the plane, carrying five other passengers landed safely.
France 24 reports that a three-year-old girl at the centre of a violent custody battle was back with her French father last night after police arrested her Russian mother as she was trying to cross from Hungary into Ukraine. Hungarian officials said that Mrs Belenkaya’s arrest showed the effectiveness of frontier controls on the edge of the European Union’s “Schengen” passport-free zone.