The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the court case on the €500,000 road works bribery case. Like most of the other newspapers it also reports on the departure of the Libyan Mirages.
The Malta Independent says the introduction of parole is imminent. It also reports how a Transport Malta architect and a company director denied receiving €500,000 in road works bribes.
In-Nazzjon focuses on the national strategy against obesity, announced yesterday. It also says that more SMEs are creating jobs thanks to EU funds.
l-orizzont says that families are getting €1.3 million less as the government has reduced that amount from the budget of agencies giving services to families.
The overseas press
The BBC reports “fierce” widespread condemnation of the Syrian government over its killing of one of the world’s most respected war correspondents Marie Colvin and its onslaught on opposition groups. Colvin, 56, and award-winning French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed as the Syrian army intensified its attacks on the opposition stronghold of Homs. The radio quotes the US State Department saying “this tragic incident was another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime”.
Under the heading “The price of truth”, The Times quotes Sunday Times owner Rupert Murdoch saying Colvin was “one of the most outstanding foreign correspondents of her generation”. Editor John Witherow described her as “extraordinary”.
Activists said 26 people were killed on Wednesday as Syrian government forces pounded the rebel city of Homs, nicknamed “the capital of the revolution” by anti-regime protesters, for a nineteenth day. France 24 says the Syrian regime was preparing to launch its final offensive in order to crush the rebels in Baba Amr. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that the number of deaths since the beginning of the repression 11 months ago has now risen to 7,600.
Al Ahram says that the Egyptian judge in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak has set June 2 as the date for the verdict and sentencing. Mubarak is accused of complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted him in February last year. His lawyer said in his closing arguments that Mubarak is still president, meaning the seven-month trial is invalid.
Clarin reports a packed train slammed into a barrier at a Buenos Aires station today, killing 50 people, including a child, and injuring at least 550 others. It is Argentina’s highest death toll from a train accident since 1970, when 200 were killed in a train collision.
The Daily Telegraph says women in the UK were being granted abortions by doctors based on the sex of their unborn baby. An undercover investigation revealed clinicians admitted they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the abortions even though it was illegal to conduct such “sex-selection” procedures. British Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has voiced concern about the allegations and ordered an investigation “as a matter of urgency”.
Newport Daily News reports a former nightclub bouncer has been jailed for 35 years for the rape and murder of a heavily-pregnant teenager in Wales last year. Nikitta Grender, 19, was two weeks away from giving birth when drugged-up Carl Whant called at her flat at around 5 a.m. on February 5 last year. He raped the mother-to-be, then slashed her throat and stabbed her in the abdomen. In an attempt to disguise his crimes, he then set fire to her home in Newport, south Wales,
Metro says the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee is putting pressure on Germany and Czech Republic to do away with surgical castration of sex offenders. In a report released in Strasbourg, the committee said the use of castration to prevent convicted sex criminals reoffending was “quite rare” but it was an “irreversible intervention” that could easily be considered as amounting to “degrading treatment”. In reply, Germany said it is debating whether to review the issue, but quoted a study indicating it was effective and noted that it was voluntary and only performed after all implications had been explained.
Corriere della Sera reports that divers searching the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast have found eight bodies, including that of a missing five-year-old Italian girl. Including those still missing – who are presumed dead – and bodies already recovered, the death toll in the accident stands at 32.
Le Parisien says a new circular from the prime minister’s office orders officials to phase out the use of “mademoiselle” on administrative documents. Until now, a woman had been required to identify herself as a married “madame” or an unmarried “mademoiselle” on everything – from tax forms to insurance claims and voting documents. Feminist groups have been pushing for the abolition of the mademoiselle option for months and hailed the move. France offers no neutral option like the English Ms.