The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says stroke patients can now have the blood clot in their brain removed if they make it to hospital in time – and in some cases walk off paralysis-free. In another story, it says Minister Helena Dalli wants the police to enforce the law that stops people from hiding their face in public, as the government mulls a prohibition of the burqa.
The Malta Independent says the management of the MCP car park in Floriana has closed off one of the entrances to the car park as a result of stones falling from the bastions.
In-Nazzjon says that all indications show that the government seems convince that the best form of connection between Malta and Gozo is an underwater tunnel.
L-Orizzont reports the Prime Minister saying that the price of fuel will go down again in January.
International news
AFP quotes a statement by the office of the Turkish prime minister saying two male suicide bombers carried out the devastating twin bombings in Ankara killing 97 and injuring over 500 others. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has claimed the toll is far higher at 128.
Meanwhile, Sky Turk says thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Ankara to protest the twin bombings. No group had taken responsibility for the attacks by yesterday evening, but Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said groups including the Islamic State, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front could be behind the explosions.
Sputnik quotes the Baghdad Information Centre confirming that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi had been injured in an airstrike in Iraq, together with two other leading figures. Local media reported earlier Baghdadi’s fate remained unknown after Iraqi Air Forces attacked an ISIL convoy in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.
Russia’s counter-terrorism agency says it has arrested a group of people who were preparing to carry out an attack in Moscow. Moscow Times reports homemade explosives were found in an apartment where the group was arrested. More than 100 residents in the building were evacuated during the raid and supplies of natural gas were cut off during the operation.
President Vladimir Putin has defended Russia’s military operations in Syria, saying the aim is to “stabilise the legitimate authority” of Syrian President Assad. He told Russian state TV station VGTRK that Moscow also wanted to “create conditions for a political compromise” in Syria. He denied that Russian air strikes were hitting moderate opposition groups rather than Islamic State militants.
In an interview with CBS, President Obama has said the United States had “pretty good intelligence” that Russia intended to intervene militarily in Syria before he met with President Putin. Critics had suggested that the Obama administration was taken by surprise by the airstrikes. Obama made it clear he wanted to keep the US from becoming more deeply involved militarily in a place where he believed that the American force offers no viable, long-term solutions.
Ansa quotes Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin saying the Pope wants to go to China, and “if they were to open the doors, he would go today”. Cardinal Parolin made the remark when blessing the “Pope Francis’ House of Angels” that is home to 50 refugees. He affirmed the situation was “not yet mature, but they are working slowly and quietly to try to reach an agreement”.
NDTV says that in separate telephone calls with EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas have expressed willingness to work on implementing the provisions outlined in the Middle East Quartet at the United Nations two weeks ago. Mogherini has warned against the escalation of violence in the Palestinian territories.
Svoboda reports Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is set for a fifth term in office, with exit polls showing a landslide victory of 83.5 percent of the vote. He has ruled since 1994.
Austrian public broadcaster ÖRF says early exit polls in Vienna’s municipal elections showed a clear lead for Austria’s Social Democrats which looks like garnering 39.5 per cent of the vote. The right-wing Freedom Party was expected to form the main opposition with 30.5 per cent.
Deutsche Welle reports German Health Minister Hermann Gröhe has told 1,400 scientists and politicians, attending the seventh WHO summit in Berlin, that Germany was prepared to take responsibility of the current refugee crisis but that “every country must help”. The effects of the refugee crisis on health services are at the top of this year’s agenda.
ABC TV says public health advocates in China are hoping a new report predicting a tripling in the number of smoking related-deaths will be a wake-up call for the government. The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, said the number of people dying every year from tobacco-related deaths would reach three million by 2050.