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

Times of Malta and l-orizzont report how a court has cleared the way for the government to engage a new bus service operator next month. The Times of Malta also quotes Bishop Charles Scicluna saying changes of faith is healthy for society.

The Malta Independent and l-orizzont say the Maltese government has been caught up in a dispute over who should head the Libyan embassy. The embassy building was ringed by policemen yesterday.

In-Nazzjon leads with comments by Simon Busuttil that the PN was effective and credible  over the past year.

The overseas press

The Washington Times reports the United States and Cuba have announced talks aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations after 50 years of hostility. It comes as part of a deal that saw three Cubans freed from a Florida jail and the release of American prisoner Alan Gross by Cuba. Presidents Obama and Castro have paid tribute to Pope Francis for helping to broker the agreement.

News 24 says some Republican and Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage over the breakthrough, accusing President Obama of conceding “everything to a brutal Castro regime”. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American warned Congress would block efforts to lift the trade embargo, saying the deal was “naïve and inexplicable”.

Luxemburger Wort reports the General Court of the European Union has ruled that Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from its terror list on technical grounds, prompting Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to claim that many in Europe had “learned nothing” from the Holocaust. The court said the original listing in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgements but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet.

Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the EU Leila Shahid on Wednesday welcomed the European parliament’s resolution supporting Palestinian statehood in principle ahead of a UN Security Council vote in an interview with France 24. Reacting to the EU Parliament vote, which was passed with 498 lawmakers voting in favour and 88 against, Shahid said it was significant since it was voted by “a vast majority” of European lawmakers.

Le Soir says EU leaders start a two-day summit in Brussels later today to discuss an ambitious investment plan to help revive economic growth. EC President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to generate €315 billion of private investment for infrastructure projects. Russia is also on the agenda.

Pakistan’s Dawn reports funerals and prayer vigils have been held in Pakistan for the 132 children and nine staff who died in Tuesday’s attack by the Taliban on the army public school in Peshawar. After meeting with political party leaders to discuss possible security strategies, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was ending a moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases which had been in place since 2008.

Kabul Times says 10 people have died in a Taliban attack on a bank in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, as one suicide bomber blew himself up and three others were killed by security forces after a stand-off. The bank was busy at the time, with government officials collecting their salaries.

Al Ayyam reports more than 230 bodies of people, believed to have been killed by Islamic State militants, have been found in a mass grave in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zor province. The bodies were thought to be members of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which had battled Islamic State militants.

Palermo prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible infiltration by Islamic State terrorists among the migrants to have arrived in Sicily in recent months. Sources told Ansa the suspected terrorists to have landed in Italy were Libyan and Syrian. The prosecutors were alerted to the possible risk by the Italian secret services.

Avvenire says hundreds of couples performed a tango on St Peter’s Square on Wednesday in a 78th birthday treat for Pope Francis. The dancers were among some 13,000 people gathered for the pope’s weekly public audience. Non-dancing well-wishers came bearing gifts including a birthday cake and mate, a traditional Argentinian drink, before listening to the leader of the world’s Catholics issue a solemn condemnation of recent terrorist atrocities in Pakistan, Yemen and Australia.

Hollywood Reporter announces Sony Pictures has cancelled the planned US release on December 25of the film “The Interview”, after major cinema chains decided not to screen it. The film is about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Hackers have already carried out a cyber attack on Sony and warned the public to stay away from cinemas screening the film.

People around the world lived on average to a ripe old age of 71.5 in 2013 – up from 65.3 in 1990. A study published in The Lancet showed the increase was attributed to falling death rates from cancers (down by 15 per cent) and cardiovascular disease (down by 22 per cent) in high-income regions of the world. In less affluent regions, it was attributed to rapidly declining death rates for diarrhoea, lower respiratory tract infections and neonatal disorders. Only one region, sub-Saharan Africa, did not benefit from the upward trend with deaths from HIV/AIDS resulting in a drop in average life expectancy of five years.


   

 

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