The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.

Times of Malta says Justin Pace, 21, died when his friend pushed him to the ground during a session of horseplay that went horribly wrong. In another story, it reports EU President Donald Tusk saying during a visit to Malta the EU has a responsibility towards people risking their lives but “we cannot open our doors to everyone".

In-Nazzjon writes about the tributes which poured in for Mr Pace on Facebook.

The Malta Independent quotes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat saying Malta will not support unilateral military action in Libya. In another story, it quotes Former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli say that the real manipulators behind his forced resignation were Snus manufacturers Swedish Match and not his former canvasser, Silvio Zammit.

L-Orizzont says €143 million worth of investment that would be generating 2,531 new jobs was approved last year.

International news

World leaders are racing against the clock to finalise the details of a preliminary deal with Iran over its nuclear capabilities. 24 Hueres says several issues still divide negotiators as Tuesday’s deadline looms. The down-to-the-wire talks remained blocked on three major issues, a Western diplomat told AFP: how long any deal should last, the lifting of UN sanctions, and a mechanism for ensuring both sides keep up their end of the deal.

Vanguard says the United States and Britain have voiced fears over possible political interference in Nigeria’s presidential poll. With votes from three-quarters of Nigeria’s states counted, opposition challenger Muhammadu Buhari had 11.5 million votes to President Goodluck Jonathan's 9.5 million.

Azaal TV says an air strike has killed at least 40 people at a refugee camp in northwest Yemen. State media has said Saudi planes were responsible, but the Yemeni foreign minister said “artillery strikes” by Houthi rebels were to blame.

The chief prosecutor in the trial of the 2010 al-Shabab bombings in Uganda has been shot dead. New Vision reports Joan Kagezi was attacked by two men who had followed her car on a motorcycle as she drove home. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Les Echo reports a jihadist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Red Cross aid truck in northern Mali that left one international staff member dead and wounded a local colleague. They said the killed driver had “worked for the enemy”.

Il Mattino says an investigation into methane supply operations to the island of Ischia, near Naples, has led to eight warrants for preventive detention in jail, including one for Ischia's Democratic Party (PD) mayor, Giuseppe Ferrandino. The investigation, which began two years ago, uncovered a web of bribes by contractors to public officials.

A defiant Alexis Tsipras has vowed to win an honourable compromise from Greece’s lenders, after negotiations over economic reforms dragged on without a deal. Kathemarini writes Greece’s Prime Minister told parliament last night lenders should not expect “an unconditional agreement from us”. Tsipras vowed to stop “the bleeding” in Greece, and repeatedly argued that the country needed a new debt restructuring deal.

AGI quotes 31-year-old Raffaele Sollecito, Amanda Knox’s former Italian boyfriend, saying he needed to heal wounds inside his heart and soul, now that he and the American have been definitively acquitted of the murder in 2007 of Meredith Kercher, her British room mate. He made his first public comments since Italy’s top criminal court overturned the two defendants convictions. He said he now felt “like someone who was kidnapped, who after seven years and five months has returned to freedom”.

Office workers need to get off their backsides and move around more, according to a new campaign, the BBC reports. “On Your Feet Britain” says sitting for long periods at work is linked to a host of health problems – including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and poor mental health – which are not undone by working out in the gym. It is calling on people to stand regularly, walk around more and embrace ideas such as standing meetings or standing desks.

Rolling Stones says a phalanx of chart-topping stars from across genres joined forces in the garage of New York City's biggest post office today to launch the newly artist-owned high-definition streaming service Tidal. Sixteen hit-makers, including Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Jay Z, Madonna and Rihanna, rubbed elbows onstage at the swanky launch event while two others beamed in digitally (Calvin Harris and Coldplay's Chris Martin). Aside from making a spectacle, the musicians made the case for an artist-owned streaming service.

France 24 reports a French court has banned the display of “obscene” cupcakes wrought in black chocolate from a pastry shop near Nice, after a watchdog described them as “racist”. The “God” and “Goddess” cupcakes, which are stuffed with ganache and topped with the chocolate figures of a plump man and woman with pink lips and protruding genitalia, have been on sale in the shop in the town of Grasse for about 15 years.

A woman who spent her life caring for stray dogs received an unexpected – and surprising tribute from the animals when she died. At the funeral for Margarita Suárez in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico, there was a pack of stray dogs which came inside the funeral home to stand guard. Suárez's daughter Patricia Urrutia told ABC News that they were shocked, but delighted by the appearance of the canine celebrants. Adding to the other-worldliness of the situation was the fact that these stray dogs were not even the same ones that her 71-year-old mother had helped during her lifetime. Suárez lived in Merida Yucatan, but her funeral service was in a town more than 830 miles away, her daughter said.

 

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