Press digest

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

The Times says an EU report is querying energy subsidies in Malta. It also reports the Slovak Parliament’s rejection of the EU’s EFSF bailout deal.

The Malta Independent gives prominence to the accusations made by the Labour Party against Peppi Azzopardi and Lou Bondi’.

MaltaToday features a picture of Peppi Azzopardi and asks if PBS is a politically biased station.

In-Nazzjon reports how another six injured Libyans were brought to Malta yesterday, as a boy succumbed to injuries. It also says that the construction industry is showing recovery.

l-orizzont says criminal procedures have been launched over alleged bribery in the privatisation of the superyacht facility at the dockyard.

The overseas press

The Slovakian parliament has voted against an extension to the eurozone bailout fund. The Slovak Spectator reports that after a long and heated debate, of 124 deputies present only 55 voted in favour, nine voted against and 60 abstained. The vote spells the end for Slovakia's coalition government, as Premier Iveta Radicova had tied the survival of her centre-right government to the parliamentary vote. However, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said the country would likely approve the plan on Friday.

Bratislavske Noviny says three of the four parties in Radicova's coalition supported the expanded €440-billion European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). But the fourth member, the Freedom and Solidarity Party (SaS), abstained. Party chief Richard Sulik had called the fund "a road to hell", arguing that Slovakia was too poor to pay for the fiscal mistakes of nations such as Greece. The SaS had demanded sweeping concessions that would give Slovakia veto power over the approval of future bailout funds while at the same time providing Bratislava with the choice to opt out of the planned, permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is set to succeed the EFSF in 2013. 

Kathimerini reports that inspectors from Greece's international lenders – the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – have given a tepid approval for Greece's next tranche of bailout cash. Known as the troika, the inspectors on Tuesday said Greece should get the €8 billion it says it desperately needs by early November.

Iran has strongly rejected US accusations that it had plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Fars News Agency quotes an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissing the US allegations as “a prefabricated scenario which is totally unfounded”. The US officials claimed that the plot also provided for subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the US officials. ABC quotes Secretary of State Hilary Clinton saying the incident would further isolate Tehran, strengthen Gulf security alliances and spur stricter enforcement of sanctions against Iranian interests.

The Jerusalem Post reports an Israeli government deal with the Palestinian militant group Hamas which would see the return of the captured Israeli soldier Gilat Shalid. In return, Israel would free 450 people in the coming days in the first phase of the exchange while Hamas released Shalit, who was 19 when he was abducted by the Gaza border in 2006. A further 550 Palestinians would be freed later.

Kyiv Post says former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been jailed for seven years and fined some $190 million over abuse-of-office charges in a verdict the European Union says could have “profound implications” for relations. The accusations stem from a 2009 natural-gas deal Tymoshenko signed with Russia. In addition to her prison term, she will be barred from holding a government position for three more years. As the lengthy verdict was being read out, there was angry reaction from thousands of Tymoshenko's supporters who had gathered outside of the courtroom ahead of the ruling.

Canberra Times says legislation to introduce a controversial carbon tax in Australia has been passed by MPs. Labour and independent MPs broke into applause as the hotly-contested Bills passed the Lower House by 74 votes to 72 after weeks of debate. The Bills would now go to the Senate where they would pass with the support of the Greens. The legislation, which would penalise about 500 of Australia’s biggest polluters, will come into force in July next year.

The Dominion Post says that the New Zealand authorities have arrested the captain of the stranded container ship at the centre of what the government has described as “the country’s worst maritime pollution disaster. He will appear in court later today.

Reuters reports that the search for missing 11-month-old Lisa Irwin, who went missing last week from her bed, is still going on. A search in a backyard well four blocks from the home in Kansas of turned up nothing. Firefighters were lowered into the well and two city trucks were brought in to drain it, but nothing was recovered. The failed search was the latest frustration for police looking for Irwin, last seen the night of October 3 when her mother, Deborah Bradley, said she put her to bed in her crib. Her father, Jeremy Irwin, told police he came home at 4 a.m. the next morning to find Lisa missing, along with the family's three cell phones.