The following are the top stories on the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with an interview with a bandsman injured in an explosion during the band march at Gudja on Wednesday. It also reports how a field in Zabbar became a waste dump.
The Malta Independent follows up the investigation by Venezuela into the case where drugs were carried on a Maltese-registered plane. The plane was found in the Canary Islands.
In-Nazzjon says urgent surgery saved the legs of a young man injured in the Gudja band march incident.
l-orizzont says a well-known jeweller was interviewed by the police on suspicion that stolen items may have been sold at his shops.
The overseas press
The Organisation of American States has held emergency talks about Ecuador’s dispute with Britain after Ecuador decided to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Voice of America quotes Ecuador’s ambassador Maria Isabelle Salvador telling OAS members in Washington that Britain’s threats to enter her country’s embassy in London to capture Assange was a hostile move. Doing so, she said, would violate international law. A spokesman for Britain’s observer mission at the OAS said it was obliged by international laws to extradite Assange to Sweden for questioning in connection with sexual assault allegations, which Assange denies. Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Quito the evidence backed up Julian Assange’s fears that he was a victim of political persecution as a result of his determined defence for freedom of expression and a free press.
Britain has strongly criticised Ecuador’s decision, saying it would not allow Assange to leave the country. The Daily Mail reports British Foreign Secretary William Hague saying there were no legal grounds for granting him safe passage. Assange, 41, sought asylum at the diplomatic building on June 19 after exhausting options in UK courts to avert extradition to Sweden, fearing he might eventually be extradited to the US where he wouldn’t receive a fair trial and faces life in prison or execution for espionage and treason. Hague denied there was any secret agreement between Britain and the US over Assange’s extradition.
Reuters reports shares firmed early today as German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support for the European Central Bank's efforts to contain the eurozone's debt crisis. Merkel said ECB President Mario Draghi's declarations last month to do whatever it takes to save the euro and raising the prospect of buying the bonds of stricken Spain and Italy were "completely in line" with the approach taken by European leaders. She also called for Europe's swift fiscal policy integration, saying time was running short. Merkel's comments buoyed equities and oil on Thursday as they kept hopes for more stimuli while the dollar was pressured by lackluster data, with a weaker dollar supporting commodities.
Austria is calling for a mechanism to kick countries out of the eurozone if they failed to meet their economic commitments. Der Kurier reports Austrian Deputy Chancellor Michael Spindelegger has said the system would need to be created by changing EU treaties, a process he has said could take five years. In a clear reference to Greece, he said that if the facility existed, it would have been used by now. He also said creating an exit mechanism would boost market confidence in the euro.
AGI reports Israeli blogger Richard Silverstein has posted plans for an Israeli attack on Iran which is to be presented to the security cabinet. The strike involves a cyber-attack to knock out internal communications, the launching of dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles and a third wave of air strikes to complete the destruction of the targets. The top-secret documents were given to the blogger by a high-level Israeli source concerned that this time "Bibi and Barak are damned serious".
South African police have opened fire on a crowd of thousands of striking miners, killing and wounding several people in one of the bloodiest industrial disputes since apartheid. The BBC says an eyewitness counted 18 bodies outside the platinum mine outside Johannesburg. Police first urged the armed strikers to put down their weapons – mostly machetes, spears and clubs. When tear gas and water cannons failed to disperse them, police fired continuously for two minutes.
El Universal says police in Chile have detained some 150 teenage students who were occupying three Santiago schools in continuing protests against government education policies. There were violent clashes as police moved in.
Gazete Oku reports that hundreds of Syrians are fleeing the Syrian border town of Azaz to Turkey after an aerial bombardment by Syrian government aircraft killed about 50 people and wounded more than 100 others. Human Rights Watch said the attacked leveled an entire block of houses. Meanwhile, the corpses of 60 people buried with their hands tied were found in a dump in Qatana, a village near Damascus, after what appeared to have been a summary execution.
ABC says US researchers have identified a compound that might finally lead to a birth control pill for men. In lab experiments, male mice given the pill were rendered completely infertile during treatment as they produced fewer and less mobile sperm. The drug, originally tested as part of a broader cancer research project, did not affect the hormone system or sex drive and was completely reversible.