The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta quotes the owner of a Paceville club saying gas was put in the ventilation system, causing a stampede in the early hours of Sunday.
The Malta Independent quotes Marlene Farrugia saying she is not the PL’s only dissenting voice. Similar comments are also carried on Times of Malta.
In-Nazzjon leads with yesterday’s anti-terrorism raid in Paris and the Opposition’s call for the Auditor-General to investigate the granting of Maltese visas to travellers from Algeria.
l-orizzont says the assets of Anthony Debono, husband of former minister Giovanna Debono have been frozen until a final decision on his court case.
The overseas press
Ansa reports the FBI has tipped the Italian intelligence services that the Islamic State militants’ next targets could possibly be St Peter’s in Rome and the Duomo and La Scala in Milan. The US agency is said to have handed the Italians the names of five Arab suspects warranting in-depth investigation. The FBI warning came as Italy heightened its security on the main places of worship and gatherings.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told Sky TG24 that his government was “intensifying every type of control”, using “every innovative tool technology to map out hazards and dangerous people”. But, he said, Italy must neither fall prey to hysteria nor underestimate the dangers of Islamic terrorism.
Avvenire reports Pope Francis has said he was against erecting “reinforced doors” and other forms of protection at churches to prevent Islamist terrorism. Security has been doubled at entrances to the Vatican City as Italian police started checking all visitors before checks by the Vatican gendarmerie.
In the latest number of its magazine Dabiq, ISIS said that “we ask Allah to support the mujaheddin against the agents of idolatry and the crusaders until the flag of the Caliphate is raised on Istanbul and Vatican City”. The Islamist militants have threatened to strike Rome on several occasions.
The French authorities say the fate of the suspected ring leader of last Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris remains unknown, following a police raid in the northern suburb of the city. Le Figaro quotes the police saying Abdelhamid Abaaoud was not among eight people arrested in the operation. Two bodies were found in the apartment in Saint Denis but the building was so badly damaged it was unclear if there’s a third.
Honduras’ Televincentro reports the police in Tegucigalpa say they have arrested five Syrians who were travelling in stolen Greek passports and were intending to head overland to the United States. Greek diplomats who interviewed the five men said they did not speak a word of Greek.
Kanal Z quotes the European Commission saying it intends to tighten the bloc’s anti-terrorism legislation to prevent a repeat of last Friday’s mass killings in Paris. New laws will be announced by the end of the month that will crack down on the ability of fighters to access weapons, while broadening the number of activities related to terrorism.
Aftonbladet reports Sweden has raised its threat level to “high” as the country’s security services launched a manhunt for a man suspected of planning a terrorist attack. Denmark and Norway have also raised their threat levels.
La Provence says a Jewish school teacher has been stabbed by three men in an apparent anti-Semitic attack in the southern French city of Marseille. The attackers claimed to be “Islamic State” supporters.
US News & World Report reports a survey of 11 nations with a significant number of Muslim citizens shows that less than 15 per cent of the population in each place held a favourable view of the Islamic State group. A vast majority in each area viewed the jihadist group unfavourably with the sole exception of Pakistan, where 62 per cent had no opinion about the terrorists.
Nigerian Tribune says at least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria’s Islamic uprising, when a Boko Haram suicide bomber exploded himself. Later on Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53 others.
The Associate Press reports in the American-led air war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, US fighter jets, bombers, attack planes and drones are dropping an average of 2,228 bombs a month on targets ranging from training camps and machine gun positions to oil facilities and weapons shacks. The Pentagon says it did not do body counts, but the attacks are believed to have killed more than 20,000 IS fighters. The U. price tag: $5 billion since August 2014, an average of $11.1 million each day.
Sildenafil, the active ingredient of Viagra, the famous blue pill for erectile dysfunction, can improve insulin sensitivity in people with a high risk of developing diabetes. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, shows that insulin resistance precedes the development of type 2 diabetes and is characterised by high levels of sugar in the blood because the body fails to produce enough insulin to delete it.
AGI says the humble honey bee with its powerful sense of smell could be enlisted by Italian security forces to help face down the threat of terrorism, researchers said on Wednesday. Research in the United States and Britain has already shown that a swarm of bees can be successfully trained to ‘sniff out’ explosives.
Blick reports Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have lost their appeals against their interim 90-day bans for financial wrongdoing in the corruption scandal that has shaken world soccer. The provisional bans prevent Blatter from working as FIFA president and stop UEFA President Platini from campaigning for the FIFA election on February 26.