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

Times of Malta and l-orizzont give prominence to the forthcoming appointment of Mgr Charles Scicluna as Archbishop of Malta. Times of Malta also reports how the Farrugia brothers knew that their brother George Farrugia was paying commissions for oil contracts.

The Malta Independent says Michael Falzon has done the honourable thing by issuing an apology over his Swiss account, but the source of funds is still unknown.

In-Nazzjon says the prime minister was directly involved in negotiations for the buy-back of the Cafe Premier.

The overseas press

Ansa reports Italian Police Chief Alessandro Pansa has told a parliamentary hearing that Italy was facing “a more pronounced” risk of terrorist attacks than previously because “the theatres of war were much closer to us” and terror links and connections were more complex. Concerns have been raised about Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists moving in from war-torn Libya. The return of some 3,000 European fighters back to their home countries has been a rising security concern for many Western nations.

 Meanwhile AGI quotes US ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute saying he did not see “any danger of ISIS arriving in Europe from Africa”. However, he warned that one should not underestimate “hundreds or thousands of potential foreign fighters with European passports who could launch attacks after being radicalised in Syria and Iraq”. Talking about the situation in Libya and jihadist infiltration, Lute said that one of the problems was the arms left over from Colonel Gaddafi’s regime. He said that NATO was following the situation “very closely”.

Kuwait Times reports new Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has said the US-led coalition would without doubt “deliver a lasting defeat” to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The coalition was pressing ISIS “very ably from Kuwait and elsewhere”, Carter said after a summit of top military, diplomatic, and intelligence officials at the US base of Camp Arifjan.

CNN reports three men have been charged in New York with conspiring to support Islamic State, including two who planned to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of the radical group.New York police commissioner Bill Bratton said the threat from the three men was “very serious”. The FBI had been following the trio since August when they first pledged themselves to IS’s cause, even offering to kill president Barack Obama if they received an order to do so.

Middle East Eye announces General Khalifa Haftar has been appointed “general commander” of the Libyan army. The appointment follows Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament creation of a new army chief post with “all the rights” of Defence Minister and Chief of Staff. al Quds al Arabi says Haftar  secretly visited Egypt and “received weapons from Cairo to be distributed to the troops in Libya”. The paper said he intends “to impose martial law throughout the country after dissolving the Tobruk Parliament and Abdullah al-Thani’s government”.

Greece will not receive “a single euro” until it meets the pledges of its existing bail-out programme, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has told SWR public radio. Stressing that the commitments Athens agreed with its creditors – the EU, ECB and IMF – remain valid, Schaeuble said if the conditions were not met and the reform plans were not substantiated with figures, no more money would be paid.

An important tax treaty signed between Italy and Switzerland was evidence of the “change of a crucial paradigm” in banking secrecy with global implications, Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the centre for tax policy and administration at the OECD told Ansa on Wednesday. The treaty increases sharing of tax information between the two countries and is expected to help Italy track down tax evaders, which cost the exchequer some €90 billion a year. 

Sputnik International quotes President Putin saying Russia would cut gas supplies to Ukraine if it failed to pay in advance for deliveries. This “would create a problem” for Europe but he hoped things would not come to that. He also said Kiev’s decision to cut gas supplies to eastern areas occupied by Russian separatists smacked of “genocide”.

France 24 reports three Al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested for illegally flying a drone in Paris, after unidentified drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and key Paris landmarks for a second night running. The foreign nationals aged 70, 54 and 36, were taken into custody yesterday afternoon after police spotted a drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris.

El Pais says Spain’s Constitutional Court has unanimously declared a vote on secession by the powerful north-eastern region of Catalonia last November as unconstitutional. The court ruled that a law passed by the Catalan regional government allowing it to call such votes was also unconstitutional.

Most British nationals give prominence to the police investigation into claims of a sexual offence by veteran singer Cliff Richard against a boy in 1985, which he vehemently denies. In a letter to Keith Vaz, chairman of the British Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, South Yorkshire’s Chief Constable David Crompton said the investigation had “increased significantly in size” since its inception and involves “more than one allegation”. The 74-year-old singer said he had “no idea” where the “absurd and untrue allegations” come from.

Sky News reports pop queen Madonna has taken a fall down a small flight of stairs during her first performance at the Brit Awards ceremony in 20 years. The 56-year-old singer fell down after a back-up dancer attempted to detach the cape she was wearing as part of the performance of her song Living For Love. Madonna dropped her microphone during the fall and missed singing some of the lyrics but managed to get back up and finish the performance.

 

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