Press digest

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

Four newspapers lead with the privatisation of the shipyards.

The Times says $67 million have been offered for the ship repair facilities.

The Malta Independent says satisfactory bids have been made for the ship repair facilities and Manoel Island Yacht Yard.

In-Nazzjon says Palumbo and Manoel Island Consortium have been selected for the sale of the ship repair facilities and the Manoel Island Yacht Yard.

l-orizzont says the two deals total $80 million.

In other stories, The Times reports on the Oscar nominations and also reports that Brussels is holding firm on its draft rules for Frontex operations.

The Malta Independent says the equivalent of almost €26 million in old LM coins were not changed before Monday's deadline.

In-Nazzjon says Joseph Muscat did not know that Toni Abela had been in favour of abortion in some circumstances.

MaltaToday carries a large picture of Robert Musumeci and says that after savage character assassination on a blog, he has been betrayed by his party and asked not to stand in the casual election to succeed John Dalli.

The international media

The International Herald Tribune reports that the European Commission has reacted with shock after President Obama said he would not attend an EU-US summit next May. A State Department spokesman said the US President remained committed to strong US-EU relations, but did not plan to attend the summit because it did not fit into his 2010 travel schedule.

The Washington Times quotes US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair telling the Senate Intelligence Committee that Al Qaeda could be expected to attempt a large-scale operation that would cause mass casualties, harm the US economy, or both. He expected such an attack in the next three to six months.

Deutschlandfunk radio reports that the Swiss government has reacted angrily to reports the German government was willing to pay for stolen data of 1,500 people suspected of evading tax by keeping Swiss bank accounts, warning it would not provide administrative assistance on any tax inquiry based on stolen information. A Swiss lawmaker likened the German attempt to bank robbery and the Swiss banking lobby said Berlin was acting as a receiver of stolen goods.

Metro says that in a wide-ranging package of planned reforms, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced he would seek parliamentary approval for a referendum to replace the first-past-the-post voting system for Westminster elections in favour of the Alternative Vote. Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in numerical order of preference rather than simply placing an X on the ballot paper. The referendum would be held by October 2011.

The Times quotes former British Cabinet minister Clare Short accusing former Prime Minister Tony Blair of deceiving Parliament about the grounds for invading Iraq because he believed it was right to go to war. Giving evidence at the inquiry into the conflict, she accused Blair of ignoring warnings that the military were not ready for war because he was "frantic" to support US president George Bush.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Pope has been challenged to ensure that existing EU legislation is properly applied in the Vatican apply instead of attacking equality in the UK. Labour MEP Stephen Hughes said religious leaders should be trying to eradicate inequality, not perpetuate it. UK activists have also called for protests against the papal visit, slated for this September, after the Pope criticized recent equality legislation as infringing upon religious freedom rights.

CanaNews says the UN has warned that Haiti was sinking into potential violent chaos as people grew frustrated at the slow pace of aid getting through. The UN mission at Port-au-Prince said the overall security situation across the country remained stable but potentially volatile. Meanwhile, it was reported that the 33 children that an American aid organisation allegedly tried to smuggle out of have been re-united with their families.

French newspapers lead with the court case which has to decide who was to blame for Air France's Concorde crash in 2000 - an accident that killed 113 people and hastened the end of the world's only supersonic airliner. Le Monde says the trial in Pontoise, outside Paris, could last four months.

Al Jezeera reports that floating bombs designed to wash up on Israel's beaches were released in a revenge attack by Palestinian militants for the death of a top Hamas member. The Jersualem Post says two such bombs had already been discovered. Mr Netanyahu vowed Israel would "respond" to the attempted attacks.

The National Enquirer says one in eight Americans is struggling to afford food after the onset of the economic crisis. A report from Feeding America found more than 37 million people in the US, including 14 million children and almost three million seniors, are being forced to rely on emergency food supplies from pantries and agencies each year. An estimated 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by one of Feeding America's more than 200 food banks.

MyFox National reports that four women have avoided a jail sentence for gluing a cheating lover's penis to his stomach as part of a revenge plot in Wisconsin. Apologies flowed in court by three of the four women caught up in the case involving sexual infidelities, and a motel confrontation that ended in the victim, Donessa Davis, having his genitals glued to his stomach. Davis' wife Traci Hood-Davis declined comment during her sentencing and has taken her husband back. All four women got a one year probation and community service.