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

Times of Malta leads with the Fifa corruption story saying the world football was rocked to its core yesterday when seven of the sport’s governing officials were arrested in Switzerland to be extradited to the US on multiple bribery charges. It also says Malta has accepted taking its fair share of migrants relocated from Italy and Greece under emergency plans rolled out by the European Commission.

The Malta Independent says the police have launched an investigation into claims by a number of American investors that they lost $600,000 in what should have been life savings through a scam allegedly operated by US fraudster Mary Swan and allegedly involving two companies registered at John Dalli’s home address.

L-Orizzont says that the father of the man who designed the Mini is buried at Ta’ Braxia cemetery, according to a recent find by Mini aficionado Pablo Vassallo.

In-Nazzjon leads with the judicial protest filed by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil against Joseph Cauchi, the whistleblower in the alleged "works for votes" scam in Gozo.

International news

L’Equipe reports FIFA president Sepp Blatter has responded to the corruption scandal gripping football’s international body by saying that those who engaged in misconduct had no place in the game. His comments came as the US Justice Department said its investigations into 20 years of “systematic corruption” within FIFA were continuing. Fourteen people have been charged with racketeering, fraud and money laundering.

Meanwhile, CNC3 says one of those charged in the US, the former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, has handed himself into police custody in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. The indictment implicates him in alleged payments of more than $10 million (€9.2 million) to ensure South Africa was chosen to host the 2010 World Cup.

Tribune de Genève says the Swiss authorities have began their own criminal enquiry into the awarding of the next two World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar.

AP reports FIFA’s sponsors are facing mounting calls to put pressure on soccer’s global governing body to clean up its act – and fast – after yesterday’s arrest of seven officials. Companies like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa, Gazprom and Hyundai/KIA Motors have in recent months shown a growing willingness to voice their concerns publicly about FIFA’s string of scandals, which have spanned from past allegations of corruption to the abuse of labourers building World Cup venues in Qatar.

EU plans to destroy the boats of smugglers bringing desperate migrants across the Mediterranean and share the refugee burden more evenly have come under fresh fire from within and outside the EU. Le Soir says that on a visit to EU’s headquarters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed doubts about the boat destruction plan and said “the priority should be given to life-saving and strengthening search and rescue”. In an effort to help manage more than 80,000 people who have landed on European shores so far this year, mostly in Italy and Greece, the European Commission is proposing to relocate thousands of refugees to other member countries and wants to launch a security operation in the Mediterranean to eliminate the trafficking operations.

Addis Admas reports the African Union has held a small ceremony to pay homage to hundreds of migrants who have perished attempting to flee the continent and reach Europe. There were few in attendance at the event, held at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, although diplomats present did pledge more action against human traffickers.

A judge in Catania has sentenced a human trafficker – Tunisian skipper Haj Hammouda Radouan – to life in prison over a shipwreck off Libya last May in which over 200 migrants may have perished. La Sicilia says the landmark ruling was handed down after he was convicted of multiple manslaughter for his role in the shipwreck. A second people smuggler, Moroccan national Hamid Bouchab, got 10 years. Coastguard and Italian navy vessels rescued 206 survivors from the shipwreck and recovered 17 bodies, including that of a baby girl. However, survivors said there were 400 people on board when the boat set sail.

London’s The Independent writes that angry protesters waving placards and flags have protested in Trafalgar Square against austerity measures after the Queen’s speech outlined the new Conservative government’s plans. There were skirmishes with police as protesters, some wearing masks and scarves to cover their faces, ran down Whitehall. Uniformed police linked arms to form a human barricade to try to contain the protesters while some pulled out their batons to warn them off.

According to The Washington Times, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what the Pentagon called an “inadvertent” shipment of live anthrax spores to government and commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, and a US base in South Korea, that expected to receive dead spores. The US military admitted the transfer but said there was no public health threat from the mishap.

NL Times reports Dutch police have detained 20 people, 14 of them members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, and seized weapons including five rocket-propelled grenade launchers and six automatic handguns. The discoveries came in a coordinated series of raids involving riot police, specialist arrest squads and a police helicopter that targeted 30 locations in the southern Netherlands and also spread into neighbouring Belgium and Germany.

BasNews agency reports Islamic State militants have burned an 80-year-old Christian woman alive in northern Iraq for failing to comply with their drastic interpretation of Sharia law. The news comes as the UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported IS militants shot dead 20 people in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, forcing local people to watch the executions.

Ansa says two Sicilian regional councillors were among five people put under house arrest on suspicion of vote-buying in the Palermo municipal and Sicilian regional polls in 2012. The suspects are accused of receiving or promising money or jobs and other favours in exchange for votes.

Fox News reports a year-end joke in American tradition led to seven students of a high school in Maryland to end up in handcuffs for releasing 72,000 ladybugs to school. Four minors were charged with fourth-degree burglary, property destruction and disruption of school activities. They were released to their parents. Deputies say the other three adults will be charged by criminal summons. They had been identified thanks to CCTV cameras at the school, despite having worn hoods to cover their faces.

 

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