The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says counsellors were called in to assist guidance officers in helping students traumatised by the sudden death of a colleague who collapsed just outside their school in Naxxar yesterday morning. In another story, it says border controls will remain in place for at least a month after the Commonwealth summit ends.
The Malta Independent says the US State Department is currently warning Americans in Malta to exercise caution when out in public because it believes that terrorists may be in the country seeking passage to mainland Europe or lying low on the islands to avoid detection.
MaltaToday speaks to gaming shop operators who vent their frustrations over hold-ups.
L-Orizzont says Opposition leader Simon Busuttil is denying under oath he met businessman Mark Gaffarena.
In-Nazzjon says the Nationalist Party has launched a consultation document on the economy including 145 proposals based on 20 priorities.
International news
After an emergency NATO session to discuss the shooting down by Turkey of a Russian warplane, Le Soir quotes NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying allies with intelligence assets had confirmed Turkey’s version of events and rejected Russia’s claim that its aircraft was flying over Syria and had not crossed into Turkish airspace. Turkey called for the meeting but has not invoked alliance provisions that would involve other members in its defence.
The Washington Post reports President Obama has called for a reduction in tensions after incident. He spoke by phone to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called for urgent measures to de-escalate tensions, demanding a “credible and thorough review” of the incident to prevent a repeat.
Sputnik says Russian President Vladimir Putin had strong words for Turkey, calling the incident a “stab in the back”, adding that the incident would have “serious consequences” for ties between Ankara and Moscow. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov cancelled a trip to Turkey.
One Russian pilot is dead and a second is missing, rebel and opposition activist sources told AFP. The sources said the first pilot was killed by opposition forces who shot at him as he landed after ejecting from the plane.
Le Matin reports an explosion has hit a bus carrying members of Tunisia’s presidential guard killing at least 12 people and wounding 16 others. The interior ministry called it a “terrorist act”.
Al Ahram says an Islamic militant attack involving a suicide car bombing and gunmen has targeted a hotel in Egypt’s northern Sinai region, killing seven people. The attack on the Swiss Inn hotel in the coastal city of El-Arish was the latest violence convulsing the troubled peninsula, where Egyptian troops are struggling to put down an Islamic insurgency.
Politico quotes the “Global Terrorism Index Report 2015”showing 30,000 foreign fighters from 100 different countries have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. Most are from the Middle East and North Africa, but a growing proportion is from Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. According to the report, global terrorism is continuing to increase: 88 per cent of attacks hit countries involved in violent conflict, mostly domestic, while the number of fatalities grew by 80 per cent in just one year.
RTL reports a hostage situation in the northern French town of Roubaix, close to the Belgian border, has ended. All hostages have been released, and one of the three assailants was killed during a police raid. French prosecutors have confirmed that the incident appears to have been a robbery gone wrong, and was unrelated to the Paris attacks of November 13.
Reuters says Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri has named Susana Malcorra, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief adviser, as his future foreign minister. UN diplomats and officials described Malcorra as the second-most powerful person in the United Nations system. Ban relies on her on matters ranging from the war in Syria to diplomatic minefields such as the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Fox News reports US prosecutors have charged a white police officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder for fatally shooting Laquan McDonald, an Afro- American teen. A total of 16 shots were fired, all the ammunition in the officer’s clip. The incident was captured on a graphic video that the Chicago Police Department released later in the day.
Ansa says Pope Francis steps onto African soil for the first time this afternoon to address the continent's fast-growing Catholic congregation. The six-day tour starts in Kenya and Uganda, which have both seen Islamist militant attacks, before he travels to the Central African Republic, a nation torn by Muslim-Christian strife.
Parents in Philadelphia are saying their baby’s brain tumour miraculously shrunk after the child was kissed by Pope Francis during his September visit. According to KYW, one-year-old Gianna Masciantonio has a rare, inoperable brain tumour. In a scan taken in August, the tumour is large and visible, but in scans from late November the tumour is hard to detect. Her parents believe that the kiss is to credit for her fast recovery.
The New York Times says the police are looking for a woman who arrived at the Holy Jesus Child Church in the Richmond Hill neighborhood with a newborn baby boy wrapped in a towel, his umbilical cord still attached, and departed without him. The baby was left in the manger of the nativity scene.
A woman is suing the US government to force the return of a film shot by her grandfather that shows the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963. Texas Globe reports Gayle Nix Jackson, from Fort Worth in Texas, is seeking €9.4 million in compensation for the film shot by Orville Nix, who sold the film to the UPI news agency with the understanding that after 25 years it would be returned to the family.
A Colorado Springs man is in hospital after an electronic cigarette blew up in his face. Cordero Caples, 29, suffered a broken neck, facial fractures, burns to his mouth and shattered teeth in the explosion, according to a post on a GoFundMe account his sister, Colessia setup to raise money for his medical bills. Police told Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV that emergency crews responded to the medical call at Caples’ job, but that the incident is still under investigation.