The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.

Times of Malta says foster care team leader John Rolé, whose transfer from Aġenzija Appoġġ fuelled controversy and sparked an online petition, has been reinstated following direct intervention by the Prime Minister. In another story, it says Parliament may reconvene in the new building at the entrance to Valletta when it returns from Easter recess in April, so long as the new deadline for the completion of works is met.

Malta Today publishes new e-mails which show how oil trader George Farrugia curried favour with key public officials.

The Malta Independent says the Opposition will be participating in tonight’s parliamentary debate on the energy agreement, after party leader Simon Busuttil quashed a movement from certain factions within his parliamentary group that pushed for a boycott of the sitting.

L-Orizzont says that toys and syringes were to be found discarded at Fort Ricasoli which was in a state of neglect.

In-Nazzjon reports about a patient who died in the corridors of Mater Dei Hospital between Monday night and Tuesday morning because the corridors were not equipped with the right equipment.

International news

President Obama has declared that the “shadow of crisis” has passed America and urged Congress to build on economic gains by raising taxes on the nation’s wealthiest to pay for childcare and higher education.  Fox News reports that in his State of the Union address, the President warned he would veto any Bill that threatened his administration’s achievements on health insurance, financial regulation or immigration. On foreign policy, he urged lawmakers to give him new war powers to defeat the Islamic State militants. The Republican Party controls both houses of Congress and can reject any of Obama’s legislative proposals.

The Washington Post says the US State Department has launched a new alarm about the situation in Libya, recommending to all American citizens in the country to leave immediately. The department also warned all those who intended to travel to the North African country, against the backdrop of the chaos that has plunged Libya’s post-Gaddafi.

The ­Daily Express leads with the results of a poll which shows eight out of 10 people voted to leave the EU. The mini-referendum – the biggest vote on the country’s ties to ­Brussels for 40 years – was organised by two senior Tory backbenchers and a prospective Tory MP.

Voice of Nigeria reports foreign ministers and chiefs of staff of 13 African countries have started a regional summit on the crisis caused by Islamist group Boko Haram. The summit, which has the political support of the US and the European Union, will discuss the possibility of mounting coordinated regional military intervention.

Euronews says police in Germany have raided 13 homes – mostly in Berlin – and taken away computers and mobile phones for analysis. They were targeting alleged associates of two men detained in a long-running probe into a suspected extremist cell recruiting fighters for Syria and providing logistical support. Separately in Athens, an Algerian man suspected of links to a foiled Islamist militant plot to attack police in Belgium, is set to be extradited there swiftly. The 33-year-old didn’t contest the move, saying he wanted to prove his innocence.

Haaretz says Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to save the lives of two Japanese hostages, one a freelance journalist and the other a mercenary, threatened with beheading in an online video purportedly released by the Islamic State terror group. In its first public demand for ransom, ISIS threatened to kill the men unless a $200 million ransom was paid within 72 hours.

Ansa reports a meeting of Democratic Party senators have voted to back Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s election reform bill, or Italicum. Of 102 Senators attending, 90 cast their vote and 71 voted to back Renzi, who is their party leader as well as premier. One Senator abstained, one left the room, and minority left-wing dissenters declined to vote altogether. A group of 29 PD Senators walked out of the vote and are threatening to keep up their stance when voting on the bill starts in the Senate.

The Washington Times says the US Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that an Arkansas prison could not prevent a Muslim inmate to have a centimetre-long beard. The case concerns Gregory Holt, alias Muhammad Abdul Maalik, sentenced to life imprisonment, who claims the right to follow his religious precepts. The prison rules stipulate that a beard cannot be more than half a centimetre long.

Corriere della Sera reports three men were sentenced to six months in prison and fined €1,800 each for animal killing, neglect, and forging documents in connection with the smuggling of 22 pure bred puppies from Hungary. The court found the men guilty of the charges after finance police stopped their van on a highway in 2012. Inside, police found 22 puppies hidden in cramped and dirty conditions. The boxers, chihuahuas, bull terriers, bulldogs, and West Highland terriers, all under three months of age, were so filthy and dehydrated that two of them died within hours of being discovered by police.

Doctors at the Imperial College Healthcare in London have successfully transplanted the organs of an infant donor to two newborns in need late last year – the first time such a procedure has happened in the United Kingdom, according to The Daily Telegraph. Infant organ transplants have been performed in the United States, Germany and Australia. The donor was a baby girl born whose brain was starved of oxygen during pregnancy. Her parents agreed to give up their child’s organs after doctors told them their daughter wasn’t going to make it. The infant’s two kidneys saved the lives of two other newborns.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.