The following are the top stories in the local and international press today.
The Times leads with a photo of athlete Diane Borg who yesterday qualified in the preliminaries of the 100 metres but failed to qualify in the first round. The newspaper says that the parking area in front of the former trade fair ground in Naxxar is up for sale and can be developed. The newspaper also reports a grandmother’s account in court of how she was beaten up by her grandson.
The other three newspapers lead with a story on political party billboards.
The Malta Independent reports on the launch of the PN's billboard campaign yesterday and publishes a photo of a billboard from both parties. It also reports the General Workers Union's warning that it would issue directive to employees at open centres if they continued to be threatened by the immigrants.
l-Orizzont says that the billboard launched by the PN yesterday was used by the Conservative Party in the UK 30 years ago. In another story, it reports the GWU expressing concerned on the rise in the cost of living.
In-Nazzjon reports on the first PN billboard and its message, that the PL brings unemployment and takes the country 30 years back in time.
The international press
The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a Saudi-sponsored resolution criticising the Security Council for failing to make the Syrian government hold its violence. CNN reports that the non-binding resolution – approved by 133 votes for, 12 against and with 31 abstentions – also condemned Syria’s increasing use of heavy weapons and called for a political transition. Russian’s UN ambassador condemned the move as “harmful”, saying it amounted to a show of support to the opposition. Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, called the resolution a "piece of theatre" that serves the interests of other countries in the region. He cited "foreign interference" and what he called the use of human shields by Syrian rebels.
Al Jazeera reports that Syrian government forces were conducting a new offensive against rebels in Damascus. Eyewitnesses said Syrian troops stormed opposition strongholds within the suburbs of the capital Damascus and shell neighbourhoods in the north of Aleppo, Syrian’s commercial hub. Tanks and armoured vehicles were used in the attacks. At least 120 people were reportedly killed in the country's violence on Friday.
Shares have rallied on the world’s stock markets at the end of a turbulent week following better-than-expected job figures in the United States. Voice of America says the American labour market improved in July by 163,000 jobs after three straight months of sluggish hiring. However, the country’s unemployment rate rose slightly from 8.2 to 8.3 per cent. President Obama took note of the continued job growth but acknowledged that too many people remained out of work. Republican presidential challenger Mick Romney described the July jobless rate of 23 million as “a hammer blow to the Middle class”. He blamed President Obama for the slow pace of recovery.
After months of denial, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has given his strongest indication yet that his debt-ridden country might seek a full bailout from international investors. El Pais quotes him saying that before deciding, he must first study how the new measures planned by the European Central Bank to ease the eurozone debt crisis. In June, Spain secured a €100 billion credit line from the European Union for its stricken banking sector. Rajoy defended his conservative government's record, recalling that it has reformed the country's strict labour laws, liberalised the transport sector and restructured the financial sector since taking office in December.
The BBC reports that Sudan and South Sudan have struck a deal on an oil payments dispute that brought the two countries to the brink of war earlier this year. Mediator Thabo Mbeki said they would also discuss a timetable for resuming oil exports through the north. Landlocked South Sudan shut down oil production in January after failing to agree a deal on oil transit fees with its northern neighbour. The dispute has severely impacted the economies of both countries.
El Comercio says police in Peru have destroyed a record haul of more than 50 tonnes of marijuana. Officials said they had located 200,000 marijuana plants in an operation lasting five days. According to a report released this week by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Peru is the top cocaine producer in the world, followed by Bolivia and Colombia.
Metro reports a British court has sentenced a Pakistani-born couple to life imprisonment for murdering their teenage daughter in a so-called honour killing. Shafilea Ahmed, 17, was killed in 2003 but the case remained unsolved until her sister, who was 12 at the time of the murder, testified she saw her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, suffocate the teenager in front of their other children. It was apparently because they were ashamed of her Westernised ways.
According to Ansa, Italian beaches are devoid of their usual August crowds as beach clubs stage a short strike to protest against a government plan that would see the right to operate patches of seafront decided by auction from 2016. Environmentalist groups have long protested that the beach clubs' grip illegally prevents free public access to the sea. But the beach workers' union says the government's proposal for auctions would favour multinational companies over smaller local businesses, putting 30,000 beach business and 600,000 workers at risk.
Gazeta Polska says a Polish MP has asked Spain to pay back his country a loan, granted more than 450 years ago, the present value of which is almost €60 million. The loan of 430,000 gold ducats was made Queen Bona Sforza at the request of King Philip II, who ruled 'Spain from 1556 to 1598. Marek Poznanski calculates the loan is now worth the equivalent of over 235 million zlotys or 58 million euros.