The outcome of the spring hunting referendum features in both the Maltese and sections of the international press today.
Some of the headings in the overseas press are: Maltese hunters celebrate spring bird vote victory (Global Post), Malta votes to keep spring bird hunt (Gulf Times), Maltese hunters win vote allowing them to kill migrating birds before they breed (The Straits Times), Malta Votes To Keep Bird Shooting Tradition (Eagle Radio), Malta bird hunters celebrate referendum victory (BBC News), Malta thwarts quail hunt ban (Daily Mail), and Malta referendum extends spring bird hunting exception (Reuters). Xinhua reports on the referendum and says the Maltese prime minister said he would not tolerate illegal hunting.
Times of Malta says 2,220 votes gave hunters their referendum victory.
The Malta Independent says the hunters' slim majority forced the prime minister to warn the hunters to 'get it right'.
In-Nazzjon features celebrations of the Yes camp after yesterday's referendum triumph.
L-orizzont says the Yes camp won a narrow victory in the referendum. Gozo was the key to the hunters' victory with 62% voting yes.
The overseas press
European powers and the United States have pressed Libya’s rival factions to set an “unconditional” ceasefire at talks on forming a unity government to halt the country’s conflict. France 24 reports a US-European joint statement read that “only through compromise can Libya move toward a more secure, stable, and prosperous future”.
The world media prominently reports Hillary Clinton’s announcement of her long-known intentions to run for US president. CNN says the former first lady and secretary of state officially entered the 2016 presidential race with a video announcement to supporters, saying she wanted to be the champion of “everyday Americans”. This comes seven years after she failed to win the nomination for the Democratic Party, losing to Barack Obama.
Ankara has reacted furiously at Pope Francis’s description of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as “the first genocide of the 20th century”. Hurryiet reports the Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to the Vatican “for consultations”. At the start of a Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St Peter’s Basilica honouring the centenary, the Pope, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days in Argentina, said that it was his duty to honour the memory of the innocent men, women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered.
According to Sputnik, Russia has uncovered a group of spy satellites. The head of its space command, Oleg Maidanovich, warned in a film broadcast yesterday that “enemy” satellites could masquerade as space junk. He declined to say which country or countries the satellites belonged to. The film was shown on defence ministry channel Zvezda as Russia marked “Space Day”, commemorating the space flight of Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.
The far-right party Jobbik in Hungary has won its first-ever individual constituency, filling the parliamentary seat vacated by the death of a deputy of the right-wing party in the government, Fidesz. Echo TV says its candidate obtained 35 per cent of the votes, while the Fidesz’s candidate garnered 34 per cent and the Socialist candidate 27 per cent.
For the second time in a month, Brazil saw a new wave of nationwide peaceful rallies against governmental corruption. Rio Times says the protest centre on the alleged involvement of the governing Workers’ Party in a massive kick-back sheme at the stat oil company Petrobras.
Vanguard announces the party of Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari has gained control of Lagos state governorship. Lagos is a crucial region to control within Nigeria, as the city of an estimated 21 million generates up to one third of the country’s total economic output.
al bawaba reports Sudanese police in the eastern city of Port Sudan broke up a small student demonstration against nationwide elections due to be held today. The three-day elections for the presidency and national and state parliaments start today, and President Omar al-Bashir is widely expected to extend his 25-year rule.
Al Ahram says Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi has decreed that anyone digging tunnels under the border with Gaza will have a life sentence. The penalty could also apply to anyone who failed to report tunnelling. Egypt accuses Palestinian activists in Gaza of using the tunnels to smuggle weapons to Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula. Meanwhile, Cairo Radio reports two bloody bombings in Egypt’s North Sinai province have killed 13 army and police personnel and one civilian, as well as injured some 47 others
El Tiempo says Mexican marines and police have arrested Cesar Gastelum Serrano, a man authorities describe as a leading cocaine trafficker for Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. The US Treasury Department had placed Gastelum Serrano on its drug kingpin list in December.
USA Today reports two Alabama college students have been suspended after authorities discovered a cellphone video that allegedly shows them sexually assaulting a woman at a Florida beach while a large crowd of spring-break revellers watches. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen described the video as “very, very graphic” and called it the “most disgusting, sickening thing” he had ever seen.
Australia’s ABC TV says a 47-year-old man has been charged with the exploitation or rape of 28 children. Police allege the man, from Warwick on Queensland’s Southern Darling Downs, used social media websites to target children under the age of 16 from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with police believing there may also be other victims as far away as Western Australia.
German RTL broadcaster reveals a 65-year-old Berlin woman, who already has 13 children, is expectant again – this time with quadruplets. The Russian and English teacher’s pregnancy follows several attempts abroad at artificial insemination over the last 18 months. The woman, Annegret Raunigk, decided to try to have another child because her youngest daughter, who is nine, wanted a little brother or sister. The TV channel will broadcast an interview with the expectant mother, who has seven grandchildren, this evening.