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

Times of Malta leads with a follow-up on the Germanwings crash in the French Alps, including comments by pilots.

The Malta Independent says Europe is in mourning over the Germanwings crash as the black box is found. It also says the Mcast student council’s pro-hunting stance has raised eyebrows.

In-Nazzjon says sensitive documents have been stolen from the Mayor's office in Mosta. The items include a document prepared by architects for a project.

l-orizzont reports how CNN said yesterday that Mgarr ix-Xini in Gozo is one of 10 places which people should visit before they change.

The overseas press 

As officials struggled to explain why the Germanwings aircraft with 150 people on board crashed in relatively clear skies, The New York Times quotes an investigator saying evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane’s descent and was unable to get back in. The investigator would not speculate on why the other pilot didn’t open the door or make contact with ground control before the crash.

The Associated Press says confusion surrounded the fate of the second black box as French President François Hollande said the casing of the flight data recorder had been found in the scattered debris, but was missing its memory card. Hollande hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy near the site of the crash yesterday afternoon as rescue helicopters recovered some of the remains of the victims.

Ansa reports three people have been arrested in Italy and Albania in an operation to bust the cell of “highly dangerous” Islamist extremists dedicated to recruiting jihadists and helping them reach ISIS militias. A 20-year-old Italian with Moroccan roots, who is suspected of being the author of a 64-page Italian-language document of ISIS propaganda that recently appeared on the Internet, is among the people arrested.

According to CNN, before the attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18, three men were arrested in Tataouine – once the set of the “Star Wars” films – for allegedly making plans to cross into Libya to join a terrorist network. Additionally, two armed caches containing rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition have been found in the region in the past month.

Fox News reports Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has warned US lawmakers of the “terrible threat” the Islamic State poses in central and western Asia. In a speech to a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives, Ghani said the militant group was already sending fighters to his country.

ABC quotes the Saudi ambassador to the United States announcing Saudi Arabia has launched a military operation in Yemen “to defend the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi”. The move came after a rebel attack on the southern city of Aden, where the country’s president had taken shelter.

Deutsche Welle reports EU finance ministers have denied Greece a €1.2-billion band-aid to slow the bleeding of the country’s state coffers. The Greek government had appealed for the European Financial Stability Facility to return the money, which Athens said it had overpaid earlier this month when it transferred 10.9 billions of untapped euros back to the Luxembourg-based rescue fund, intended for the recapitalisation of Greek banks.

Kyiv Post says Ukraine police dramatically arrested two top officials on corruption charges at a televised cabinet meeting hours after the president sacked a powerful oligarch as regional governor. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the sight of handcuffed officials being marched out of a government meeting served as a warning to others suspected of graft.

Sputnik reports President Putin has fired the governor of the island of Sakhalin, Alexander Khoroshavin, who had been arrested on on suspicion of receiving a bribe for building a power station. Investigators said they found 1 billion rubles (€15.5 million) in cash at his home as well as troves of expensive jewellery.

Il Tempo says the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency has recommended making the so-called “five-days-after emergency contraception pill” available without a prescription to women who are of age and with a prescription to women under 18. The panel also recommended waiving a proposed mandatory pregnancy test for anyone seeking the pill, which prevents unwanted pregnancies by delaying or preventing ovulation if taken within 120 hours, or five days, of unprotected intercourse.

Corriere della Sera reports the long-runnning murder case of American Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was delayed yet again yesterday as Italy’s highest court said it wouldn’t rule on their convictions until Friday. It heard prosecution arguments in the high-profile case that dates from the November 2007 murder of Knox’s British roommate Meredith Kercher in the students’ Perugia home. The pair have consistently maintained their innocence.

According to Newsday, a Pennsylvania man recovering from surgery has won $7 million (€6.4 million) off a lottery ticket tucked into a get-well card sent by his father. Joseph Amorese had just undergone hernia surgery. A few scratches later on the “$7 million Golden Ticket” and he was feeling great. The new multimillionaire and his wife plan to keep their jobs.

 

 

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