The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says former acting police commissioner Ray Zammit was yellow-carded by the Justice Minister but the government yesterday shunned the Opposition’s call for his removal. In another story, it says the government is actively exploring the possibility of locating the American University of Malta campus in Cottonera, in a move which has garnered the approval of environment NGOs and other stakeholders.
The Malta Independent says the government will not remove former Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit from his role as head of the new enforcement agency tasked with putting an end to abusive practices by wardens.
In-Nazzjon quotes Opposition deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami saying that judge Michael Mallia’s inquiry report confirmed there were dangerous links between Castille and the Gaffarena and Zammit families.
L-Orizzont says that the government’s debt dropped by nearly €100 million in a year.
International news
Fox News reports UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killing of an 18-month-old baby in an arson attack by suspected Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He called on the perpetrators of what he called the “terrorist act” to face justice, and expressed condolences for the family of the dead baby, Ali Saad Dawabsha. Graffiti reading “revenge” had been written in Hebrew. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it “a war crime” and a “crime against humanity”. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has called for revenge.
Five Libyan troops loyal to the internationally-recognised government were killed yesterday and 18 others are missing after an attack on an eastern military checkpoint allegedly carried out by the Islamic State group. A military source told Lana news agency the attack happened on the desert road between the two cities of Ajdabiya and Tobruk” in eastern Libya.
According to al bawaba, Osama Bin Laden’s stepmother and sister were reportedly among four killed when a Phenon 300 executive jet burst into flames as it plunged into 15 parked cars at the UK’s Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire. The plane’s Jordanian pilot and another passenger, who has not been named, were also reportedly killed.
Ansa reports that Italy’s coast guard yesterday recovered the bodies of two migrants and rescued a total of 1,230 people off unseaworthy vessels headed to Italy from Libya. The coast guard coordinated a total of five operations to save people aboard two rubber dinghies and three boats, some 30 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.
The Daily Express announces British army bomb disposal experts were called to Stansted Airport after a suspected pipe bomb was reportedly found in a cargo facility. It is thought that the possible explosive was detected on scanners by FedEx staff in a package due to be loaded on to a plane. Passenger flights were unaffected
LBC Radio announces extra sniffer dogs will be sent to France to help deal with the Calais migrant crisis. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spoke with French President François Hollande about the issue yesterday evening, warned that disruptions to travel services could continue throughout the summer. The promise of new resources came as a fire set alight by French ferry workers in protest at recent job losses exacerbated delays on the motorway leading to Calais.
Meanwhile, French authorities faced more than 1,000 attempts by migrants camped out in the port of Calais to reach the Channel tunnel overnight, police sources told AFP this morning. Another police source spoke spoke of “1,400 incursions” between 10pm yesterday and 7am this morning.
Deutsche Welle quotes Marina Litvinenko, wife of Alexander Litvinenko who was killed in 2006, saying that a British inquiry into his death proves Russian President Vladimir Putin’s involvement. The former Russian spy was poisoned with radioactive polonium. The inquiry into Litvinenko’s murder heard about 62 witnesses since January this year and came to a close yesterday.
El Mundo reports Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gave Spaniards a pre-election handout in a bid to secure a second term when voters go to the polls around the end of the year. He raised public workers’ salaries by one per cent and increased pensions by 0.25 per cent as he approved the 2016 budget. One group missing from the electoral sweeteners was the almost 50 percent of young Spaniards who are unemployed. Many of them are backing the anti-austerity party Podemos Party that Rajoy says “threatens the country’s economic recovery”.
Bloomberg announces Greece’s financial markets will reopen on Monday, ending a five-week suspension that began after the country imposed capital controls amid a confrontation with creditors. Greek traders will be able to buy stocks, bonds, derivatives and warrants only if they use new money such as funds transferred from abroad, cash-only deposits, money earned from the future sale of shares or from existing investment account balances held at Greek brokerages. Foreign investors will be excluded from all restrictions, provided that they were already active in trading before the imposition of capital controls last month.
A serial number on aircraft wreckage recovered on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion confirms it came from a Boeing 777, Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told New Straits Times. He said, “From the part number – “657 BB” – it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft.” The number corresponds to a code in the Boeing 777 manual identifying it as a “flaperon” and telling workers “to place it on the right wing”.
The death has been announced of Lynn Anderson, whose strong, husky voice carried her to the top of the charts with “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden”. She was 67. TMZ quotes her publicist saying the cause of death was “cardiac arrest”.
France 24 says the French Constitutional Council has confirmed the ban on the creation of new cockfighting rings – called cockpits. The law, dating back to 1964, aims to gradually get rid of all cockfighting. It is considered animal cruelty and is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of €30,000.
Beijing has been chosen to host the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Chinese capital won 44 votes against the 40 garnered by Kazakhstan’s Almaty in the International Olympic Committee vote in Kuala Lumpur. It will be the first ever city to host both the summer and winter Olympics. Xinhua news agency says Beijing 2022 will take advantage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games legacy – including existing competition venues, infrastructure and professional experience.