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

The Times reports that Roads Department officials at Transport Malta have been held in a bribery probe and suspended by TM.

The Malta Independent reports that the Greek bailout talks dragged on into the night (Agreement was reached early this morning, see separate story). Like The Times, it also says that a legal ban on political satire was only an illusion,

In-Nazzjon leads with the agreement reached with the European Space Agency, giving Malta observer status. It also says that the least voting documents collected for the local council elections were at St Paul’s Bay and Sliema.

l-orizzont has demanded an apology from Vince Farrugia over his comments on workers working under precarious conditions. Mr Farrugua said that he is being wrongly interpreted. The newspaper also says a patient was asked to wait two years to see an optician.

The overseas press

Greece has secured its crucial bailout after a marathon session of talks that dragged into the early morning in Brussels, drawing a line under months of uncertainty about the deal that have shaken the eurozone. Reuters reports that in exchange for the €130 billion rescue fund, the Greek government has agreed to reduce national debt to 120.5 per cent of GDP by 2020. The euro has jumped in Tokyo trade on news the deal has finally been sealed.

Aljazeera reports the Red Cross says it has begun negotiations with both Syrian authorities and opposition groups to bring about a brief ceasefire in areas worst affected by the ongoing fighting in order to deliver desperately-needed humanitarian aid. The Red Cross is the only aid agency still operating in Syria and has delivered food and medicine to civilians throughout the conflict, but it has had difficulty reaching areas where the fighting has been worst.

Meanwhile, Gulf Daily News says President Bashar al-Assad has again accused foreigners of funding and arming what he called "terrorist groups" with the aim of destabilising Syria. His statement came as Iranian warships docked at the port of Tartus in a show of force. China's influential People's Daily has warned that any Western support for the rebels would trigger a "large-scale civil war".

Pajhwok Afghan News reports that some 40 children are known to have died in the coldest winter in Afghanistan for more than a decade. Many of the deaths were in tented camps in Kabul housing people who had fled fighting elsewhere in Afghanistan. The Afghan capital has been experiencing its worst cold-snap and heaviest snows in at least 15 years.

La Prensa says relatives of the hundreds of inmates who died in a prison fire in Honduras last week have stormed a morgue to demand the remains of their loved ones. Some 360 prisoners died in the blaze, most burnt beyond recognition.

AFP says residents of Misrata have voted to elect their local council in Libya's first poll in more than 40 years. They are electing 28 council members from a field of 242 candidates in a poll which is being held four months after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, who had banned elections as an "invention of the West".

According to Abrar, Iran is holding new military exercises – dubbed “Sarollah” or “God's vengeance” – to protect its nuclear sites from possible attack. A statement by the military said the country has deployed warplanes, missiles and anti-aircraft artillery as part of a new plan to protect sites that have been threatened by a possible Israeli airstrike. On the same day, inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran for a second round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme.

Reuters reports Saudi Arabia has vowed to use an "iron fist" to halt attacks against security forces in the country's east. The Sunni Muslim kingdom has accused an unnamed foreign power, widely understood to mean Shiite Iran, of backing attacks on its forces in the Eastern Province. Clashes first began at the height of the Arab uprisings last year and were provoked by the detention without charge of political campaigners.

Suspected Nigerian Islamists have opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 30 people. The Daily Post quotes traders saying gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram stormed the fish section of Baga market and sprayed stallholders with bullets, adding that women and children were among the dead. The military confirmed the assault on the market but denied any civilian deaths.

O Globo reports that Rio's Carnival spectacular has been marred by a shoot-out between police and a drug gang that left one person dead and four wounded in a favela near the riotous celebrations at the Sambadrome. The gun battle began after an arrest of a drug dealer in a slum some three kilometres from the Sambadrome, which saw a capacity crowd of some 72,500 spectators enjoying some of Rio's top samba schools compete. The night parades in Rio's Sambadrome marked the high point of the Carnival festival, which is bringing the country of 191 million people virtually to a stop.

The Herald says a court in South Korea has jailed two 15-year-old high school students for a total of six-and-a-half years for bullying a fellow classmate who later committed suicide. The pair took turns beating their classmate, as well as forcing his head into a sink of water and making him eat food from the ground. Late last year, after months of abuse, the victim jumped from an apartment building to his death. In sentencing, the judge said such insults and harassment had destroyed the high school student's life and devastated his spirit, adding that rampant school violence in South Korea is a dire reality.

ABC reports that an Australian naval officer found guilty by a court martial of spanking a young female sailor would contest all seven of the charges against him. Last December Lieutenant Commander John Alan Jones, 58, was found guilty of seven acts of indecency and sentenced to 18 months jail. The sexual abuse occurred throughout 2010. The offences included spanking the young officer in his cabin on a Navy ship and at the victim's home in Western Australia. Jones lodged the appeal soon after his conviction.

 

 

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