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

Times of Malta says  Russian Anya Soldatova was “creeped out” last Saturday when a stranger offered to buy her two-year-old daughter Eva as she was walking along the Sliema promenade and kept upping the price until he reached €30,000. It also reports about crisis in Greece following Sunday's referendum which is being discussed in a European Council meeting today.

L-Orizzont quotes Finance Minister Edward Scicluna saying that while no country wanted to be held responsible for Greece’s exit from the Eurozone, things seemed to be moving in that direction.

The Malta Independent says that following the resignation of its finance minister, Greece was now looking forward for the reopening of negotiations with Europe.

In-Nazzjon says that the Opposition is insisting that the demerger of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority should be debated at committee stage.

International news

The Independent writes that the Greek government has upped the stakes with its international creditors yesterday by revealing that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, had telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the consequences of the referendum in which Greeks voted by 61 per cent to reject the EU’s previous austerity demands. During the call, the Kremlin said, Putin “expressed support for the Greek people in overcoming the difficulties facing their country” and that they discussed “several questions about the further development of Russian-Greek co-operation”.

The Financial Times reports Athens will be given a final chance to present a new reform plan to eurozone leaders despite a hardening attitude to Greece after the rejection of previous bailout terms in Sunday’s referendum. Eurozone’s two most powerful politicians – Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande – scrambled to avoid a major split over Greece as Merkel demanded that Tsipras come up with new proposals on reform.

The Daily Telegraph predicts the crisis in the eurozone is set to escalate after the Germans said they could not write off Greek debts without offering financial assistance to Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

AFP quotes International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde saying the global crisis lender would assist Greece if asked. She said the IMF had “taken note” of the result, was “monitoring the situation closely” and stood “ready to assist Greece if requested to do so”.

Bloomberg reports the European Central Bank has made it harder for Greece’s banks to access emergency loans, adding pressure on a country whose financial system remains shuttered as it awaits political talks in Brussels.

Kathimerini says Euclid Tsakalotos has been sworn in as Greece’s new finance minister after Yanis Varoufakis resigned. Analysts say the 55-year-old offers a completely different style to that of his predecessor Yanis Varoufakis. He was previously the chief negotiator with international creditors.

Radio Beograd reports Amnesty International has accused Balkan countries of mistreating migrants passing through their territories on the way to the European Union, saying people fleeing war were being “shamefully let down”. AI said thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, including children, were suffering “violent abuse and extortion at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs”.

El Universo says Pope Francis has spent the second day of his South American tour in Ecuador, with around half a million people attending a special midday Mass. Hundreds of thousands of people greeted him as he arrived in Guayaquil for a special Mass.

A Moroccan-born terrorism suspect, arrested in central Italy yesterday, was planning to attack the leaning tower of Pisa and other world-famous monuments. Il Tempo reports investigators suspect that Jalal El Hanaoui, 25, was also plotting attacks on the Statue of Liberty, the Cathedral of St Basil in Moscow and the Israeli wall separating Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied West Bank.

US comedian Bill Cosby admitted to obtaining sedatives with the intent of giving them to women he wanted to have sex with, court papers from 2005 show. The unsealed files – obtained by the Associated Press – show Cosby, now 77, made the admission in a sex abuse civil case brought by a woman. That case was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2006. Cosby is facing a series of sexual assault accusations, dating back decades. He has denied the claims.

The Sun reports six HSBC Bank staff members have been sacked after filming themselves staging a mock Islamic State-style execution during a team-building day out. They were dressed in overalls and balaclavas at a go-karting centre when they staged a beheading scene.

The New Yorker says Susannah Mushatt Jones celebrated her 116th birthday as the world’s oldest living person. The former live-in housekeeper, known as “T” to her 100 nieces and nephews, was born on July 6, 1899. She was a teenager during World War I and her life spans three centuries.

A new study presented at the British Association of Dermatologists’ Annual Conference suggests smoking not causing changes to the skin, including wrinkles, but also worsens skin scarring in people with spots. The Aesthetics Journal says the study is the first to suggest a link between smoking and acne scarring.

A former prisoner who suffered a six-day erection while in solitary confinement has been awarded €680,000 in compensation, according to documents seen by the New York Daily News. Rodney Cotton, 50, was left with permanent injuries to his penis after prison guards failed to take his pleas for help seriously. Cotton, from Brooklyn, was given antidepressant Risperdal while locked up at the Manhattan Detention Complex for violating his parole in July 2011.

 

 

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.