The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

Times of Malta reports that creditors want €2 million from the heirs of a murdered butcher.

The Malta Independent says the prime minister will be attending the Brussels EU summit today to discuss the EU crisis. Later in the week he will attend another EU summit, where immigration will be discussed.  

In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the Gaffarena scandal is the 'tip of the iceberg'

l-orizzont gives prominence to comments by Joseph Muscat that 'spies' in the civil service were caught red handed. 

The overseas press

AFP reports Greece’s creditors the EU, IMF and European Central Bank have received the country’s new proposal to avoid a default. Martin Selmayr, head of the European Commission cabinet, wrote on Twitter late last night: “New Greek proposal received ...Good basis for progress at tomorrow’s EuroSummit”. He added in German that it was a “forceps delivery”.

According to state television ERT, the new package includes a change to the previous proposals on VAT, an increase in primary surplus target of one per cent of GDP for this year and a commitment to put an end to early retirement schemes.

Ta Nea says Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has spoken to European leaders in a last-ditch attempt to negotiate a solution to the ongoing crisis. Speaking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tsipras laid out proposals for a “mutually beneficial agreement”.

According to Ana, Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas has revealed everything suggests that an agreement would be reached by the end of today.

Minister of State Nikos Pappas told Ethnos that Greece does not want any more help from the IMF. He said he does not believe the IMF should be in Europe. Pappas, who is close to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, claimed Europe “has no need” of the Washington-based institution, which has an “agenda which is not at all European” and “can continue without it and its money”.  Differences of approach between the EU and the IMF have dogged the debt discussions.

Metro says Brussels and Amsterdam have joined London, France, Germany and Italy in hosting mass rallies in support of cash-strapped Greece. Demonstrators said the financial sector must take responsibility for the damage it caused. Athens also saw its second anti-austerity rally in the past week, calling on Prime Minister Tsipras to reject pressure from creditors to accept continued austerity in exchange for bailout funds.

Balkan Web reports the Albanian opposition has condemned voting “irregularities” in yesterday’s local elections seen as a test of the Balkan country’s fragile democracy as it pushes to join the European Union. Prime Minister Edi Rama, from the ruling Socialists, rejected the claims, saying the elections were “the most free and the most honest" that had ever been held in the country.

Pope Francis has said the plight of asylum seekers hoping for a new life in Europe was enough to make him cry, condemning those who treat them “like merchandise”. La Stampa says he slammed hostility towards migrants arriving by boat from Libya, with European countries bickering over who should be forced to provide shelter to the needy. He paused in silent prayer before the Shroud of Turin, becoming the latest of hundreds of thousands of people who gone this year to Turin’s cathedral to view the burial linen some believe covered the body of Jesus after crucifixion.

VOA News reports members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church worshipped at their sanctuary for the first time yesterday since Charleston gunman, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, gunned down nine members of its congregation “because they were black”. Police officers stood among the congregation as the service started with a message of love, recovery and healing.

Dawn says a severe heat wave sweeping Pakistan has claimed at least 45 people had died, although some local sources put the death toll as high as 122. Most casualties were reported in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, where temperatures soared to 46OC over the weekend.

Polskie Radio reports some 1,400 passengers aboard Polish airline LOT were kept grounded at Warsaw’s Chopin airport after hackers attacked the airline’s computer systems used to issue flight plans. The system took about five hours to fix, during which 10 of the state-owned carrier’s national and international flights were cancelled and about a dozen more delayed.

According to the journal Antiquity, a team of researchers from Cardiff University has stumbled on a mass grave with eight million dogs while digging through the catacombs of Anubis near popular archaeological site Saqqara. The sheer number has stunned the research team and leader Paul Nicholson said he would conduct a more complete study in search of other animal catacombs.

Haaretz says a racist Tweet by Judy Shalom Nir Mozes, the wife of the Israeli Interior Minister, has unleashed a wave of protests and led to her publicly offering an apology. She tried to explain that the tweet – “You know what is coffee Obama? Black and weak” – was intended as a joke Obama is perceived as hostile to Israel. She deleted it shortly saying she hoped her husband, Minister Silvan Shalom, did not ask for divorce.

Red wine-lovers rejoice! There is apparently yet another benefit to drinking your favourite tipple. The International Journal of Obesity says scientists have found an ingredient in grapes, berries and red wine can turn excess flab into an interesting-sounding, calorie-burning “brown” fat. The discovery suggests that diets containing the substance “resveratrol” may help combat obesity.

The sight of above-normal sized breasts of a 22-year-old native of Honduras was enough to get the Bogota Airport police suspicious. The Telegraph reports X-ray controls verified their suspicions: the woman had had silicone implants... with the addition of three pounds of liquid cocaine. She was taken the local hospital to prevent infection.

 

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