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

Times of Malta says the State guarantee to cover a massive bank loan for the private consortium selected to build the new gas power station has shot up to €360 million. In another story, it says the Hungarian student who was racially assaulted earlier this summer is expected to be charged today with disturbing the peace and smearing his aggressor’s reputation.

L-Orizzont says a security official beat up two children, aged 12 and 13, with a belt while on duty at McDonald's in Bugibba.

In-Nazzjon publishes further testimony on the shooting involving the former Home Affairs Minister's driver given to the internal police board.

The Malta Independent says Maltese company Exante Ltd made US$25 million in "ill-gotten gains".

International news

Beijing News reports Chinese authorities have lost contact with 36 firefighters, now feared dead, after two large explosions hit an industrial area in Tianjin, killing at least 17 people. Between 300 and 400 people were wounded and an unknown number of people are trapped beneath wreckage.

Le Soir announces eurozone finance ministers will meet at an extraordinary meeting in Brussels tomorrow to approve a bailout agreement between Greece and its international lenders. Earlier yesterday, Greece’s third bailout agreement was submitted to parliament for ratification in the coming days in a new race against time to unlock the first tranche of international aid to meet a repayment deadline on August 20. The vote at the plenary was scheduled to take place tonight, a few hours before a Eurogroup meeting on Friday.

According to Le Temps, peace talks between Libya's warring factions ended yesterday in Geneva without resolution, but United Nations special envoy Bernardino Leon said the parties “underscored their determination” to complete the negotiations “within the coming three weeks”. Libya is split between two governments supported by armed troops fighting each other.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has stepped into the fray again to try to halt Jeremy Corbyn’s runaway campaign success. Writing in The Guardian, he upped the rhetoric saying that if Corbyn is elected leader it could lead to the party’s “annihilation”. Blair’s latest intervention follows a YouGov poll suggesting Corbyn could win in the first round with 53 per cent of the vote.

Bloomberg announces California-based canned tuna company Bumble Bee Foods will have to pay a record €5.4 million after the death of one of its employees, who was accidentally cooked in an industrial oven in 2012. Jose Melena, 62, entered a 10.6-metre cylindrical pressurized steam cooker as part of his regular job duties, before co-workers, who did not realise Melena was inside, loaded the oven and turned it on, trapping and killing him.

Fox News reports Texas authorities have executed Daniel Lopez, the 27-year-old sentenced to death for having shot and killed a police officer. This was the 18th execution in the United States and the 10th in Texas this year.

The head of a controversial UN mission in Central African Republic has fired from his post, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday. The New York Times say the UN chief told reporters he asked Babacar Gaye to leave his post after multiple allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers. The move follows an Amnesty International report alleging that peacekeepers had killed a 16-year-old boy and his father without provocation and had raped a 12-year-old girl in separate incidents last week in the capital Bangui.

CNN reports President Obama has called former President Jimmy Carter and wished him a “rapid and complete recovery” after 90-year-old Carter revealed he has cancer. Obama told him, “America is rooting for you. Our thoughts and our prayers are for you and your family.” The 39th US President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient announced he had cancelled his travel schedule to get medical care.

O Globo says thousands of women farmers have marched through Brazil’s capital in a show of support for President Dilma Rousseff ahead of nationwide protests on Sunday calling for her impeachment. The “March of the Daisies”, organised by leftist groups linked to Rousseff’s Workers Party, attracted about 35,000 farmers to Brasilia’s downtown area. Opinion polls show seven out of 10 Brazilians want Rousseff to be impeached, holding her responsible for the downturn in Latin America’s largest economy and a massive corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras.

The Los Angeles Times reports three more women have alleged they were sexually assaulted by American actor Bill Cosby, including one who said the former US comedy icon forced her to perform oral sex. The women – actresses Eden Tirl and Linda Ridgeway Whitedeer and former flight attendant Colleen Hughes – join more than 40 others who claim abuse by the African-American comedian who played a beloved family doctor on the hit 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show”.

USA Today says a 23-year-old Pennsylvania beauty queen is in jail after allegedly faking leukemia to reap the benefits of fundraisers. Miss Pennsylvania US International pageant winner Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates was charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property. Police say she received $14,000 from a bingo held for her. The pageant sponsor is making Weaver-Gates return her crown and sash, and she is being stripped of her title.

The International Olympic Committee has ruled out conducting viral tests of Rio de Janeiro’s sewage-laden waterways ahead of the 2016 games, a top official said yesterday, despite an Associated Press study showing dangerously high levels of disease-causing viruses at all aquatic venues, with experts saying athletes are almost certain to be exposed to pathogens. Speaking at a news conference dominated by questions about Rio’s sewage pollution problem, Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said the IOC would be sticking to WHO guidelines recommending only bacterial testing.

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