The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and The Malta Independent say the makeover at Castille Place does not have a full permit yet.
In-Nazzjon says the hedging agreement with Azeri company Socar is worth €67 million. It also says the police ar ein panic after finding nothing to back claims against Giovanna Debono's husband.
l-orizzont says 4,000 members of the disciplined forces are now able to join a trade union.
The overseas press
According to the BBC, a report by more than 20 leading humanitarian and human rights organisations has accused the UN Security Council of failing civilians caught up in the conflict in Syria. The report condemns the world’s most powerful countries for not having the will to enforce their own UN resolutions on the free flow of humanitarian aid to the victims. Last year was the bloodiest of the conflict so far and the worst for civilians.
Canadian authorities have confirmed they had arrested and detained an alleged jihadist sympathizer who planned to carry out “a terrorist attack in downtown Toronto, including on the US consulate”. Toronto Star says Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney confirmed the arrest, which happened on Monday. The suspect was identified as 33-year-old Jahanzab Malik, a permanent resident of Canada who entered to the country in 2004.
The head of the Russian State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs, Alexey Pushkov, has told TASS that European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker’s idea to create an EU army was unlikely to materialise because of the huge expense involved on the one hand, and Washington’s stance on the other hand. He explained the United States would not allow the EU to increase its military potential.
The Christian Science Monitor reports IMF has announced to extend $17.5 billion in loans to Ukraine as part of a programme designed to pull the country back from the verge of economic collapse. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said credit was being extended on condition that the government in Kiev implemented deep structural reforms and slashed government spending. Lagarde said measures would be taken to help cushion the poorest from the impact of adjustments.
The Washington Post reveals the US Department of Homeland Security is investigating two senior Secret Service agents, including a top member of President Barack Obama’s protective detail, who crashed a car into a White House barricade. The incident happened after a late-night party for retiring spokesman Ed Donovan and it’s suspected they had been drinking.
CNN reports embattled Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has resigned – a week after a scathing US Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer. The report exposed problems in the city’s policing tactics and faulted Ferguson’s officers for seeing residents as “sources of revenue” – a practice that federal investigators said disproportionately targeted African-Americans.
In an interview with The New York Times, the family of Mohamed Musallam, the 20-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem shot dead by the Islamic State, denied he was a Mossad spy. The father said his son was lured to Syria with promises of women, money and the excitement of battle. In one of his last video chats, Mohamed told him he was frightened by the American-led airstrikes that hit nearby Islamic State targets in Syria and he wanted to go back home but was afraid of his commander.
Meanwhile, according to Le Figaro, French authorities have ascertained that the child who pulled the trigger and killed Musallam, as well as the hooded captive that appeared in the ISIS video, are French nationals. They said the child is the half-brother of Mohamed Merah, the man responsible for the attacks against a Jewish school and some military men in 2012 in southern France.
The Daily Mail says ISIS is guilty of yet another crime against the cultural heritage – this time in Libya. Some images on their website show militiamen destroying a temple in Sufi with hammers and a bulldozer. The Sufi sites, especially the tombs of the saints, have been the target in past attacks by ultra-conservative Libyan factions.
Metro says that an international survey carried out by the UK’s Royal Mail Group has revealed that York, in the North of England, is the safest city in the world. The most dangerous city, according to almost 3,000 interviewees, is Cairo - a mere seven percent regarded it as safe.
Two hundred years after the battle of Waterloo that marked his final defeat, a lock of hair of Napoleon Bonaparte has been sold in London for £400 (€570). The Times explains the lock of grey hair was donated by the emperor to his French valet, Louis Marchand, during his exile on the island of St Helena.