The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and The Malta Independent lead with the controversy over ministerial direction which led Enemalta to hedge oil purchases from Azeri company Socar. The Energy Minister insisted he had not interfered and did nothing wrong. In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the issue has a ‘strong whiff of corruption’.
In-Nazzjon also says a young woman was raped in a car in Mosta by a man who was taking her home. She admitted she may have been slightly drunk.
L-orizzont quotes the prime minister saying Malta has potential to become an international medical centre,.
Malta Today says a whistleblower who made allegations against the former Gozo Minister’s husband had texted him and the minister. The man, a contractor, sent the text last December saying he had not yet been paid for work he did as instructed. The allegations are over construction works allegedly done in people's homes and paid for by the ministry. The claims have been denied.
The overseas press
Poland and Latvia have expressed scepticism over Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposals to establish an EU army, raising concerns the proposed military force would effectively be duplicating NATO.
Le Soir reports the European Parliament has asked OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud body, to look into possible misuse of funds by the French National Front. The investigation centres around 20 party members, who were paid out of the EU budget for assisting members of the European Parliament, but who allegedly work for the party in France.
Greece has announced it was moving forward with a demand to seek World War II reparations from Germany. Kathemerini quotes Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras saying in parliament Germany had never properly paid reparations for the damage done to Greece by the Nazi occupation. He is seeking €160 billion in compensation. According to Deutsche Welle, Berlin has firmly said the question of war reparations was legally settled with a payment of €59 million to Greece in 1960.
The Wall Street Journal says the International Monetary Fund is set to decide on a new financial rescue plan for Ukraine worth $17.5 billion (€16.35 billion). However, the fund will only make the funds available if the country’s ceasefire holds.
The lead story in Italy’s national media is the decision by the country’s high court confirming the acquittal of Silvio Berlusconi on charges that he paid for sex with an under-age dancer and then abused his position as prime minister to cover it up. Ansa says after nine hours of deliberations, the judges delivered a ruling that brings to an end a lengthy legal saga centred on the tycoon’s “bunga bunga” sex parties. It also leaves the 78-year-old free to resume a central role in politics.
Reuters reports a video posted online by Islamic State militants showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, a 19-year-old Israeli Arab accused of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel’s Mossad. The video, published by the group’s Furqan media outlet, showed Musallam being escorted to a field and then being shot in the head by a boy, described by an older, French-speaking fighter as one of the “cubs of the caliphate”. T
Al Ayyam says Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias have seized large parts of Tikrit, amid reports that most of the Islamic State militants battling to hold the city had begun retreating. The progress came after a week of heavy fighting in the largest pro-government military operation yet, involving a combined force of more than 30,000.
Israeli authorities have demolished an EU-funded shelter in Arab east Jerusalem. AFP quotes an EU statement condemning the move. EU funds have helped pay for some 200 temporary buildings used as shelters in villages inhabited by Bedouin communities in the West Bank, just outside Arab east Jerusalem.
Pope Francis has told Argentine magazine La Carcova News he is very scared of physical pain and wants God to spare him that in the event of an assassination attempt. In the interview, he also said elections should be free from private backers who fund politicians’ campaigns, adding that candidates for public office must be honest and put into practice their election promises. He also complained about the hold drugs have on many young people and blasted the “triumphalism of traffickers”.
USA Today reports Hilary Clinton admitted that she should have used a government email while she was Secretary of State, but said it “didn’t seem like an issue” at the time. Clinton, who was speaking publicly on the matter for the first time, said she had decided to rely on a private account as a matter of “convenience” and to avoid carrying two devices.
The BBC says about 80 children rescued from a Boko Haram camp in Cameroon cannot remember their own names or origins. The director of the US-based National Democratic Institute who visited them, said the children, aged between 5 and 18, did not speak English, French or any local languages. They were found at a camp in northern Cameroon in November.
Meanwhile, Radio Nigeria announces at least 34 persons were killed and many more were wounded by a teenage girl suicide bomber on Tuesday at a crowded market in the city of Maiduguri. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bears the hallmarks of Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram.
Bloomberg reports US fast-food chain Burger King has announced it was cutting soft drinks from its children’s meals amid mounting pressure to reduce the amount of sweet sodas that kids drink. Following in the footsteps of rival McDonald’s, Burger King said all its children’s meals would come with either apple juice, fat-free milk or low-fat chocolate milk.