The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta gives prominence to the announcement by Corinthia yesterday that it will build a €400m superhotel.
The Malta Independent says farmers have rubbished the prime minister's comments on use of Zonqor agriculture land. He had claimed only 1% of land for university is agricultural land.
In-Nazzjon leads with a PN press conference where Joseph Muscat was urged to guarantee that Zonqor Point would not be touched.
l-orizzont says the acquittal of Enemalta official Ray Ferris in the oil procurement scandal showed how oil trader George Farrugia was not believed by the court.
The overseas press
The Irish Times reports Ireland could become the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by a national referendum as voters head to the polls today to cast their ballot on the issue. The latest polls showed that a vast majority of the country supports marriage equality. Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a practising Catholic, urged the country to cast a “yes” vote.
A meeting at the sidelines of the two-day EU Eastern Partnership Summit in the Latvian capital of Riga, between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, ended in the early hours of this morning after two hours of intense discussions. AGI states the leaders have left the Hotel Radisson room with smiling faces, but neither would divulge the outcome of the trilateral meeting nor was any statement issued.
Il Tempo says Italy’s Lower House has approved by a large majority an anti-corruption bill which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hailed as “an important step... bringing politics closer to the expectations of Italian citizens”. Justice Minister Andrea Orlando tweeted that “false accounting is back to being a crime punishable with severe sanctions”.
New Straits Times reports Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has ordered the navy to conduct search and rescue missions for thousands of migrants adrift at sea. South-East Asia is battling a migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of asylum seekers, mostly Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrants, pushed back out to sea by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
President Obama has told The Atlantic that ISIS’s conquest of the Iraqi city of Ramadi does not mark a defeat for the coalition in the war against the jihadists. And if Ramadi is a “tactical retreat”, the taking of the Syrian city of Palmyra is “a setback” for the US-led coalition forces according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Obama does not agree with Republicans who want to deploy ground troops against the Islamic State
According to the Samanews website, militants from the Islamic State had already begun damaging the 2,000 Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra since they seized the ancient city late on Wednesday. Palmyra’s remaining residents had heard “large explosions” inside the ancient temples, which was close to Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Meanwhile, Ankawa news website reports Islamic State extremists demolished a large stone relief in the shape of a cross that adorned the facade of the Syrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin in the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq. The agency published a series of photos showing destruction wrought by the pick-axe wielding militants.
Missionary Service News Agency Misna quotes Chinese President Xi Jinping saying religions must be independent from any foreign influence. Addressing a meeting of small non-communist parties in the country and representatives of industry, commerce and the various ethnic groups and religions, Xi said “active efforts” should be made to integrate religions in society. As part of its religious policy, the Chinese government believes that hostile foreign forces can use religion to infiltrate the country.
Eni’s chief executive Claudio Descalzi told La Repubblica the Italian energy giant will remain in war-torn Libya despite a deepening political crisis and the ascent there of extremist groups like the Islamic State. He said their rigs were 120 kilometres from the coast and they were not worried. Eni has boosted the security of its infrastructure in Libya and has prepared an evacuation plan for its staff in response to the current turmoil.
Israel’s new deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely has delivered a defiant message to the international community, saying that Israel owed no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and quotes religious texts to back her belief that it belonged to the Jewish people. Haaretz says that in an inaugural address to Israeli diplomats, Hotovely said “Israel expected, as a matter of principle, that the international community recognised Israel’s right to build homes for Jews in their homeland, everywhere”.
AP says agrand jury has indicted all six officers charged in the case of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries he suffered in police custody, allowing the state’s attorney to press ahead with the most serious charges. Gray suffered a critical spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a van. His pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored.
The Washington Post reports the president of the Boy Scouts of America has urged the organisation to reconsider its blanket ban on gay leaders, suggesting that the group must keep up with the times on the issue or face “the end of us as a national movement”. During remarks at the group’s National Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Robert Gates warned that the longstanding policy could provoke legal challenges.
It’s official: we’re terrible at internet account security. Not only do we use awful passwords, but we can’t even remember the answers to our secret questions. PC Magazine says a new report from Google found that secret questions were the least reliable way to regain entry into your account. Of the millions of account recovery attempts analysed by the search giant, about 40 percent of people could not recall the answers to their secret questions when necessary.