The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta reports about a European court judgment which granted 19 former dockyard workers €226,000 in compensation for asbestos exposure but says the figure falls short of the victims’ expectations. In another story it says parents who repeatedly ignored child truancy fines would no longer be allowed to avoid criminal proceedings.
L-Orizzont also leads with a report of the European court’s judgment.
The Malta Independent says the government has failed to confirm or deny reports that claimed that the Delimara power station project could be delayed by six to 12 months.
In-Nazzjon quotes a UNHCR statement on irregular migration in the Mediterranean calling for European action.
International news
Al Ayyam reports Israeli security forces have shot dead three Palestinians during a massive protest in the West Bank yesterday night and early this morning. The three people were among an estimated 10,000 people who clashed with soldiers and border police at a checkpoint in Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. At least 90 people were injured in the checkpoint clashes, with some reports that live fire was being used. The protest came hours after 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a UN school in the city of Beit Hanoun was hit by an artillery shell.
AFP says American, Russian and some European carriers have resumed flights to Israel after a two-day freeze amid fears that rocket fire from Gaza was endangering commercial air traffic into Tel Aviv. But some European airlines continued to suspend their flights, out of security concerns around Ben Gurion International Airport. The Association of European Airlines has called for an “urgent” debate on airspace security guidelines after the Malaysia Airlines flight shot down in eastern Ukraine.
Al-Shames quotes a Libyan government statement saying an armed has militia prevented Prime Minister Abdallah al Theni to take a plane at the military airport of Mittiga, near Tripoli, after the closure of Tripoli International Airport, the scene of heavy fighting. The statement said Theni wanted to go to Tobruk in eastern Libya, for a series of conversations and meetings.
Cuban leader Raul Castro’s daughter and Fidel Castro’s niece, Mariela, in a telephone interview with Venezuelan Telesur TV denied claims that she was on board the Air Algerie’s aircraft that crashed in Mali, killing 116 people on board. According to Telesur, the daughter of Cuban leader is currently in Havana.
Kyiv Post announces the resignation of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk after two parties said they would pull out of the governing coalition. He said the Parliament could no longer do its work and pass necessary laws.
Het Parool reports two more military aircraft carrying remains of victims from the Malaysian plane disaster have arrived in the Netherlands. Australian and Dutch diplomats promoted a plan for a UN team to secure the crash site which has been controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
According to Ansa, agreement has been reached for the sale of a 35 per cent stake by the State Grid Corporation of China in Italian energy grid holding company Cdp-Reti. The agreement, worth some €2 billion, is the main result of an Italian trade visit under way in China led by Treasury Minister Pier Carlo Padoan. In 2012, Shandong Heavy Industries Group-Weichai acquired a controlling interest in the Ferretti luxury yacht producer with a €374 million investment. China’s central bank has bought stakes of two per cent each in the Italian energy giants ENI and ENEL.
Il Tempo reports some 100 Italian opposition members walked out of the Senate to march to the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome to demand a meeting with President Napolitano to protest against the government’s debate-cutting so-called “bear trap” or guillotine procedure. Opponents to the plan to turn the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives have tabled some 7,800 amendments to the Bill.
Avvenire says Pope Francis has met with Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her religion and later freed. Together with her family, she plans to spend a few days in Rome before heading to the United States. Pope Francis thanked her for her faith and courage, and she thanked him for his prayer and solidarity. Born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family and raised by her mother, an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia, Ibrahim had received a death sentence over charges of apostasy for marrying in a church ceremony in 2011. Though men marry as they please, Sudan prohibits Muslim women from taking husbands outside their faith – a religion Ibrahim legally inherited from her absent father, but never practiced. The court also sentenced her to 100 lashings, considering her union with a non-Muslim adultery.
Times of India reports at least 22 children were killed when a train crashed into their school bus at an unmanned rail road crossing in southern India. The bus driver also died in the accident in Telangana State.
Xinhua says a man in China’s Zhejiang province checked into hospital after experiencing stomach aches and blood in his urine – but left with a shocking diagnosis. After a series of scans, doctors informed Chen, it was because he had a complete set of female reproductive organs. Genetic testing also showed he had pairs of X chromosomes, making him genetically female. Forty-four-year-old Chen had begun menstruating. On closer inspection, Chen was found not to have an Adam’s apple or normal male genitalia, despite his claim that he had sex with his wife whom he married 10 years ago.