The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports how Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca, an ophthalmic surgeon, got a waiver from the prime minister to allow him to perform operations
The Malta Independent leads with the situation in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Malta Today reports that Rita Schembri, the government’s head of internal audit 'used sensitive data for profit'. It also reports how operational and rehabilitation functions in the prisons will be split.
In-Nazzjon focuses on u-turns by the government on education. It also says members of the Council of Maltese Abroad have been asked to resign.
l-orizzont reports that the owner of Palumbo Shipyard was arrested in Sicily for alleged violation of environmental laws. It also says Malta did not take up EU funds for renewable energy.
The overseas press
The Boston Globe reports federal investigators involved in one of the largest manhunts in US history have revealed that the Boston marathon bombs may been made from pressure cookers packed with ball bearings and nails – but said they still didn't know who did it and why. Similar easy-to-make devices are used as roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shreds of black nylon bags believed to have been used to carry the bombs were also found. More than 1,000 law enforcement officials from 30 state and federal agencies have now been committed to tracking down whoever was responsible for Monday's twin blasts – the worst terror attack on US soil since 9/11. The FBI has pledged to “go to the ends of the earth” to track down the perpetrators. Rick DesLauriers, who is heading up the FBI’s investigation, told a press conference in Boston on Wednesday, that it would a worldwide investigation. Three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in the two explosions. Some 176 others were hospitalised, with 17 still in critical condition. Doctors, who carried out at least 13 amputations, some at the scene, gave details of the bomb impact.
The New York Times says an envelope addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi twice tested positive for ricin, a potentially fatal poison – heightening concerns about terrorism a day after a bombing killed three and left more than 170 injured at the Boston Marathon. One senator, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, said authorities have a suspect in the fast-moving ricin case, but she did not say if an arrest had been made. She added the letter was from an individual who frequently writes to lawmakers.
The Daily Telegraph says more than 4,000 police officers have been deployed to protect Margaret Thatcher’s funeral from terrorist threats and violent protest. The Boston bombings heightened the security alert as the controversial former British leader was being laid to rest. A ring of steel was being thrown around the heart of the British capital with a massive show of police force along the route of the funeral cortege, and hundreds more riot squad officers waiting in side streets to deal with any incidents. However, Metropolitan Police’s Commander Christine Jones stressed that peaceful protest against the prime minister who dominated Britain from 1979 to 1990 would be allowed.
Dawn reports a powerful earthquake in southeastern Iran has killed at least 34 people and injured around 80 across the border in Pakistan. The quake was felt as far away as the Gulf and India after it struck neighbouring Iran – the more powerful earthquake to hit the country for more than 50 years. Iranian state TV said 27 people had been injured, but rowed back on early reports of deaths.
According to AFP, the International Monetary Fund has forecast that France, the eurozone's second-largest economy, would fall into recession this year with the economy contracting by 0.1 pe rcent. In its latest revisions, the IMF dropped its previous forecast of 0.3 per cent growth this year, but still expects the French economy to rebound by 0.9 per cent in 2014. The IMF's latest forecasts are more pessimistic than those of the French government as part of its plan to get its public deficit back under the EU limit of 3.0 per cent of output by 2014.
Chicago-Sun Times reports that a computer system used to run many daily operations at American Airlines failed on Tuesday, forcing the nation's third-largest carrier to ground all flights across the United States for several hours and stranding thousands of frustrated passengers at airports and on planes. Flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations, but planes on the ground from coast to coast could not take off.
El Universal says Venezuela’s president-elect Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival Henrique Capriles traded accusations on Tuesday over blame for post-election violence that the government said had caused seven deaths and 61 injuries across the country. Maduro accused the US of fomenting the violence while Capriles accused him of creating a smoke screen to divert attention from the opposition's insistence on a vote-by-vote recount of Sunday's surprisingly close vote. The Venezuelan attorney general also said that 135 people have been detained.
Jerome Cahuzac, France 's disgraced former budget minister who was this month charged with tax fraud, has told BFMTV he had decided to quit parliament, and said he would probably not go back to politics. He was charged with tax fraud after admitting to hiding €600,000 in a foreign bank account, prompting a scandal that has seen the shaken Socialist government battle to try and restore confidence.
The Daily Mail reports that a man who handed his friend in to a police station while dressed as Batman has been charged with burglary. Stan Worby, 39, made headlines around the world last month when pictures were released showing him taking Daniel Frayne to a police station in Bradford while wearing the Caped Crusader costume. Worby and Frayne, 26, have now both been charged with burglary after police stopped a vehicle containing suspected stolen property.