The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says an agreement with a Chinese State-owned energy company to invest €320 million in Enemalta is close, but the Energy Minister, who returned from China yesterday, is still refusing to confirm the deal will be sealed by the end of 2014. In another story it says a Croat who has been dragged into money laundering claims is denying he was ever a business partner of Ryan Schembri, the former owner of More Supermarkets who fled the island owing millions.
In-Nazzjon says the future of More Supermarkets is expected to be discussed today in a meeting called by owners for all creditors supplying the company.
L-Orizzont says Enemalta is to start dismantling the Marsa Power Station in the coming days. In another story it quotes the Prime Minister telling the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise that the forthcoming budget is to have an unprecedented number of public private partnerships.
The Malta Independent leads with a report of a sitting of Parliament’s Privileges Committee during which former assistant police commissioner Michael Cassar said former commissioner Peter Paul Zammit was not interested in the John Dalli investigation.
International news
Amid warnings that Africa and the world are falling behind in the race against Ebola, a second US health worker has tested positive. Euronews reports the UN Security Council heard that efforts to stop the spread of the disease were inadequate. WHO says the epidemic is spreading in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The death toll so far in the outbreak has reached 4,447 from a total of 8,914 cases.
The Washington Times says senior US lawmakers overseeing homeland security have joined calls for authorities to impose a temporary ban on travel from West Africa, to prevent an Ebola outbreak.
According to AP, US health officials are seeking 132 people who flew on a plane with a Texas nurse on the day before she came down with symptoms of Ebola. The second person infected in the US, Amber Vinson, 29, fell ill on Tuesday. Both she and nurse Nina Pham, 26, had treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died a week ago in Dallas. More than 70 healthcare workers who may have come in contact with him at the hospital are being monitored for symptoms.
Libya’s army has thrown its weight behind renegade former general Khalifa Haftar after his forces launched a new assault to retake Benghazi from Islamist militias. Libya Herald reports tanks launched an assault against the February 17 Martyrs Brigade while war planes carried out raids on the group, whose headquarters is located west of the city. At least 12 people were killed and 10 others wounded, including three soldiers, and a man and his three children.
Bloomberg says Tokyo stocks dropped 2.35 per cent in opening trade this morning after sell-offs on US and European markets due to worries over the global economy and the spreading Ebola epidemic. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 354.43 points to 14,719.09 in the first 15 minutes of trade. Yesterday, global shares fall sharply as concerns about weak global economic growth knocked investor confidence. European markets were also sharply lower.
Corriere della Sera reports leaders from China and the European Union have agreed to step up cooperation to counter extremism and terrorism in the Middle East and Africa. Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang held talks with European Commission President Josè Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy Wednesday evening on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian and European leaders in Milan.
Islamic State militants are retreating in parts of the strategic Syrian town of Kobane, a Kurdish official has said. Idriss Nassan told the BBC that the militants had lost control of more than 20 per cent of the town in recent days. US defence officials say hundreds of militants have been killed around Kobane as US-led air strikes intensify.
Serbian newspaper Politika quotes President Putin warning Washington a row between nuclear powers over the Ukraine crisis could threaten global stability and said Russia would not be “blackmailed” by sanctions. Taking a tough line on the eve of talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Milan, Putin said the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over Moscow's role in the crisis were hindering peace moves.
The Herald says Scotland is to get its first female leader as Nicola Sturgeon succeeds Alex Salmond as leader of the Scottish National Party and first minister. Salmond stood down as SNP leader and first minister after the vote against independence in September's referendum, paving the way for his deputy Sturgeon to replace him.
AGI reports Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, who is moderating the Italian-language group at the Synod, has urged the Church to find “all possible forms” to ensure that annulments of marriages will be free of charge. He said there must be “no suspicion whatsoever that, when speaking of a sacrament, there may be objectives of other kinds”. Cardinal Luis Sistach confirmed that the same request had been made by the Spanish-language group of which he is the moderator.