The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports that the presidential pardon for oil trader George Farrugia may be withdrawn if it results that he had not given full information to the authorities. It follows revelations that he had given gifts to a Malta Resources Authority official. In another report, it says Malta is one of the noisiest places in the EU.
The Malta Independent says there are proposals for licences and insurance for horse handlers. It also says resorts in Gozo are receiving illegal bookings for 15-year-olds. Bookings are being accepted without enquiries being made on age.
In-Nazzjon leads with an address by Simon Busuttil yesterday, in which he stressed that the PN's focus is to work for a better quality of life for the people. It also reports that Enemalta workers are angry at the GWU after some 150 workers were told they would be moved elsewhere.
l-orizzont also reports that George Farrugia may lose his presidential pardon.
The overseas press
Focus reports EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meet in Brussels today to plan a Russian-language television channel in Europe in response to the Russian propaganda machine which gathered speed especially after invasion in Ukraine. Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia and Great Britain have presented the EU with a document, which says that the Russian “disinformation campaign about events in Ukraine did not find the correct answer and it is essential to improve the understanding of what is happening there”. Foreign ministers will also again consider further sanctions against Russia.
France 24 quotes the EU saying in a message sent to journalists that negotiators for Iran and six global powers striving to reach a complex deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme had “serious and useful” discussions in Geneva yesterday and would meet again next month. High level officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi for a day of talks as part of “ongoing diplomatic efforts to find a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear issue”.
Vatican Radio says a record crowd of seven million people attended the ceremony or lined the route to Rizal Park where Pope Francis celebrated an outdoor Mass in Manila – concluding his six-day tour of Asia. The Pope dedicated the service in part to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the country in 2013.
One of Ireland’s most prominent politicians has announced he is gay, becoming the first openly homosexual cabinet minister in Irish history four months before a referendum on same-sex marriage in the traditionally Catholic country. Seen as a potential contender to succeed Prime Minister Enda Kenny as leader of the ruling centre-right Fine Gael party, Health Minister Leo Varadkar made the announcement in an interview on national broadcaster RTE.
Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine at the centre of the recent terror attacks in Paris, has increased the print run for its current issue to seven million copies – nearly 120 times its usual 60,000-copy run. Le Figaro reports demand for the issue was such that even its plans, announced in recent days, to ramp up the printing to one million copies and then three million, were insufficient. The French seven-million-copy print run is a record in the history of the French press. The current edition was translated into 16 languages. People were paying hundreds of dollars on e-Bay for copies of the magazine and for other items tied to Charlie Hebdo.
Le Soir says Belgium would seek the extradition of a man who was arrested in Athens over a possible link with the foiled Islamist attack. Officials had earlier denied any link between a group of people arrested in Greece and a jihadi cell uncovered in Belgium last week.
US television network Fox News has apologised for claiming there were “totally Muslim” zones in Britain and France where non-Muslims and the police were unable to go, comments that aired following this month’s terror attacks in France. Following an uproar and ridicule on Twitter, the channel, aired a lengthy apology during several broadcasts.
Reuters reports UN peacekeepers in Central African Republic have arrested a senior leader of the anti-balaka militia, wanted for crimes including murder, rebellion, rape and looting, during violence between Christians and Muslims. The country’s senior prosecutor said Rodrigue Ngaibona, known as Andilo, was detained in Bouca, was detained after several months on the run.
Boko Haram militiamen have attacked a village in the north of Cameroon, near the border with Nigeria, where they kidnapped about 80 people, 50 of them children, aged between 10 and 12. Cameroon Tribune quotes sources saying men, women and children were rounded up as the militants burned down 80 houses and killed at least four people. Observers say the attack was in response to the Cameroon and Chad governments sending troops last week to help Nigeria counter the threat of militia Islamists who were strengthening their positions.
An Nahar quotes the Hezbollah saying six of its fighters have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights. The son of a former Hezbollah leader was among the dead.
Meanwhile, Al Thawra says at least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed when an army cargo plane crashed in bad weather in the northwest of the country. The plane crashed after hitting electricity lines in heavy fog in Idlib province, a claim echoed by Syrian state media. But Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front claimed on Twitter that it had shot down the aircraft.
The government of Mali has declared the country free of Ebola. Mali’s Health Minister Ousmane Kone told L’Essor no new cases had been reported for the past 42 days. There had been at least six deaths from Ebola.