The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
All the national newspapers today lead with yesterday’s find of the body of a young woman in Paceville.
The Times also reports about a cyclist hit by a bendy bus on the Coast Road, with the driver not even realising there had been an accident. In another story, it reports about a court expert who left Malta leaving security tapes behind in a rival company's office.
Malta Today says that Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil said that that Joseph Muscat had spoken to him when he was MEP and told him about the Mistra issue. Joseph Muscat denied he had ever said the MP was Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The Malta Independent says that work on the interconnector between Malta and Sicily is on schedule. In another story it quotes the Prime Minister saying that 82 per cent of students are continuing to study once they complete obligatory education.
l-Orizzont quotes GWU general secretary Tony Zarb insisting during a business breakfast that political parties should implement what they promise and that the case of the last elections where workers were made promises in personalised letters which were then forgotten should not be repeated.
In-Nazzjon reports about the inauguration of the breakwater bridge. In another story, general secretary Paul Borg Olivier continues to insist that Joseph Muscat was the PN’s source regarding Mistra.
The international press
The Daily Mail reports that the eurozone was back on the brink last night as Spain edged towards a financial disaster that could tear the single currency apart. The newspaper quotes analysts saying Spain’s huge economy was at a ‘tipping point’ and would inevitably need international aid. In a sign that Europe’s debt crisis was deepening, Italy’s borrowing costs edged higher, Greece was facing a 1930s-style depression and its austerity measures were said to be faltering. Additionally, ratings agencies threatened to strip Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg of their AAA credit ratings because of the risk of the crisis spreading.
Al Jazeera reports Syrian army helicopters and fighter jets have bombed Aleppo as they battled rebels trying to enlarge their foothold in the country's second city, forcing residents to flee. Residents said fighter jets were flying over some rebel-held neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the agency has learnt that the Syrian charge d'affaires to Cyprus, Lamia al-Hariri, has defected – becoming the second diplomat to leave her post this mmonth. Al-Hariri's defection on Tuesday brought to three the number of senior diplomats to quit the embattled government.
A commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned Arab countries not to intervene in Syria, threatening them with retaliation if they do. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, also a spokesman of the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying that the regime of Bashar al-Assad has friends in the region poised to "strike out", particularly at the "hated Arabs". Jazayeri did not name any country in particular. Saudi Arabia and Qatar support Syrian rebels, while Iran is a key ally of Assad.
Under the heading “Murdoch’s finest brought to trial”, The Independent announces David Cameron's former media chief Andy Coulson and former News of the World executive Rebekah Brooks were among eight charged with phone hacking offences. They both face charges of conspiring to intercept communications. The alleged offences were committed when both Brooks and Coulson were News of the World editors. Six other senior former News of the World journalists and staff have also been charged. The maximum sentence for the charges is two years in prison and/or a fine
Accra Daily Mail leads with the death of the President of Ghana John Atta Mills. He was 68 and had been suffering from throat cancer. Atta Mills was president from 2009. Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has been sworn in to serve the rest of Atta Mills’ term before elections scheduled for next December.
Fuji TV reports Japan's government has ordered an investigation into claims that workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were told to lie about their radiation exposure. An executive for a subcontractor at the shattered nuclear plant allegedly told employees to cover their radiation readers with a lead casing while working in high contamination areas. The move was aimed at under-reporting workers' exposure to radiation so that they would be able to work at the site for longer. Some of the workers refused, and resigned.
Pravda says villagers in Russia's south Urals have discovered four barrels containing 248 human foetuses left in a forest – a few kilometres away from a highway. Police in the Sverdlovsk region said the foetuses, preserved in formaldehyde, were kept in barrels with tags containing surnames and numbers. Police suspects that one of the four local hospitals was responsible for dumping the barrels.
Prosecutors in Sicily are seeking to put a handful of former ministers, lawmakers and law enforcement officials on trial for allegedly making deals with the Mafia during the bloody attacks against the state in the early 1990s. La Repubblica reports prosecutors signed a request for a judge to indict 12 people, saying some of the accused former government officials negotiated with the mob or exerted pressure to lighten their prison sentences. They have denied wrongdoing.
Il Tempo says Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict's former butler who was arrested two months ago in an investigation of leaks of documents alleging corruption in the Vatican, has written to the pontiff asking for forgiveness. Lawyer Carlo Fusco said he expected a Vatican magistrate to formally close an investigation and order Gabriele to stand trial on charges of aggravated theft. It carries a sentence of up to six years in jail under the law of the world's smallest city-state.
People magazine reports that the chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan carrying Katie Holmes and daughter Suri was rammed in the rear yesterday by a turning garbage truck. No one was hurt in the latest mishap, though Suri was reported to be in tears. The incident to what New York magazine has dubbed "The Most Important Car in New York", comes just about three weeks after Holmes' filed for divorce from Tom Cruise and getting an apartment in New York City... and just four days since Holmes' and Suri's car was hit by a paparazzi vehicle last Friday.
The BBC says that the organisers of the London Olympics have promised “a magical atmosphere” when the games begin on Friday. Presenting the final report before the games, the chairman of the organising committee Sebastian Coe described the last seven years as “an extraordinary journey”. Big Ben will chime 40 times in three minutes on Friday morning to ring in the Olympics.