Malta and international press digest

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

The Times quotes Labour leader Joseph Muscat describing speed cameras as a tax. It also reports that a man was critically injured when he fell from a float during the Nadur festival late on Saturday.

The Malta Independent’s main focus is on the talks held yesterday in Malta by the Chinese vice president. It also reports Labour leader Joseph Muscat urging ministers to make public their views on the funds which had been allocated for the St John’s Museum extension.

In-Nazzjon says there has been a positive reaction to the plans for the rehabilitation of Fort St Elmo. It also reported that President Eddie Fenech Adami attended a ceremony in solidarity with the victims of the Australia bushfires.

l-orizzont says Labour will be making proposals on how the issue of illegal immigrants should be tackled.

The Press in Britain

According to The Daily Telegraph,Gordon Brown is planning a new rescue package for Britain's banks.

The Guardian says police are preparing for a 'summer of rage' as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets in angry protests.

The Independent says Britian's leading Greens are preparing to announce a major about turn on the question of nuclear energy.

The Financial Times leads with plans by European leaders to regulate financial markets in a bid to combat the global economic crisis.

The Daily Mail predicts state-owned bank Northern Rock is set to make a major return to the mortgage industry.

The Daily Express reports a "holy grail" flu vaccine, that could cure all forms of the disease including deadly bird flu, is a step closer.

The Daily Mirror describes the wedding of cancer-stricken Jade Goody to her lover Jack Tweed as “The wedding of the decade”.

The Sun says Jade has urged her new husband to remarry after she dies. Doctors have given her only weeks to live.

Brave Jade laughed away the pain as she fulfilled her dying wish of marrying 21-year-old Jack, says the Daily Star.

And elsewhere…

Television and radio stations as well as portals around the world lead with the Oscars night where the hit British film Slumdog Millionaire has won the top prize at the Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars including best director and best picture.(Full story in Life section below).

Borsen Zeitung reports that the leaders and finance ministers of Europe's largest economies, meeting in Berlin, have agreed to cooperate on reforming the global financial system and to tighten market regulation.

The Jerusalem Post says coalition talks between Israel's conservative Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima party have ended inconclusively. Livni emerged saying there were differences on key issues like the peace process. Netanyahu was more upbeat, speaking of many common points. The two agreed to further talks.

Al-Ahram leads with a bomb attack in Khan el-Khalil bazaar, one of Cairo's popular tourist areas, which killed a French tourist and injured 22 other people, including 15 French and a German visitor. A bomb disposal team safely detonated a second device.

Jamhuuriya quotes African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, saying an insurgent attack has killed 11 soldiers from Barundi.

The People’s Daily says Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into a gas explosion in a coal mine that killed at least 74 miners and injured 114.

The New York Times quotes the head of America’s National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People saying The New York Post’s controversial dead chimp cartoon was an invitation to assassinate US President Barack Obama and urged readers to boycott the tabloid.

Belgium’s Le Soir says 36 EU agencies costing taxpayers some €2 million a year have been attacked as "not fit for purpose".