The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports how the EU yesterday approved the creation of a naval force to counter human traffickers.
The Malta Independent gives prominence to exchanges in parliament yesterday where the minister for tourism did not exclude Air Malta privatisation.
In-Nazzjon leads with a comment by Simon Busuttil that civil society still has a chance to save the virgin land in Zonqor. Dr Busuttil made the comment in a meeting with student organisations.
l-orizzont says two million square metres of land in outside development zones were given up for development in 2006. It also reports on praise by the European Commission over the way the Maltese economy is growing.
The overseas press
Pope Francis has told bishops to strongly denounce corruption and to act more like pastors than “pilots” telling the faithful what to do. Vatican Radio says Francis’ strong words were aimed at members of the Italian bishops’ conference, who opened their annual meeting at the Vatican on Monday. Francis, who is also the bishop of Rome, urged his bishops to be more Christ-like in showing humility, compassion, mercy and wisdom.
Arutz Sheva says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has handed responsibility for any future peace talks with the Palestinians to his new Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, a veteran member of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party. He will also be in charge of strategic dialogue with the United States. The nomination was denounced by the Palestinians who said Shalom did not believe in the two-state solution.
Reuters reports the European Union wants a more active role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday on the eve of her first visit to the region. Some EU diplomats believe Mogherini, who meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday and Thursday, sees a chance for EU diplomacy in the absence of a major new push from Washington.
Le Soir says the European Union (EU) has agreed to set up a naval operation to tackle people trafficking. The move was announced by EU Foreign Affairs head Federica Mogherini on Twitter, following an EU foreign and defence ministers’ meeting on Monday. The naval operation will be based in Rome. Mogherini said the aim was not to destroy the boats but to destroy the trafficking networks.
The Islamic State has executed one of its prominent judges, Turki al-Ani, in its northern Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for being too “moderate”, Siraj Press reports. Ani had often opposed IS decrees targeting civilians and the frequent sentences for apostasy issued by the group.
A massive landslide tore through a ravine in northwest Colombia before dawn, killing 48 people and injuring 37. Salgar Mayor Olga Osorio told RCN Radio most residents were sleeping when the landslide hit the municipality of Salgar burying a large area in mud and debris.
Los Angeles Times reports about 170 members of rival motorcycle gangs have been charged with engaging in organised crime, a day after a shootout at a Texas restaurant that killed nine people and wounded 18. The crowd of suspects was so large that authorities opened a convention centre to hold them all before they were arrested.
India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, says his country is going to surpass China’s economic growth. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the world’s largest democracy has much to gain from the economic reforms his government will undertake in the next few years. “I think we can do even better,” than China, Jaitley told the FT, but added that that milestone wouldn’t give him much satisfaction because China’s economy is still bigger than India’s.
Press Trust of India reports a nurse has died after 42 years in a coma following a brutal rape. Aruna Shanbaug suffered brain damage and had been in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital since being strangled with a dog chain and sexually assaulted by a hospital worker in 1973. Shanbaug, now 66, had suffered a bout of pneumonia in recent days and was on a ventilator.
Rare identical triplets were born in Texas, but what makes these babies even more extraordinary is the fact that two of them are conjoined at the pelvis, according to Corpus Christi Medical Centre. The babies, Catalina, Ximena and Scarlett, were born on Saturday night, a few days ahead of schedule because their mother, Silvia Hernandez, when into labour, her husband Raul Torres told ABC News. The conjoined babies were in one hospital and the remaining baby was in another with Mrs Hernandez, who is still recovering from her caesarean section. The two babies will likely be separated within six months or a year.