The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports that absent drivers affected the introduction of the new bus service by Arriva yesterday. It also carries comments by Martin Balzan, president of the doctors’ union (MAM) that a new EU directive puts pressure on the government to reduce waiting lists for operations lest people have interventions abroad, while billing the government.
The Malta Independent said the start of the Arriva service yesterday was ‘chaotic’. It also reports that Parliament will start to debate the Divorce Bill today.
l-orizzont says the new bus service started amid confusion and delay.
In-Nazzjon says the quality of bus trips was better yesterday, but a number of drivers did not show up. It also carries comments by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi paying tribute to George Borg Olivier as the architect of Malta’s future. He was speaking a ceremony to mark the centenary of the birth of Dr Borg Olivier.
The overseas press
The Libyan crisis will be a key item on the agenda at discussions between Russia and Nato later today. Pravda quotes a Russian government spokesman saying the talks, in the southern Russian resort town of Sochi, would include a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Russia is a critic of the Nato military action in Libya. South African President Jacob Zuma will also attend the meeting.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Turkey has recognised the rebel Transitional National Council as the true representative of Libya's people. After meeting TNC head Mustafa Abdul Jalil in Benghazi, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference it was time for the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to go. He pledged a further $200 million in aid for the rebels in addition to $100 million announced last month. Turkish companies were involved in construction projects worth billions of dollars in Libya before the anti-government uprising in February.
In another development, Feb 17 Libyan News says the rebels have rejected an African Union initiative to sponsor talks between them and the government in Tripoli. Rebel spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga said the framework agreement “did not include the departure of Gaddafi, his sons and his inner circle”. But Jalil has conceded that Col Gaddafi was welcome to live out his retirement inside Libya as long as he gave up all power.
Said al-Islam has warned the West that it would never win the war in Libya. The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in an interview on French television TF1 his father has no plans to leave the country but said Tripoli was ready to make some concessions. He also aid that by attacking Libya, the West had become a “legitimate target”.
Corriere della Sera says five people were arrested, and 180 police and 200 protesters injured during demonstrations against a high-speed railway tunnel linking Italy to France. About 6,000 people joined initially-peaceful marches in the Val di Susa area, near Turin, protesting against the €15-billion-tunnel they said would damage the environment and spoil the picturesque Alpine valley. Several political leaders, including President Giorgio Napolitano, spoke out against the violence and green groups distanced themselves. France and Italy signed a deal to build the link in 2001.
Representatives from 35 countries are meeting in Germany to discuss how to overcome disputes over reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Berliner Zeitung says the informal two-day gathering in Berlin was designed to define a demanding but also realistic framework for an international climate conference in Durban, South Africa, next November to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. The 1997 treaty bound nearly 40 countries to specific emission reductions targets.
Bangkok Post quotes Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of Thailand's exiled former prime minister, promising to do her best in government after preliminary results showed her party, Pheu Thai, had won a clear majority. With nearly all votes counted, Pheu Thai had 264 seats and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's Democrats 160. Yingluck's elder brother, Thaksin, was deposed in a military coup in 2006. Both parties campaigned for an end to the divisions which have plagued Thailand since and left some 100 dead clashes between their followers.
Daily Champion reports at least 10 people have killed and 10 others wounded in a bomb explosion in a beer garden in Maiduguri, in north-west Nigeria. The incident is thought to be the work of the fundamentalist group Boko Haram, a radical sect that claims a strict application of Sharia Islamic law, which among other things prohibits the consumption of alcohol.
A two-year-old Chinese girl fell 10 floors from her family’s apartment window and survived after being caught by a woman passing by. China Central Television said the toddler was in critical condition with internal bleeding and other unspecified injuries while the woman who saved her suffered a broken arm. A scan showed no damage to the girl’s brain but that the girl’s abdomen was swollen in a sign of possible injury to organs. The girl was in the care of her grandmother when older woman left the apartment to run an errand.
Clarin says Brazil had a disappointing debut in their first match in Group B of the Copa America football tournament in Buenos Aires when they only managed a 0-0 draw against Venezuela. The defending champions were under constant attack and individual efforts proved fruitless. The best occasion for Brazil came in the 28th minute but Pato hit the crossbar. In the other Group B match, Paraguay and Ecuador also drew 0-0. Today, Uruguay face Peru and Chile play against Mexico in two matches from Group C.