Malta and International Press Digest

The following are the leading stories in Maltese and foreign newspapers:

The Press in Malta...

All local newspapers focus on the first real day of euro use by consumers and traders, the latter claiming that as they had no euro coins available, a number of outlets gave the change in Maltese currency ...

The Times: Bargain hunters unfazed by the euro; Top London cancer hospital gutted by fire

The Malta Independent: Converters, puzzled looks and lack of change; Shipyards' chairman resigns

In-Nazzjon: Budget measures come into force and the first children allowance's cheques are being sent Maltese transactions on the first day of the euo are double those undertaken by Cypriots; Significant increase in Stock Exchange activities

l-orizzont: Complaints that the adoption of the euro yesterday meant less trad8ng and more work; Shipyard's chairman resigns

The Malta Businessw Weekly: Retailers much more prepared than consumers; Government ‘dragging its feet' on packaging waste system.

and elsewhere...

Wall Street Journal reports oil prices have hit and all-time high of US$100 a barrel. Traders blamed this on the weakened US dollar and renewed violence in Nigeria, increasing worries of dwindling supplies.

The East African Standard leads with the arrival in Nairobi of the head of the African Union to mediate between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition presidential contenter Raila Odinga with a view to end the nationwide clashes which have since killed over 300. A government spokesman accused the Odinga of genocide while, in turn, Odinga blamed the president for "stealing the election". About 100,000 Kenyans have been forced to seek shelter in neighbouring Uganda.

Britain's The Sun gives prominence to Pakistani President Pavez Musharraf's call to Scotland Yard to send investigators to help local teams investigating the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The government had said she had died after hitting her head against the roof of the car she was travelling in after the bomb blast but her supporters claim she died after being shot in the back of the head.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Times quotes the chief electoral commissioner saying that the election had been postponed by six weeks to February 18 because of unrest. The main opposition parties had wanted the polls to go ahead.

USA Today leads with the presidential hopefuls' final pleas for votes among party members in Iowa before the country's primary elections begin later today. Both Democrat and Republican candidates are hoping to win the first of these state-by-state battles which decide who becomes the party's official candidate in November's presidential election.

Spain's El País rejoices that two senior aid workers from the Spanish branch of Medicines Sans Frontiers have been released unhurt by their kidnappers in Somalia. The Spanish government denied it had paid a ransom for their freedom.

The front page of London's The Guardian has a picture of a nurse leading a cancer patient away from danger in the mass evacuation of hundreds of patients and staff of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London after a major fire broke out. There were no reports of casualties. The entire top floor was engulfed in flames and thick smoke. It is thought the fire had broken out in a room that houses the air conditioning system.