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

Times of Malta says the European Commission has not yet approved the government’s €88 million guarantee to help power plant builder Electrogas obtain a bridge loan from Bank of Valletta. In another story, it says more than one in five of the 500 pending ODZ applications are aimed at either sanctioning illegal developments or approving new large ones.

The Malta Independent says there has been no word yet on potential layoffs at HSBC Malta following the announcement by HSBC Holdings, Britain’s largest bank by market value, said it will cut between 22,000 and 25,000 jobs around the world in an attempt to reduce costs.

In-Nazzjon says the Malta Union of Teachers is concerned that a legal notice that changes the required criteria for the recognition of a university would lower standards.

L-Orizzont reports GWU general secretary Tony Zarb’s speech at the International Labour Organisation during which he said more needed to be done to prevent poverty and fight precarious employment.

MaltaToday says the Nationalist Party is demanding the repeal of new rules that will centralise the local enforcement system and the way wardens are deployed across localities.

International news

The Times reports legislation paving the way for Britain’s referendum on leaving the EU crossed its first hurdle in parliament yesterday. The House of Commons backed the European Union Referendum Bill, as expected, by 544 votes to 53 but the measure must now pass through several other parliamentary debates and votes before becoming law. Opening the debate, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said many Britons felt “the EU has come to feel like something that is done to them, not for them”.

Le Soir says the area around the EU offices in Brussels was evacuated yesterday and roads temporarily blocked after a bomb alert. The bomb alert, on the eve of an EU-Latin America summit which will bring together leaders of 40 nations, was linked to a suspect car parked outside the European Council building. The roads were opened to traffic again an hour after the alert.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports the White House daily briefing was interrupted when reporters and staff were evacuated during the televised question-and-answer session due to a bomb threat made over the telephone. Secret Service agents searched the room with bomb-sniffing dogs before reporters were allowed back into the room some 30 minutes later. President Obama, who was in the Oval Office, was not evacuated. First lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters were also not asked to leave.

SITE intelligence group reports the Isis website has celebrated the capture of Sirte, some 430 kilometers from the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The jihadists reiterate they have total control of the city after the conquest of a power station, the last stronghold of the militia of Misurata.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian military source has told Sputnik Arabic militants from the “Sinai Province” group have fired rockets at an airport in Sinai used by UN peacekeeping forces. The group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State radicals.

Next Tuesday’s council of EU interior ministers will not take formal decisions on the European Commission’s plan for the relocation within the union of 40,000 asylum seekers, 24,000 from Italy and 16,000 from Greece. Sources have told Ansa there were still major divisions over an emergency mechanism based on the obligatory share-out of refugees. EU leaders are still expected to give the green light to the plan at the June 25-26 summit in Brussels but the defining  details look set to go under the Luxembourg EU presidency which starts in July.

The scale of the EU’s divisions on the controversial EU-US trade deal was laid bare last evening after the European Parliament postponed a key vote on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, The Irish Times reports. The decision followed disagreements over the inclusion of an investor protection protection clause which would allow companies to sue governments in certain circumstances.

The White House is ready to send to Iraq at least another 500 military advisers with the task of training local forces fighting against the Isis. According to The Wall Street Journal, the soldiers would be sent to the northwest of Baghdad to support the efforts for the liberation of Ramadi and Anbar province.

Kyiv Post announces Ukrainian authorities are investigating possible sabotage after a massive fire ripped through a fuel depot outside Kiev, killing at least five people and threatening to destroy a military airbase and an ammunition dump. The blaze broke out on Monday evening and had destroyed 16 of 17 fuel tanks by the time fire-fighters brought it under control yesterday afternoon.

Peruvian Times reports researchers in Peru have discovered a number of statuettes they believe were created by the ancient Caral civilization some 3,800 years ago. They were found inside a reed basket in a building at the ancient city of Vichama in northern Peru, which is today an important archaeological site. The Caral civilization emerged some 5,000 years ago and lived in Peru’s Supe Valley, leaving behind impressive architecture including pyramids and sunken amphitheaters.

New York could become the first US city to require warning labels on high-salt dishes at chain restaurants, taking campaigns to cut down on salt into new territory, health officials told AP yesterday. The city’s Department of Health will today propose that all chain restaurants add a salt-shaker-like symbol on menus next to products that contain more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams, or one teaspoon, of salt.

Miley Cyrus has landed the cover of Paper magazine, posing naked and holding her pet pig Bubba Sue. The magazine, which hits news stands June 22, focuses on Miley’s Happy Hippie Foundation, a non-profit organisation she launched to help homeless LGBT kids. Paper describes her shoot as including “a glass pyramid, some body paint and very little clothing”.

A Congolese-Belgian woman has become the first in the world to give birth to a healthy child after doctors restored her fertility by transplanting ovarian tissue that was removed and frozen when she was 13 years old. The woman, who was diagnosed with sickle-cell anaemia when she was five, needed a bone marrow transplant to treat her sickle-cell condition – a procedure that required chemotherapy first. Reporting the success in the journal Human Reproduction, the doctors said it pointed to a future where children with serious illnesses such as cancer may find a way to have babies many years later.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.