Malta and international press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times says the regulator has changed the utility tariffs review date to mid-March. It also reports that Brussels is to excuse Malta on the deficit.

MaltaToday says the European Commission has poured cold water over University stipends, doubting their usefulness as an incentive to encourage students to join the university.

In-Nazzjon highlights the investment in a new pharmaceutical company announced yesterday. It also gives prominence to the ‘ambitious’ plans for the rehabilitation of Fort St Elmo.

l-orizzont reports on a woman living in a dangerous home in Vittoriosa. It also reports how three foreign men were rescued after a lifeboat drill went wrong.

The Malta Independent also highlights the investment in a new pharmaceutical factory. In another story it says exports were badly hit last year.

The Press in Britain

The Daily Mirror reports the Royal Bank of Scotland "finally caved in" to public pressure when it cut its total bonus payments from £2.5 billion last year to £175million this year.

Writing in The Times, Gordon Brown has promised that banking's "old excesses" are coming to an end after RBS slashed cash bonuses for staff by 90 percent. The front page carries a picture of a "secret" air base allegedly being used by the CIA in Pakistan.

The Daily Telegraph quotes experts warning workers to expect pay freezes as as the cost of living rises at its slowest rate for almost 50 years.

The Daily Express leads on "shock figures" which show that more than one in seven jobs in Britain is being filled by a foreign-born worker.

The Daily Mail also focuses on foreign workers, saying that they now hold more than 13 per cent of the total jobs compared to 7.5 per cent when Labour came to power.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, President Assad of Syria sets out his hopes for a new relationship with the US now the George Bush era is over.

A joint investigation by The Independent, Sky News and Greenpeace has revealed that tons of toxic waste collected in Britain is being sent illegally to African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana.

The Financial Times reports that British lawyer David Mills was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for accepting a bribe of $600,000 from Silvio Berlusconi in return for giving false evidence in two legal cases against the Italian prime minister and billionaire media mogul, in the late 1990s.

The Daily Star reports that Jade Goody has been able to forget about her cancer, at least for a while, as she plans her wedding to Jack Tweed.

And elsewhere…

The majority of US newspapers lead with President Obama’s signing into law the $787billion US economic stimulus. The Washington Times quotes him as saying at the signing ceremony that the plan was "the most sweeping recovery package in US history". The

The Wall Street Journal reports that troubled carmaker General Motors says it will shed off 47,000 jobs worldwide, 26,000 of which will come from outside the United States.

The Washington Post says the US is deploying 17,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to meet urgent security needs.

East African Standard quotes UN officials warning that the global food crisis could be intensified dramatically by climate change.

Corriere della Sera announces that the leader of the Italian left-wing opposition Democratic Party Walter Veltroni has resigned after his party’s poor showing in local elections, losing the presidency of Sardinia to the right-wing candidate backed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Il Tempo reports that Italy and Nigeria have agreed to carry out joint patrols to combat human trafficking and illegal immigration.

The Age reports that a firefighter helping battle Australia's worst ever bushfires was killed yesterday, as the death toll reached 200.

The Herald says hundreds of Britons are to be offered assistance to return home as conditions in Zimbabwe continue to deteriorate.

The Lancet quotes the results of a research which suggests watching too much TV increases age-related memory loss, while reading books instead appears to make older folk less forgetful.

The Shanghai Daily reports that a spurned mistress drove her lover and his four other women off a cliff after losing a bizarre talent contest to decide who would stay with him. Because of the world economic downturn, the Chinese businessman needed to make all but one redundant and staged the talent show in a hotel. When he told the girl she had lost her position and he was selling her apartment, she decided to take revenge. She invited him and the other four women to tour a scenic site in Qingdao and then drove through the guard barrier on a mountain road. She died and the other five were seriously injured.