The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.

Times of Malta says that according to Libyan sources involved in retired army captain Martin Galea's release, he was abducted in a Tripoli district controlled by an Islamist group and kept in a cell most of the time. In another story,the newspaper says that patients suffering from the ME and fibromyalgia could
finally be provided with a tailored treatment programme.

MaltaToday says Mr Galea was not abducted but taken under the care of militia ‘for his own safety’. In another story it says that a gang of five East Europeans are trying to burgle homes in Sliema using bump keys.

L-Orizzont interviews a senior Libya militia official who tells the paper about the people involved in the release of Mr Galea and the places where he was held.

The Malta Independent speaks to former EU Commissioner John Dalli who said the events unfolding in Libya were due to a big mistake committed three years ago, which left Libya with the problems it was facing today.

In-Nazzjon interviews US ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley who says the US is willing to again support Malta in the Libya crisis.

International news

Libya Herald reports more than 20 migrants have died and dozens are missing after their makeshift boat sank off the Libyan coast. The Libyan navy said late yesterday one of its patrols rescued 22 clandestine migrants who were clinging to debris from their boat. Colonel Ayoub Kassem told AFP more than 20 bodies were plucked from the water. Survivors said some 150 people had been aboard the vessel, which sank some 100 kilometres east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

LBC Radio says British Prime Minister David Cameron has put illegal immigrants on notice telling them: “When we find you – and we will find you – we will make sure you are sent back to the country you came from.” Announcing a number of new measures to tackle problems of immigration, Cameron said he wanted to send a clear message that those in the UK illegally would not be able to work or have a home.

Deutsche-Welle reports seven fire-fighting planes are being sent by Italy and the Italian energy giant ENI to douse the inferno at a Tripoli oil depot, as fighting between militias nearby has prompted more residents to flee. The blaze began on Sunday night, when a rocket hit a six-million-litre fuel container, compounding two weeks of fighting between the rival militias near Tripoli's main airport.

Meanwhile, according to Libyan news agency Lana, the Islamist gunmen from the city of Misrata and the anti-Islamist fighters from the city of Zintan have decided on a ceasefire until a fire at two fuel depots on the road to the airport is put out. Hospital sources have reported that at least 30 people have died in recent hours in fighting between government special forces and Islamist militias in Benghazi. Sources report that fighter planes were also involved.

The Miami Herald reports the Palestine Liberation Organisation has expressed readiness for a Gaza truce and Washington said Israel had sought help yesterday in calming the 22-day conflict that has killed more than 1,200 people in the enclave. Israel unleashed its heaviest air and artillery assault of the Gaza war yesterday, destroying key symbols of Hamas control, shutting down the territory's only power plant and leaving at least 128 Palestinians dead.

Bloomberg President Barack Obama and European leaders slapped their toughest sanctions yet on Russia’s energy, arms and finance sectors to protest Russian involvement in Ukraine. Among the entities targeted are Russia’s energy, arms and finance sectors.

Argentine TV station C5N announces that the father of the Juventus player Carlos Tevez has been freed after being kidnapped in Argentina. TV channel Todo Noticias said Segundo Tevez was in “good shape”. He was set free after a payment of some €36,500.

Fuji TV reports the sweltering summer heat wave that hit Japan has left 15 people dead and 8,580 admitted to hospital. At least 193 were in serious condition and 45 per cent of cases were elderly over 65 years. The temperature has often exceeded 35 degrees Celsius in the shade.

USA Today announces the death of 93-year-old Theodore VanKirk, the last surviving member of the crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He was the navigator of the Enola Gay, the B-29 aircraft that dropped Little Boy – the world’s first atomic bomb – over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 in Hiroshima. Three days later another bomb killed 80,000 in Nagasaki.

The New York Times reports more than 23 million cosmetic procedures were performed worldwide in 2013.  According to statistics released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), the United States tops the list with 3,996,631 or 17 per cent of the procedures performed, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Germany and Spain. The latest statistics indicate that cosmetic surgery is on the rise on a global scale.

Mothers in the UK are more likely to turn to their own mother and to “Dr Google” than their family doctor to seek advice if their child is poorly.  Metro says a new survey found that only one in five would go to their GP as their first port of call if their child was ill. Not wanting to bother their family doctor unnecessarily was the most common reason for mother’s turning to other places for advice, but one in 10 said they feel like their doctor does not really listen to them and another 14 per cent said they feared they would be “fobbed off”.

 

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