The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says a Filipino man, who has been working legally in Malta for over a year, is being held in a detention centre after he was arrested for
working without a permit following “a misunderstanding”. It also reports that Malta’s iconic film facilities in Rinella will be returned to the government after a nine-year court battle over unpaid rent which has left the Land Department out of pocket by €1.4 million.
L-Orizzont makes an appeal for the return of Minnie, a small dog belonging to the Dar Santa Rita Children’s Home in Tarxien.
The Malta Independent and In-Nazzjon lead with the arrival in Malta of a relief flight from Mitiga Airport in Libya which brought over some 70 Maltese nationals.
International news
Kyiv Post reports a senior leader of the pro-Russian separatists has turned over the two black boxes from flight MH17 to Malaysian experts, five days after the Boeing 777 was downed over territory controlled by the separatists in eastern Ukraine The black boxes are to go to Malaysia for examination. Meanwhile, rebels allowed the refrigerated train carrying the remains of most of the victims to leave the town of Torez, en route to its final destination of Kharkiv, which is held by the Ukrainian government. There, the bodies are to be identified and then sent on to the Netherlands for further examination. The Netherlands counts 193 of its nationals among the 298 passengers dead.
France 24 says diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire mounted as the conflict between Israel and Gaza entered its 14th day, bringing the Palestinian death toll to almost 600 and prompting over 100,000 to flee their homes, according to the UN. Israeli jets, tanks and artillery have relentlessly pounded the densely-populated coastal strip overnight, killing 28 members of a single family in the south.
Meanwhile, Haartez reports the deaths of seven more soldiers in Gaza, bringing the total number up to 23, plus two civilians. An Israeli Air Force spokesman has told the newspaper that since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza, Israeli troops have discovered 45 tunnels, some dug in private homes and in mosques.
Al Ahram quotes Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi urging Hamas to accept an Egyptian proposal to end the fighting. He was speaking after meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo, where US Secretary of State John Kerry also arrived to push for a truce. Israel accepted the Egyptian proposal last week but Hamas spurned it.
Akhbar Toumes says a crackdown on mosques, and radio and TV stations linked to Islamist extremists, has been launched by Tunisia after militants killed 14 soldiers on Mount Chambi near the border with Algeria. The authorities in Tunis closed the Nur radio station and Al Insan TV channel on Saturday. The government also closed all mosques not controlled by the Ministry for Religious Affairs.
AFP reports suspected militiamen have beheaded a Philippine worker in Libya after singling him out because he was not a Muslim. The Philippine Foreign Department said the Filipino construction worker was kidnapped on July 15 and his beheaded remains were found in a hospital on July 20. The killing prompted the Philippines to order its estimated 13,000 nationals in Libya to leave.
Nigeria’s The Guardian says Boko Haram Islamist gunmen have killed at least 150 people in the town of Damboa. More than 15,000 people have fled an area around the north east Nigerian town after a spate of lethal assaults by Boko Haram fighters, who burned houses. They also attacked six nearby villages.
Asia Times reports South Korean police said Tuesday that a body recovered from a field last month has been confirmed as that of Yoo Byung-Eun, a fugitive business tycoon wanted over April's ferry disaster. DNA samples taken from the badly decomposed body matched Yoo's brother, and a print taken from one of the fingers confirmed it was Yoo Byung-Eun.
According to Fox News, fast food multinationals McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut have stopped buying from their meat supplier in Shanghai, who has been accused of selling spoilt meat. The announcement was made after local authorities closed down the plant involved as a precaution, threatening “severe punishment.” Charges were brought following a two-month long investigation by journalists working for Dragon TV, who believe that the Shanghai-based Husi Food Company falsified sell-by dates to resell meat to international fast food companies.
Baltimore Sun reports a “rogue” gynaecologist who used tiny cameras to secretly record videos and photos of his patients has forced one of the world's top medical centres to pay $190 million to 8,000 women and girls. Dr Nikita Levy was fired after 25 years with the Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore in February 2013 after a female co-worker spotted the pen-like camera he wore around his neck and alerted authorities. Levy committed suicide days later, as a federal investigation led to roughly 1,200 videos and 140 images stored on computers in his home.
Tantric massages provide sexual pleasure and are subject to the same tax levied on brothels and swinger clubs in a German city, a state court said Monday. Struttgarter Zeitung says the decision by an administrative court in Baden-Wuerttemberg state followed a complaint by Monica Kochs, the owner of a massage parlour who had been billed a total of €840 for January and February 2012 under a local “amusement tax” targeting the sex trade in the state capital Stuttgart.