The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says police in the St Julian’s district, which includes the Paceville trouble spot, are stretched so thin they have very little time to investigate
the flood of reports they received every day. In another story, it says Labour MEP Alfred Sant believes it was imprudent for the EU to sign an association treaty with Ukraine, justifying his abstention in Tuesday’s European Parliament vote.
The Malta Independent also leads with Dr Sant's explanation as to why he abstained on the Ukraine vote.
L-Orizzont says the International Organisation for Migration has embarked on its investigation in the recent tragedy off Malta in which some 500 migrants lost their lives. In another story it says that former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono is retiring from politics and will not be contesting the next general election.
In-Nazzjon leads with Opposition leader Simon Busuttil's declaration on the Armier boathouses yesterday evening. Dr Busuttil said he was against giving the illegal units smart metres. It also reports that a 26-year-old hunter from San Gwann was fined €5,000 for shooting a protected white stork.
International news
As some 4.3 million prepare to cast their vote in Scotland’s independence referendum, Reuters reports the fate of the United Kingdom rests on some 600,000 undecided voters. Opinion polls showed supporters of the 307-year union marginally ahead of secessionists with four percentage points. Voters, including 16 and 17-year-olds, will be asked to answer Yes or No to the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” Polls stay open till 11 pm CET and the result is expected early tomorrow.
The Washington Post says the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives has voted to give the administration authority to train and arm Syrian rebels as President Obama emphasised once again that American forces “do not and will not have a combat mission” in the struggle against Islamic State militants in either Iraq or Syria. The vote was 273-156.
Fox News quotes President Obama saying the Islamist militants would have “no refuge” from the US-led coalition of some 40 countries. Speaking at a US Air Force base in Florida, Obama added ISIS posed “no specific terrorist threat” to the United States after the group posted online bomb-making instructions and urged “lone wolf” US followers to attack Times Square and other symbolic sites in New York and other American cities including Las Vegas.
Al Hayat reports Saudi Arabia’s highest body of religious scholars has issued a religious ruling calling terrorism a “heinous crime” and saying perpetrators, including Islamic State militants deserve punishment according to Islamic law.
ABC says Australian police have detained 15 people in a major counter-terrorism operation, saying intelligence indicated a random, violent attack was being planned on Australian soil. About 800 federal and state police officers raided more than two dozen properties across Sydney, Brisbane and Logan in the largest operation in Australian history.
Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of US airlines, technology companies and other contractors involved in the movement of US troops and military equipment. Reuters reports a Senate panel has found the US military was largely unaware of computer compromises of its contractors.
Kyiv Post quotes Ukraine’s energy minister confirming that the volume of Russian natural gas transiting to Europe has been reduced by 25 per cent. Yuri Prodan also said Ukraine could only survive the coming winter with help from Europe and by reducing energy consumption.
USA Today reports a woman convicted of the 2004 starving death of a nine-year-old boy was executed yesterday by lethal injection at a Texas state prison. Lisa Ann Coleman, 38, was the second woman executed in the United States this year and the fifteenth since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. She was the 517th prisoner put to death in Texas, the most of any state, since 1976.
Voice of Nigeria confirms 13 people were killed and 34 were injured in an attack at a teachers’ training college in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. The attack is thought to have been the work of Boko Haram, the Islamist group which has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009 in a bid to carve out an Islamic state in the north.
Toronto Star reports the city’s embattled mayor has a rare and difficult cancer in his abdomen that requires aggressive chemotherapy. Rob Ford’s doctor confirmed the diagnosis days after the dramatic announcement that the mayor was pulling out of a re-election campaign. Ford has been in hospital for a week.
Artificial sweeteners may exacerbate, rather than prevent, metabolic disorders such as Type 2 diabetes, a study suggests. Scientists reported in the journal Nature that experiments on lab mice and a small group of humans found the sweeteners disrupted the make-up and function of gut bacteria, and actually hastened glucose intolerance.
No man, not even the pope himself, has the power to sever the bonds of marriage, German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller said in a book titled “The Hope of the Family”. According to Ansa, Cardinal Mueller said in an interview-format book ahead of an extraordinary synod on the family in October, that divorced individuals who marry a second time must not be allowed to receive communion, because that would mean questioning the indissolubility of the marriage sacrament.
Online media platform The Paper says a Chinese court has awarded €40,000 compensation to a woman, who sued a man for “violating her right to virginity” after he wooed her with false promises. The woman had found out her boyfriend was already married. The man denied ever having sex with the woman but the court did not believe his version.
Metro reports a disgruntled taxpayer in southern France paid her annual bill using 30 kilos of small change in protest at the way taxes are collected. The unemployed 28-year-old woman had to pay €1,107 in tax on her 2013 salary and said she had to sell her car to pay the tax on time.
A Swiss goalkeeper has threatened legal action after fans of a rival lower league team urinated in his water bottle and then taunted him when, unaware, he took a sip during a match at the weekend. Swiss tabloid Blick reports that the unidentified fans had persuaded a ball boy behind the goal to pass them the bottle during the second half of the match. The paper said the fans shouted “Now you have AIDS” after the player realised what had happened.