The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

The Sunday Times of Malta reports how a Maltese fraudster was arrested after it tracked him down in the UK.

MaltaToday says a top security firm is being probed over miserly wages.

The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that a website offers drug shipments to Malta.

Il-Mument says the process for the granting of a casino licence by the government to the Eden Leisure Group was vitiated.

It-Torca quotes a ship's captain saying rescued migrants wanted to go back into the sea rather than being taken to Malta.

Illum says there is pressure from a section of the Labour Party for the party to move to the left.

KullHadd criticises statements by Tonio Fenech on the cost of living increase,.

The overseas press

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and current and former world leaders are marking the occasion with warnings of continued divisions among major powers. VOA News reports President Obama issued a statement saying Russia’s actions against Ukraine were a reminder that there was much “more work to do” for Europe to be “whole, free and at peace”. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said the world was on the brink of “a new Cold War”.

Unconfirmed reports quoted by pan-Arab media say Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was injured in an US-led coalition air strike of a meeting of leaders of the jihadist group near Mosul. Pentagon officials did not, however, wish to say if those killed and wounded in the bombing included al Baghdadi. Iraq’s Nova news agency said at least 50 Islamic State fighters were killed in the airstrike.

According to AGI, the website of a local Italian radio station, Radio Punto Zero, was targeted by foreign pro-ISIS hackers on Saturday, forcing the radio station to close the site for maintenance. Phrases written in Arabic, promoting jihad and Sharia law, had replaced the site’s content, accompanied by a voice chanting a jihadist song.

RIA Novosti reports Hungarian President Viktor Orban has warned the EU was facing the threat of becoming an unsuccessful utopia. In an article dedicated to the launch of a book by former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Orban said it would be “suicidal” for Europe to renounce the national roots of its member states and urged the different countries to be more active within the union.

Al Ahram says Egypt, Greece and Cyprus have signed an agreement to form a united regional front against threats in the Middle East, including terrorism and religious discrimination.  

AFP announces the EU’s new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini has appealed for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying the world “cannot afford” another war in Gaza, devastated by its third conflict in six years.  

Cotidianul says some 10,000 Romanian demonstrators have protested in Bucharest, accusing the government of limiting voting from citizens living abroad in last weekend’s presidential polls, won by President Porta. 

Fox News quotes the US State Department saying North Korea has released two American citizens – Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller. The two, arrested and held in North Korea for more than 30 months, were said to be on their way home. The US government has thanked Sweden for its part in securing the men’s release.

El Universal says furious protesters burned several vehicles and threw firebombs at a southern Mexican state’s headquarters yesterday after authorities indicated that gang hitmen slaughtered 43 missing students. 

CNN says President Obama has picked Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to be the next US attorney general. If confirmed, Lynch, 55, would be the first black woman to serve in the post.  

The New Yorker notes an increase in men sporting beards – and not just for fashion! In a sort of protest against the rising price of razors, blades and other products, many men in America have stopped shaving, sounding the alarm bells for the industry as, for the first time since the recession, the total expenditure of consumers and dropped last year to $2.3 billion dollars.

 

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