The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times reports how Air Malta is forking €4.5m in a new agreement for pilots. Pilots will earn over €72,000. It also reports how Franco Debono’s move to halt the St Philip’s Hospital acquisition has found backers.
The Malta Independent reports how no agreement was reached in yesterday’s House Business Committee.
In-Nazzjon focuses on the prime minister’s visit to the Junior Lyceum and his comments on the government’s focus on education.
l-orizzont leads with the situation at the police stables and says the police ‘excuse’ is that footage shown on One TV was old.
The overseas press
Foreign policy and the state of the US economy dominated the only televised debate between the two vice-presidential candidates, the Democrat incumbent Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan. VOA says said Biden performed well but not enough to blunt the new-found momentum of the Republican campaign after Mitt Romney got the better of President Obama in the first presidential candidates’ debate last week.
Plummeting polls have prompted President Obama to reassure his supporters. Among general accusations of being excessively polite, he admitted that "Governor Romney had a good night. I had a bad night". In an interview with ABC, Obama reminded that "the fundamentals haven't changed. Governor Romney went to a lot of trouble to hide what his positions are." Mitt Romney has rebounded after the debate and the latest polls assigned to him an uncontested victory, reflected by more positive numbers, including in key states
The BBC reports EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week will consider creating a separate budget for the 17-nation eurozone, in a drive to unite fiscal policy. Such a budget, outside the seven-year framework of the 27-member EU, could centralise tax and spending decisions. Addressing the budget issue at a conference organised by the Friends of Europe think-tank in Brussels on Thursday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said he wants the EU to have specific proposals before next year, to help stabilise the eurozone.
The war of words between Syria and Turkey escalated on Thursday when Ankara said it had found military supplies on a passenger plane it intercepted en route between Moscow and Damascus. AFP reports the Syrian foreign ministry accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan of lying after he said the jet had been carrying "equipment and ammunition shipped to the Syrian defence ministry" from a Russian military supplier.
The leader of Lebanese Shia militant movement Hezbollah has said that his group was behind the launch of a drone shot down over Israel last week. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told the movement's al-Manar television network that the drone was made in Iran and had flown over "sensitive sites" in Israel. Israeli fighter planes shot down the drone north of the Negev desert after it entered from the Mediterranean. Israel's prime minister has again vowed to defend the country's borders.
Ansa reports Pope Benedict has called for the revival of the spirit of Vatican II by reaffirming the Catholic church's core values in an increasingly atheist world. The Pontiff was speaking at a mass to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the start of the 'Year of Faith' at St.Peter's Square. Some 400 bishops from around the world attended.
Al Ahram says Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has removed Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud from his post. The row comes a day after 24 supporters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak were acquitted of organising attacks on protesters during last year's uprising. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the capital Cairo against the acquittals. They accused the judges of "complicity" with the former Egyptian leadership and said they wanted to "purify justice".
One in every three young women aged between 20 and 24 is married before the age of 18. That’s 70 million young women who might otherwise have been educated or incorporated into the working world. Huffington Post says studies show that if the trends keep up at this rate, in 10 years’ time, 150 million girls would have been married before they reach adulthood. The disconcerting statistics were issued by the UN on the occasion of the first “International Day of the Girl Child”, to draw the world's attention on the need to put an end to the practice of small brides. In a message to the world, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged countries across the world to “Let girls be girls!”
France 24 reports that Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of France’s Socialist President François Hollande, is suing the authors of a new book that alleges she once had an affair with prominent right-wing politician Patrick Devedjian. The 47-year-old journalist alleges that the book, a biography called “La Frondeuse” (The Rebel), constitutes a breach of privacy. The book also explores the reported animosity between Trierweiler and Hollande’s ex-partner and former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, who is mother of the president’s four children.