The following are the top stories in the local and international press today:
The Times leads with a report on Malta’s aid to Libyan civilians in the country’s worst cities. It says that Libyans in Malta and Maltese businessmen were liaising with rebel forces to facilitate the arrival of the aid.
The Independent says that Nato has now taken control of the air operation on Libya. In another story it says that as no Curia official took part in a seminar on feasts.
l-Orizzont reports on the increase in petrol and diesel prices announced yesterday and says this was not an April Fool’s joke. In another story it says that only a third of births in Malta are natural. It also says that more than 2,000 young people will not be able to vote in divorce referendum and blames this on the government.
in-Nazzjon also reports on the young people that will not be able to vote but blames the Opposition. The newspaper reports a speech by PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier on participatory politics. It says that the Malta Resources Authority has approved an increase in the profit margin of petrol station owners.
The international press
Al Jazeera quotes unconfirmed reports that more people have left the inner circle of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, following the high level desertion of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who arrived in the UK on Wednesday. It is understood a group of top officials who had headed to Tunisia for talks have decided to stay there. Some Arabic newspapers said these included the head of Libya''s Popular Committee and a former Prime Minister. On Thursday, a second top official, Ali Abdessalam Treki, confirmed he would not serve in Gaddfai'’s regime. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the UN, said most high-level Libyan officials were trying to defect but were under tight security and having difficulty leaving the country. In London, The Independent reports the British government was in talks with up to 10 senior figures in Col Gaddafi's regime about possible defection,
A Libyan government spokesman has confirmed that Koussa had resigned but said that Gaddafi still enjoyed the support of his people. Libya's state-run Al-Libiyah TV quotes Moussa Ibrahim saying Koussa'’s decision was personal. He had been given permission to go to Tunisia because he was sick with diabetes and high blood pressure but the goverment did not know he would go to London.
The Washington Post quotes American military chiefs saying Libya’s armed forces were not close to breaking point despite hundreds of allied air strikes. Admiral Mike Mullen told a US Congress committee Col Gaddafi's troops still had 10 times the rebels' firepower. He said coalition air attacks had destroyed about a quarter of the Libyan military’s capabilities. At the same hearing, Defence Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US would put no "boots on the ground" in Libya.
The new Nato commander of the international military operation in Libya says he was looking into reports that air strikes on Tripoli have killed at least 40 civilians. The Associated Press says Lt Gen Charles Bouchard, a Canadian now heading the international operation, noted the alleged incident happened before Nato took command on Thursday. The report by the Fides news agency quotes Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, as saying he had learned that a building in the Buslim district collapsed because of bombing, killing 40 people. Bouchard says the alliance has strict rules of engagement and is careful in going after any targets.
The BBC reports that on the battle field, Gadadfi's forces are said to have consolidated their positions to the south of Ajdabiya and were expected to renew an offensive towards Benghazi. Mine experts said government forces planted Brazilian-made anti-personnel mines and Egyptian-made anti-tank mines around Ajdabiya. On the other hand, coalition fighter jets have attacked pro-Gaddafi's tanks in Misrata and Sky News reported a dozen loud explosions and rocket fire in West Libyan city. Libyan rebel radio has report an acute shortage of fuel in Tripoli, saying there were long queues for fuel and one petrol station operator has put up a banner saying: "No petrol after today".
Ansa says the Italian authorities have shipped more than 2,000 migrants, mainly Tunisians, to detention camps on the mainland, relieving pressure on Lampedusa. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said Tunisia should have stopped the boats from setting out from its waters while Foreign Minister Franco Frattini complained other EU countries have done little or nothing to help relieve Rome of the migrant burden.
Expresso reports that Portugal President Anibal Cavaco Silva has dissolved parliament and announced a snap election for June 5. Last week, the opposition rejected the government’s austerity plans to tackle the country’s budget deficit which last year was 8.6 per cent of its GDP.
The Irish Independent says the full scale of the financial crisis in Ireland has been revealed by figures which show that the cost of rescuing the country’s banks now stands at €70 billion. Stress tests carried out at four major banks concluded that they needed €24 billion in capital to be saved from future financial shocks.
Le Parisien says French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for clear international standards and nuclear safety in the light of the crisis at Fukushima nuclear plant. Sarkozy paid a quick visit to Tokyo to show support and also propose a global conference in France for May to fix new international atomic regulations.
Meanwhile, Radio Japan reports radioactive contamination in ground water beneath one of the plant’s reactors has been measured at 10,000 times the standard norms and the country came under pressure to extend its evacuation zone around the due to concerns about spreading radiation.
Börzen Zeitung says six people have been arrested on suspicion of netting some €6 million by having scrapped euro coins reassembled in China, and then cashing them in at Germany’s central bank. Frankfurt prosecutor Doris Moeller-Scheu said the group was suspected of collecting 29 tons of eliminated one and two-euro coins and exchanging them at the Bundesbank between 2007 and 2010. The coins had been sold to China as scrap metal. Four flight attendants are suspected of bringing the restored coins back to Germany.