Following are the main stories in the international press today:
L’Avvenire leads with Pope Benedict’s blistering denunciation of priests who had questioned the Church’s teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying they were being selfish in disobeying his authority. The Pope made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St Peter’s Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises they made when ordained. Benedict said the dissidents claim to be motivated by concern for the Church, but he suggested that in reality they were just making “a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences and ideas”.
Hague News reports the International Criminal Court has demanded that Libya hand over Gadhafi's son for trial. Libya's government wants to put Saif al-Islam Gaddafi on trial at home. But yesterday, the International Criminal Court called on Tripoli to "comply with its obligations to enforce the warrant of arrest" and surrender him into the court's custody. This came after the ICC rejected a request by Libya's leaders to delay the handover.
Ansa announces the resignation of the right-wing Italian leader Umberto Bossi as head of the Lega Nord, the separatist party he founded and led for many years. He left his post following a financial scandal engulfing his party although he denies any wrongdoing.
The Greek conservative newspaper Eleftheros Typos says more protests against austerity measures were being planned in Athens following the suicide of a 77-year-old pensioner who said he could no longer afford to live. People demonstrating against austerity measures have clashed with riot police in recent days as flowers, candles and sympathy notes were being left in the main square, where the pensioner killed himself after leaving a note criticising politicians over the country's financial crisis. Greeks have called him a martyr with some protesters saying it was not suicide but state-perpetrated murder.
Voice of America reports a US court has sentenced Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of conspiring to sell arms – including surface-to-air missiles – to rebels in Columbia. The prosecution had said he constituted a threat to the United States and the world.
CNN says that the Syrian ambassador to the UN has accused foreign countries, which support the Syrian opposition, of jeopardising a possible cease-fire. Bashar Jaafari told the General Assembly that Syria’s army would withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated centres by next Tuesday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the conflict was getting worse while the UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan urged both sides to seize the moment and end the violence. Meanwhile, a Turkish official says more than 2,300 Syrians have fled across the border into Turkey in the last 24 hours following what has been described as “one of the most violent attacks around the capital since the uprising began” with snipers firing at "anything that moved".
The Independent says Scotland Yard has been plunged into a racism crisis after revealing 10 new complaints have been referred to the police watchdog. Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey insisted “the Met does not tolerate racism” as he revealed seven allegations had been reported after three officers were suspended over claims of offensive comments to colleagues. It comes just days after the force vowed to get to the bottom of “very damaging” footage of one officer apparently racially abusing a man and another allegedly assaulting a teenage boy last summer. Five officers have been suspended over the fresh allegations.
The hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire has deepend, with Sky News admitting it illegally hacked emails belonging to members of the British public on two separate occasions. The British broadcaster said it had authorised a journalist in 2008 to access the emails of people suspected of criminal activity, which it passed to police officers working on the cases. Head of Sky News, John Ryley, said in a statement, “We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest.”
Scientists have expressed concern that one of the biggest killers, malaria, was changing in ways that might make the disease untreatable. The BBC says new data suggested that drug-resistant forms of the parasite responsible for malaria had emerged on the Thai-Burma border, 800 km from where it was first detected three years ago.
Defective sperm from older fathers may trigger “new” genetic mutations linked to autism. According to the combined findings of three studies published in the journal Nature, US researchers found that newly-created mutations played an important role in autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). The scientists said fathers were four times more likely to generate the mutations than mothers. The gene defects were also “positively correlated” with paternal age.
Autoblog reports that Ferdinand Alexander Porsche – grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, son of Ferry Porsche and designer of the iconic 911 – has died in Salzburg, Austria. He was 76. The 911, the most important product in the history of Porsche, was a testament to Ferdinand Alexander's skill as a designer that his original shape has evolved so little since 1963 when it debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The 911, though, was not his only achievement. He was also reportedly very proud of another car he designed, the 904, as well as founding the industrial design company Porsche Design Studio in 1972.
Paris Soir says the wreck of the Titanic – lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 100 years – will this month come under UNESCO protection. The British passenger liner hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, sinking to almost 4,000 metres in waters off Newfoundland on the night of April 14, 1912, with the loss of 1,514 people on board. As the ship sank in international waters and came under no state's protection, its wrecks fall under the jurisdiction of a 2009 UN Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. This year's centenary anniversary is being marked by several cultural and historical events in Britain and the United States, its intended destination. The wreck was rediscovered in 1985 thanks to advances in submarine technology, and historic artefacts have since been recovered.