The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times says prison warders who were not at their post will be disciplined. It also focuses on the financial reports issued by BOV yesterday.
The Malta Independent reports how a Gozitan woman, Maria Attard, has become an inspiration through her running of Guzeppa Debono Home for women. She is featured on an EU calendar of inspirational women. It also says Simon Busuttil has hinted that the finance minister misled parliament over the Cyprus bailout.
In-Nazzjon reports that Labour prison warders invited the home affairs minister to lunch. The minister refused the invitation and subsequently made his surprise visit to the prison. Some of those who made the invitation were allegedly found to be absent and will face disciplinary proceedings.
l-orizzont says a medicines importer is being investigated after a patient who called at Mater Dei was told to buy medicines from a private pharmacy even though they were available at the hospital. It also gives prominence to the report which found many irregularities at the prisons.
The overseas press
L’Echo quotes the EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn saying some European countries have done so well with fiscal consolidation, including austerity measures, that they may now be able to slow their pace. He told a conference in Brussels policies can now be a bit less aggressive because of previous strong measures. Earlier, a senior IMF official said that continued austerity policies could hurt Europe's economies and that policymakers should now turn to boosting growth.
Rehn’s comments come as both Spain and France register new unemployment records, which according to Euronews have refuel the debate over whether austerity policies should be ditched as belt-tightening has aggravated the economy’s problems. Six million Spaniards, or 27.2 per cent, are now jobless, the highest rate since records began in the 1970s. In nearly two million Spanish homes every adult is jobless. The French jobless total has hit an all-time high with 3.22 million people seeking work. Following a wave of industrial lay-offs, the figure is the highest since 1997. The number of days spent out of work has also beaten records at 485 days on average.
EU Investor says Germany and France have asked the European Union to lead the fight against money laundering and criminal financing. In a joint letter to the European Commission, the Finance Ministers from the two countries, Wolfgang Schaeuble and Pierre Moscovici, requested Brussels to take on a leading role in the fight to stem the flow of dirty money and that a community policy be developed against non-cooperative jurisdictions.
The Washington Post leads with the White House’s declaration that US intelligence indicates Syrian President Bashar Assad has twice used deadly chemical weapons in his country's fierce civil war. But the administration said the revelation won't immediately change its stance on intervening militarily as the information isn't solid enough to warrant quick US involvement in the two-year-old conflict.
USA Today quotes New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Raymond Kelly revealing the Boston Marathon bombing suspects intended to blow up their remaining explosives in Times Square. They said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told Boston investigators from his hospital bed that he and his brother had discussed going to New York to detonate their remaining explosives – a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs.
Pravda reports Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the Boston bombings show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya. Speaking in an annual call-in show on state television, he said that the tragedy should push Moscow and the West closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism. Putin criticised the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.
France 24 says 40-year-old Mikel Kabikoitz Carrera Sarobe, a suspected top commander of the Basque separatist group ETA, has received a life sentence for the 2007 murder of two Spanish police officers in France. Another accused was sentenced to 28 years while a third was acquitted of the murder charges but handed a 15-year sentence for other charges.
Haaretz reports Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached its northern coast from neighbouring Lebanon, raising suspicions that the Hezbollah militant group was behind the infiltration attempt. Hezbollah denied involvement, but the incident was likely to heighten Israeli concerns that the Shiite militant group was trying to take advantage of the unrest in neighbouring Syria to strengthen its capabilities.
The Boston Herald says Neil Diamond is donating some of this week’s sales from “Sweet Caroline” to Boston Marathon blast victims after the tune became a source of comfort following the bomb attack. Sales from Diamond’s song are up by 597 per cent and Diamond’s representative said the singer will donate proceeds from recent sales to those caught in the terror attack. “Sweet Caroline” sold 19,000 tracks this week, up from 2,800 the previous week. It has sold about 1.75 million to date. The song, released in 1969, was inspired by Caroline Kennedy’s name.
According to EU Daily, the chickens have come home to roost for Italy and Greece, now facing charges in the European Court of Justice over the size of hen houses. The two countries had been given 12 years to meet new standards and authorities say that allowing some breeders to get away without upgrading penalises those producers who have invested in new facilities. European animal welfare laws, effective last year, say that all laying hens must have spacious cages in which to nest, scratch, and roost. Not only are the hens at risk but their eggs are then seen as being laid “outside the law”.