The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta, MaltaToday, the Malta Independent and In-Nazzjon lead with the money laundering and fraud charges filed against accountant and former PL treasurer Joe Sammut. He is also accused of running a residence scam to benefit hundreds of Libyans.
Times of Malta also reports that politicians filed the biggest number of criminal libel complaints, despite promises to remove criminal libel.
In-Nazzjon also reports that a recently appointed police superintendent is in hot water over the way he treated a subordinate.
l-orizzont reports how a garage was used as a residence, and now is an office used by Nationalist MP Claudio Grech.
The overseas press
The Arab League has authorised Arab states to provide support to the Libyan government in Beida in the fight against terrorism. Libya Herald reports that at an emergency meeting in Cairo, the League said they could so individually or collectively, and that they could provide whatever assistance was deemed necessary. The Libyan government had called for the League to authorise Arab states to launch air strikes against Islamic State forces in Sirte. The League also urged Libyans to back the UN-brokered political dialogue process and quickly produce a government of national unity.
More than 2,000 families fleeing the massacres by Isis militants have left Sirte taking refuge in the town of el Marj (Cyrenaica). Al Wasat quotes witnesses saying Marj el is in a state humanitarian disaster since basic necessities are scarce after the arrival of refugees from Benghazi and Derna. Meanwhile, Isis jihadists have attacked the courts of Sirte to be replaced by the Islamic court, with the application of sharia. They have also set a new department of education, with the aim of reviewing the curriculum. Students will be divided between males and females in all levels of education, including university.
A record 107,000 migrants arrived in the EU in July – more than three times the number registered in July last year. Euronews reports EU border agency Frontex said it was the first time more than 100,000 migrants arrived in a single month. Some 340,000 migrants arrived between January and July. The agency warned that the heavy influx “has created an unprecedented pressure on border control authorities in Greece, Italy and Hungary”.
The Wall Street Journal reports Fitch has upgraded Greece’s ratings, citing the country’s improved financial outlook following last week’s agreement with its creditors for additional aid. The country’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default rating was raised from CC to CCC, still below investment grade. Meanwhile, among others, the country’s ceiling has been raised to B- from CCC.
Lawmakers in Spain, Austria and Estonia have voted to ratify a third financial bailout for Greece. Deutsche Welle says Germany is expected to do the same late today, but many members of Chancellor Merkel’s conservatives are expected to vote against it. Meanwhile, the Greek government has approved its first privatisation granting a 40-year concession of more than a dozen key regional airports to Germany’s Fraport-Slentel consortium in a deal worth €1.23 billion.
The Daily Sun says up to 150 people have drowned in a river or were shot dead fleeing Boko Haram gunmen who raided a remote village in Nigeria’s north-eastern Yobe state. Locals said dozens of militants arrived on motorcycles and a car on Thursday last week and opened fire.
Scientists have grown an almost-complete brain that will be used to learn about brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and to test new drugs. The Guardian says the brain “organoid” was made from skin cells in a laboratory dish and is comparable to what would be found within a five-week-old foetus, with 99 per cent of its genes being the same as what would be in a foetal brain. It also has a spinal cord and the beginnings of an eye.
CNN reports US regulators have approved the first drug designed to boost women’s sex drive – a pill that has been nicknamed the “female Viagra” but is known by the trade name Addyi.
LBC quotes Scotland Yard saying a Roma Gypsy gang has been found guilty of trafficking vulnerable Slovakian women into the UK to sell them into sham marriages “like pieces of meat”. The poverty-stricken women were recruited in their native Slovakia and taken to the UK to be sold in to marriages with Indian and Pakistani men desperate to stay in the country.
The Daily Mirror says a passenger has allegedly had half his ear bitten off in an attack on a plane bound for Ibiza. The incident took place on a Jet2 flight from Newcastle to the holiday island just before it was due to land. The man has reportedly being receiving treatment in Spain since the attack, which happened on Sunday evening.
Bild reports drink abstainers in Muelheim, Germany, broke into a shop and just uncorked 1,200 bottles of beer without even taking one away. The police described the scene as “surreal” with crates and crates of open bottles. According to investigators, the vandals were interested in the prizes offered by the beer manufacturer and went in search of the winning caps. Many, all those lacking the lucky sign, were abandoned on the ground.