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

Times of Malta and The Malta Independent report how Ninu Zammit admitted to having a Swiss account. He was suspended from the PN.

In-Nazzjon says the police are mounting guard on the home of Ryan Schembri, the businessman who fled Malta as creditors chased their money.

l-orizzont says a head of the Civil Protection Department in Gozo, Peter Mercieca, used to order his workers to serve in a family-run restaurant during their working hours. 

The overseas press

CNN announces “Birdman” has won this year’s Oscar for best picture and best director (Alejandro G. Inarritu). It also won two other awards: the Best Original Screenplay and the Best Cinematography. “The Grand Budapest Hotel”also won four awards.  

The Greek government has passed its first draft of reforms to the troika – the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Ethnos says the three-page list focuses mainly on tax compliance, anti-corruption and anti-smuggling, and a more efficient public administration. The plan does not provide figures.

Terror group Al-Shabaab has released a video calling for attacks on shopping malls in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Appearing on CNN, US Homeland Security Programme secretary Jeh Johnson asked “anyone planning to go to the Mall of America... to be particularly careful”.

Australia will toughen its citizenship laws as part of a new anti-terrorism strategy to combat rising threats. ABC reports Prime Minister Tony Abbott said citizenship for dual nationals involved in terrorism could be suspended or even revoked. People born in Australia could also lose some privileges if they broke anti-terror laws, he added.

According to Iraqi News, Islamic State militants have abducted 23 people in Iraq, accusing them of collaboration with Iraqi security forces. The development comes a day after ISIS members burned to death 50 civilians in the town of Hit. Last week, the terrorists torched to death at least 45 people in the conflict-ridden city of Khan al-Baghdadi, about 180 kms northwest of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, AFP reports the jihadist group released a new video on Sunday purporting to show captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters being paraded through Iraqi streets in cages. The captives, in orange jumpsuits with their heads lowered, were on the back of pick-up trucks, as dozens of residents and armed men look on. The video ended with the men kneeling before masked men holding automatic weapons or pistols.

Maygar Hirlap says Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost his two-thirds majority in parliament in a key by-election. Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party and its junior coalition partners, the Christian Democrats, have ruled Hungary with an all-powerful two-thirds majority since 2010.

The Guardian writes Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company.  

Two former British foreign secretaries have been secretly filmed apparently offering their services to a private company for thousands of pounds. Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind were the subject of the allegations, arising from a joint investigation by The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4. The documentary makers said reporters posed as staff of a fake Chinese firm. The MPs have referred themselves to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Fuji TV reports sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea. Tokyo Electric Power Co said the sensors detected contamination levels up to 70 times greater than the already-high radioactive status seen at the plant campus. 

According to AFP, Japan has again urged South Korea to return disputed islets in the Sea of Japan – one of the issues which have soured ties between the two US allies. Yohei Matsumoto, parliamentary vice minister in the Cabinet Office, reiterated Tokyo’s position that the islets are part of Japan’s sovereign territory but said the government was working to achieve a peaceful resolution of the problem.  

Dhaka Courrier reports 65 people are now known to have died in the Bangladesh tragedy in which a  a river ferry crashed with a cargo ship and capsized near Dhaka as rescuers found 24 more bodies this morning. As many as 150 passengers were aboard the ferry, according to some estimates.

Voice of Nigeria says a young girl suicide bomber has blown herself up, killing herself and seven others in an attack on a market in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Potiskum. Nineteen people injured in the blast. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

Saudi Arabia’s morality police have detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors. Ayn al-Youm reports the police raided a private property in the city of Buraydah, arresting the men inside for “loud music and inappropriate dancing”. The official did, however, say that the young men’s hairstyles and dress were not traditional and urged parents to monitor behaviour “because it can lead to immorality and even homosexuality”. Wahhabi clerics view western music as sinful and birthday celebrations as un-Islamic. The morality police are empowered to enforce Islamic law as practised in Saudi Arabia, including enforcing dress codes.

 

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