The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports how Greece has been given a four-month reprieve on its debt. It also says Ghadira Bay risks losing its blue flag status because of a kiosk ‘upgrade’
The Malta Independent quotes the UK Foreign Secretary calling for investment in a Libyan unity government. It also says Malta has zero missile or air defence capability.
In-Nazzjon says that if Ryan Schembri is found in Dubai he will be arrested. Schembri is wanted by creditors of More supermarket.
l-orizzont focuses on the problems of a Nadur family who encountered problems by the former government to build on their property, and now face objections from Nadur council.
The overseas press
The Greek government will next Monday present a plan of economic reforms for European institutions’ assessment. European Voice quotes Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem explaining that if the plan was found to be “sufficiently comprehensive”, they would start formal procedures to execute it. His comments came after finance ministers from the 19 Eurozone countries agreed to extend Greece’s bail-out programme by four months. Dijsselbloem described the summit as “a first step to restore confidence in Greece”.
Al-Watan reports militants loyal to Islamic State jihadists yesterday killed 42 people and wounded more than 70 others in suicide car bombings in eastern Libya, in apparent retaliation for Egyptian air strikes. Most of the victims were in their cars queuing at a gas station near a security force building. The three car bombs exploded in Qubbah, a small town located between the ISIS stronghold of Derna in eastern Libya and Beida, the seat of Abdullah al Thani’s government elected by the House of Representatives of Tobruk.
On the diplomatic front, the Islamist forces that control Tripoli and Libya’s western region refused to take part in new UN-mediated peace talks. Libya Herald quotes Omar al Hasi, the prime minister of the local government not recognised by the international community, saying there is no more room for the dialogue sponsored by the UN’s special envoy, Bernardino Leon, in the light of Egypt’s air strikes within Libya, albeit against ISIS targets.
Like many of the national media, The Daily Mail runs with the story of three schoolgirls who have flown out of the UK with the intention of joining jihadists in Syria. The teenage girls from London went missing during their mid-term school holidays. The three Londoners are only a few of the young people who have tried to join the Islamic State in recent months. In September, the CIA estimated that 2,000 Westerners had joined the Islamic State in Syria.
Sputnik reports Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has stressed that Moody’s downgrade of Russia’s sovereign debt rating from BAA-3 to BA-1 was unlikely to cause any significant changes on the capital market. Siluanov told reporters Moody’s decision was based on an excessively pessimistic forecast that did not reflect the real market situation. Moody’s based their decision on “the situation in Ukraine and slumping oil prices”.
France 24 announces the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany and Ukraine will meet next Tuesday in Paris to discuss the Ukraine crisis. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced the fresh round of diplomacy as President Hollande and Chancellor Merkel warned that fresh sanctions could be implemented if the ceasefire agreement continued to be ignored. Noting that the ceasefire had been violated several times, Hollande said that “every country that doesn’t keep its word” risks sanctions.
Thousands of people have evacuated after a fire broke out in the Torch skyscraper in Dubai, one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. A report on Gulfnews.com said strong winds fanned the fire in the 336-metre-tall building in the marina district, which was brought under control after about 90 minutes. It appeared to have start at around the 50th floor of the 79-storey building, which was opened in 2011. Footage posted on social media showed what looked like molten glass and pieces of masonry falling down.
The head of the World Food Programme says the UN agency was confronting its worst challenge since World War II in trying to tackle five top-level humanitarian crises at the same time. Ertharin Cousin said in an interview with The Associated Press that the five crises – in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa – require large-scale operations. In addition, she said, WFP was doing preparatory work for a potential scale-up in food assistance to four other countries where there is growing political instability – Yemen, Nigeria, Ukraine and Libya.
CNN confirms at least 23 people have died this week in the United States due to winter weather. Most of the deaths, 18, occurred in Tennessee. More than 2,700 people are without power as more severe cold, freezing rain and snow are predicted for the next few days. Dangerously cold conditions continue to grip a large part of the eastern United States with more than 125 million Americans under a wind chill warning.
According to Bloomberg, evidence emerging from a CIA leak case could change the outcome of UN’s assessments of Iran’s nuclear programme. The revelations emerged from the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent convicted of leaking details of a plot wherein the agency fed faulty blueprints for nuclear weapons to Iran in an effort to derail any weapons development efforts.
The International Business Times reports Iran has executed Saman Naseem, a Kurdish political prisoner arrested as a teenager and sentenced to death last April. Iran Human Rights Watch said the boy was hanged in the prison of Urmia in northwestern Iran and the family had already been advised to go to the prison to collect his body. International organisations tried to stop the execution which they called as “inhuman”. In a letter from prison, Saman claimed he had been tortured.