The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says just over 36,000 voting documents for the spring hunting referendum have not yet been collected with nine days to go until polling day. In another story, it says an autopsy has established Justin Pace died from “natural causes”, stemming from heart complications, while hanging out with friends in Żurrieq on Sunday and not from hitting his head on the ground after falling.
The Malta Independent says that the Gender Identity Bill, which provides for the recognition and registration of the gender of a person, was approved in Parliament yesterday after both sides voted in favour.
L-Orizzont says that 20 Nationalist MPs including the leader of the Opposition were absent for the vote on the Gender Identity Bill yesterday.
In-Nazzjon leads with the story of Quiven, a one-year-old boy who lost an eye to cancer six months ago and was now battling another tumour in the other one.
International news
According to preliminary figures supplied to The Guardian by the International Organisation for Migration at least 486 asylum seekers have drowned in the Mediterranean since the start of the year, compared with 46 in the first three months of 2014.The death toll has risen sharply even though the number of migrants arriving in Europe by sea has remained roughly the same.
24 Heurs reports world powers have extended their marathon talks in Lausanne for a second day after missing a self-imposed March 31 deadline for a deal with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. US Secretary of State John Kerry will stay on in Lausanne, but the US administration has told Iran it was “time to make decisions”. America says gaps remain and it is prepared to walk away if necessary. Iran has warned that this could be the last chance.
Reuters says Islamic State fighters have seized most of a vast camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Damascus from other insurgents in a bid to capture a major foothold close to President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power. In a separate advance, rebel groups that have received backing from Assad’s Arab and Western foes captured a border crossing with Jordan.
Al Ayyam reports Palestine has formally become a member of the International Criminal Court. One of Palestinian leaders’ first steps was to authorise the body to investigate possible war crimes committed in Gaza.
Hurriyet says a woman who threw grenades into Istanbul’s police headquarters, has been shot dead by Turkish police. In a separate incident, police had earlier detained an armed man after he went into the Istanbul office of the ruling AK Party. He hung a Turkish flag with a sword emblem added from the window. Yesterday’s incidents come just one day after two militants took an Istanbul prosecutor hostage in his office. All three died after police stormed the building to release him.
Tass reports at least 43 people have died after a Russian trawler sank in the Western Pacific Ocean near the Kamchatka Peninsula. An officer at a maritime rescue coordination centre in the area said there were 132 people on board the Dalniy Vostok freezer trawler and 63 people have been rescued.
According to El Universal, at least four people died after a fire erupted on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Some 300 people have been evacuated as fire-fighters battled to extinguish the blaze, according to Mexico’s Pemex energy company.
Moscow Times quotes Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn saying he hopes to sign a memorandum with Moscow by April 14 on supplies that will run until the end of March 2016. He gave no details but said the deal could include conditions, pricing and volumes of gas.
Kathimerini reports Greece has sent an updated list of reforms to lenders to try to unlock financial aid and avoid a default. However, eurozone officials said more work was needed before new funds could be released. A Greek finance ministry official said labour and pension reform were the main sticking points in negotiations.
Two European newspapers – Paris Match and Bild – are standing by their reports that a cellphone video showing what happened inside the Germanwings aircraft during the final seconds of the ill-fated flight that crashed over the French Alps last week was found among the wreckage. French officials cast doubt on its authenticity telling NBC News that the claims were not true. Meanwhile, they have demanded that anyone with video footage “must hand it over immediately”.
The Wall Street Journal reports Brazil’s state-run Petroleo Brasileiro has signed a $3.5 billion financing deal with the China Development Bank, highlighting the oil giant’s deteriorating financial condition in the wake of a vast corruption scandal as well as China’s growing ties to Latin America. Petrobras didn’t provide any details of the deal, which is part of a cooperation agreement to be implemented this year and in 2016.
Ansa says the Italian government’s long-awaited anti-corruption bill won definitive approval in the Upper House on Wednesday, passing with 165 in favour, 74 nays, and 13 abstaining. The biggest novelty of the Bill is that it reintroduces corporate accounting fraud as a full-blown crime. Cooking the books is now punishable with one to five years in prison if the crime occurred at a non-listed company and from three to eight years for publicly traded companies.
News Max announces the death of Cynthia Lennon, the first wife of former Beatles guitarist John Lennon. She died of cancer yesterday at her home in Spain, aged 75. Her death was announced on the website and Twitter account of her son, Julian Lennon.
A review of 34 clinical trials on a popular drug to treat hair loss in men has found that none of the studies adequately reported on sexual side effects. A report by scientists at Northwestern University, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology said the findings raise serious questions about whether the drug – known as finasteride and marketed as Propecia and Proscar, among other names – was safe. The drug, approved in 1992, works by interfering with testosterone, and the pharmaceutical giant Merck lists decreased sex drive, impotence and problems with ejaculation among its common side effects.