The following are the top stories in the local and international press today.
All newspapers in Malta report on the arraignment yesterday of Libyan Nizar Mustafa Al-Gadi, who has been charged with his partner Margaret Mifsud’s murder.
In another story, The Sunday Times says that the draft law regulating IVF treatment locally has kicked up a storm among Malta’s medical community, with opinion split as to whether the fertilisation method to be used will actually work.
It-Torca says that €750,000 will be spent on a private rental for Dolores Cristina’s ministry to remain in Valletta. Austin Gatt’s ministry, it says, shall be moving to the Millennia in Marsa. In another story it says that a government is still shaky as MP Franco Debono insists he will not vote with a government that has Austin Gatt in cabinet.
Malta Today says that government spending in 2012 has reached electoral levels. It says that €90 million or 10 per cent more than last year have been spent in the first six months of this year. It also speaks to doctor Josie Muscat who says that the IVF law will send couples abroad.
Illum reports on three new cases of abuse at Wasteserv running into millions of euros. In another story it quotes MP Franco Debono saying that the Nationalist Party has become bigger than the state and the people.
Kullhadd says that free water and electricity is being given to yacht owners in Tigne. It also continues to report on the removal of Mepa auditor Joe Falzon.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says that the IVF clinic at Mater Dei has been given the green light five years after its completion. In another story it reports about a scarcity of job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Il-Mument says it is the 10th anniversary of when Labour leader Joseph Mucat gave his advice to Icelanders. It also quotes the Prime Minister saying that the IVF law promotes life.
The international press
Al Jazeera reports several districts of Syria’s biggest city Aleppo have come under heavy bombardment in what rebels describe as a “government offensive to flush them out”. Helicopters were reported to have fired into the Salah al-din district but the rebels said they had prevented tanks from entering the area. Residents took refuge in basements or left the city for the countryside. Pro-government Al Watan has warned that “the mother of all battles” loomed in Aleppo. The battle for the city of 2.5 million people is seen as a crucial test for a government that has committed major military resources to holding control of its two main power centres, Aleppo in the north and the capital Damascus.
The international envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has expressed concern over the reported build-up of troops and heavy weapons around Aleppo. Daily Star says he called for urgent efforts to push the Syrian government and opposition to work towards a peaceful transition. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavroff said a tragedy was brewing in Aleppo but denied speculation that Moscow would offer asylum to President Bashar al-Assad if he chose to leave Syria.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has rejected talk of a possible application from Spain for the eurozone’s bailout fund to buy the struggling country’s bonds. He told Welt am Sonntag that Spain’s short-term financing needs were “not so big” and that talk of the country making an application the European Financial Stability Facility to buy bonds was “speculation”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has lashed out at the European Union for failing to solve the bloc's economic crisis – a day after calling for a new economic system. AFP reports Orban told several thousand supporters during a visit to the prominent Hungarian minority in neighbouring Romania that Brussels was “the main obstacle to finding ways to resolve the economic problems”. He said they waste weeks defining the size of chicken cages, forcing farmers to put toys in pigsties, worrying that the peace of a goose's soul was an important European issue while hundreds of thousands of citizens lose their jobs, watch their financial system collapse and feel it was getting harder and harder to survive.
Asia Times announces that Chinese officials have scrapped an industrial waste project after more than a thousand protesters took to the streets over fears of pollution from a sewage pipeline at a paper factory in eastern China and clashed with police in the latest in a series of environmental protests. The protestors overturned two cars and ransacked local government offices in the coastal city of Qidong, near Shanghai.
The Standard quotes the Kenyan Red Cross said more than 20,000 Ethiopians have crossed into Kenya to escape clashes caused by a land dispute between two ethnic groups. Ethiopian forces were said to have intervened to hold the fighting but people continued to cross the border.
The Mail reports a thousand-year-old pot of gold coins has been found hidden under the floor of a 13th century Crusader castle in Israel on the spot where Richard the Lionheart defeated Saladin's army in September. The 108 ancient coins, one of the biggest collections found in Israel, are mainly dinars dating to the Fatimid Period of between 900 and 1100 AD.
China Car Times says that Chinese driver has been sent a bill for €20.5 million for the repair work of a bridge which collapsed as he drove his truck over it. The truck filled with sand was so overloaded that the concrete bridge collapsed when he took his lorry across.
Kyiv Post reports Andrei Schevcenko has announced his retirement from football to begin a career in politics. The Ukrainian earned his reputation as one of Europe's most prolific strikers in two successful spells with AC Milan. During his combined time with the Rossoneri, he scored 175 goals in 322 appearances and helped them lift the Champions League in 2002-03 and the Serie A title the following season. His two stints with Milan sandwiched a three-year spell at Chelsea. Shevchenko also won five league trophies with Dynamo having started – and now ended – his there. He is the all-time leading goalscorer with Ukraine's national team, netting 48 goals in 111 matches.