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

The Sunday Times of Malta reports that the European Investment Bank
turned down a government request to finance the consortium building the new gas power plant.

The Malta Independent on Sunday says a tidal lane traffic system is to be launched in Paola.

MaltaToday says emails show Nationalist MP Claudio Grech met oil trader George Farrugia in 2006 to discuss privatisation of the Enemalta gas division. That contradicts a statement he gave to the Public Accounts Committee that he only met Mr Farrugia in 2012. Mr Grech said he does not recall the 2006 meeting.

 It-Torca reports that Malta University is helping in research into Parkinsons Disease.

Il-Mument says the Opposition expects fair distribution of wealth not hand-outs to the few.

Illum says a Syrian man falsified a Maltese passport to escape from Sicily.

The overseas press

As there has been international condemnation of the bombing that killed at least 95 people and left 246 wounded in Turkey, Sky Turk reports thousands of demonstrators have protested on the streets of Ankara. Demonstrations also took place in several other cities including Istanbul, Izmir on the Aegean Sea and the south-eastern cities of Batman and Diyarbakir.

According to NRC, Dutch police have arrested 11 men aged between 19 and 30 following an attack on an emergency shelter for refugees. The men are believed to form half of a group of 20 people who forced entry into the refuge, wearing hoods and carrying nitrate fireworks and rotten eggs.

Tchad Vision reports three explosions at a market and a refugee camp on the shores of Lake Chad have killed 38 people and injured more than 50 others. The Chadian military has blamed the Islamist insurgency Boko Haram for the attacks.

El Mundo says some 89 Chinese and Pakistani nationals have been arrested as part of a Spanish operation to break up a human trafficking ring. Those detained are alleged to have been members of a group seeking to smuggle Chinese citizens into the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Spain is believed to have been used as a transit country.

Reuters reports German and EU officials have denied a report that Berlin and Brussels were in informal talks about a form of European solidarity tax to help cover the costs of the influx of asylum seekers.  

Fox News announces the Pentagon has said the US is to make compensation payments to the families of those killed and injured in an airstrike on an Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in northern Afghanistan. Twenty-two people died in the attack.

As Belarus braces itself for today’s presidential election, am unauthorized opposition rally was held in Minsk, yesterday. Svoboda says hundreds of people marched peacefully in the town’s centre carrying flags of Belarus and the EU, in a procession called “For free and fair elections”.  

Berliner Zeitung reports some 250,000 members of political parties, trade unions and environmental and anti-globalisation groups marched in Berlin against the massive free-trade accord being negotiated by the European Union and the United States. They say the deal would lead to widespread deregulation and reduce the scope of government.  

Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Michael Froman told CNN, they hope to release the full text of the Pacific trade deal within the next 30 days. The United States sealed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 11 trading partners this week after more than five years of negotiations.

The Irish Times reports actor Jim Carrey attended the funeral of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, helping to carry the coffin as hundreds of family and friends gathered to mourn her death in Tipperary.  

Scientists from the Paris Observatory have discovered mysterious undulating objects on space photos made with the Hubble space telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope, scientific magazine Nature writes. The scientists discovered five unknown wave-like formations, resembling ripples in water, within the planet-forming disc of a young star AU Mic, classified as a red dwarf and a flaring temporary star 32 light years away from Earth.

Sepp Blatter has told Schweiz am Sonntag he would battle on despite his suspension as head of FIFA amid corruption investigations. He said the world soccer body’s ethics committee had forbidden him to speak about FIFA, adding, “They can destroy me, but they cannot destroy my life's work.” He has denied wrongdoing and filed an appeal to try to reverse the ban.

 

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