The following are the top stories in the local and international press today.

The Times says that a criminal case has forced the Gzira deputy mayor Joseph Camilleri out of Labour. It speaks about the restoration works needed at Fort St Angelo.

The Malta Independent reports that the two main political parties have traded shots as the Sliema battle rages on. It reports on the visit by German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.

In-Nazzjon says that another record of passengers have used Malta International Airport last month. It reports that there has been a sharp increase in Employment and Training Corporation placements.

l-Orizzont speaks on contracts of nursing services and asks if one was given to a non-existant company. It says that pharmacies have complained that medicine they have bought at old prices will now not be sold.

The overseas press:

EU Observer says Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht has apologised for blaming Jews and the Jewish lobby in Washington for blocking Mideast peace. He said in a statement he did not mean to stigmatise Jews and anti-Semitism had no place in today’s world. In an interview with Belgian radio, former Belgian Foreign Minister De Gucht had said it was hard to have a rational discussion with moderate Jews about the Mid-East conflict.

French news agency AFP quotes Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa saying the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians should be given a chance. Speaking at an economic summit in Italy, Moussa said, "Let us see what kind of compromise (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is offering, we have never heard from the Israeli side any initiative or any concrete position.” However he seemed skeptical about Israel's willingness to accept a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The Jerusalem Post reports US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has said the current round of Mid-East peace talks might be "the last chance for a very long time" to resolve the conflict. In a joint-interview Israeli and Palestinian media Mrs Clinton said time was "not on the side" of Israeli and Palestinian hopes. She also rejected suggestions that Washington's efforts to move the peace talks forward were a ploy to gain Arab support for a military strike on Iran.

Meanwhile, Abrar says Iran has warned Israel of retaliation against its nuclear facility if the Jewish state attacked Iranian nuclear sites. Chief of Staff General Hasan Firouzabadi said Iran hoped there would not be a need to target the Iraeli nuclear facility but warned that if there was Israel would receive “dreadful retribution”. Firouzabadi was speaking on Quds Day, an annual state-backed anti-Israel rally in Iran.

Haaretz reports US envoy Michael Oren has said Hizbullah had an arsenal of some 15,000 rockets amassed on Lebanon's border with Israel, including some with a long enough range to hit the southern city of Eilat. He told AFP that the Syrian-Iranian backed Hizbullah posed a very serious threat to Israel. It now had four times as many rockets as it had during the 2006 Lebanon war. These rockets were longer-range and every city in Israel was within range.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has described radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world today. In a BBC interview Mr Blair said radical Islamists believed that whatever was done in the name of their cause was justified – including the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. He said radical Islamists were "regressive, wicked and backward-looking".

Expresso says a court in Portugal has sentenced six out of seven defendants to jail terms of between five and 18 years for a string of child abuse offenses in a state-run care home. They had been found guilty of child sex abuse charges including sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a paedophile ring at Casa Pia, a 230-year-old institution caring for some 4,500 needy children. The trial included testimony by 32 alleged victims.

Metro reports that a former boarding school headteacher is facing jail for abusing boys in Britain during the 1970s and 1980s. Derek Slade, 61, was convicted at Ipswich Crown Court of more than 50 offences and will be sentenced on Monday. A jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting and beating 12 boys aged between eight and 13 years.

New Zealand Herald reports that a state of emergency has been declared in Christchurch after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake collapsed walls and cut off power. Widespread damage has been reported but no tsunami alert was issued and there appeared to be only two serious injuries. Police said looters broke into some damaged shops.

Pak Times says suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing up to 43 people. It was the second major attack this week, piling pressure on a government struggling with a flood crisis.

A poll undertaken by The Tablet, a UK Catholic newspaper, has revealed that 25 per cent of Britons supported the Pope Benedecit’s visit to the UK later this month, while 11 per cent opposed it and 63 per cent stated that they are neither for nor against it. At least one in five were planning to follow the the visit closely through the media while 10 per cent were planning to attend the events. Of the Catholics interviewed, 71 per cent would be participating in the events. The poll found that 93 per cent of respondents knew that the Pope was the head of the Catholic Church.