The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Times quotes an NSO publication “Gozo in Figures”, which says that Gozitan households are €2,000 poorer than the Maltese. In another story, the newspaper says that 11 thefts from Mater Dei hospital had been reported this year by the end of June.
l-Orizzont publishes e-mails exchanged between Mepa officials which it said confirmed that certain people had been marked to fill a position before the call for applications had been issued.
The Malta Independent reports about the setting up of half-way house for people suffering from eating disorders. It also reports on the MUT proposals for the election which include a warning that extending school hours can have a negative effect.
in-Nazzjon says that shooter William Chetcuti will be taking part in the Olympic Games today. It also says that that the National Council of Women supported the recently published bill on IVF.
The international press
Ansa quotes Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti saying Italy might need to ask for European rescue funds to be used to support its bonds if the money markets continued to be slow to see the country's efforts to put its economic house in order. After meeting Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen in Helsinki, Monti stressed the use of the so-called “spread shield” would not mean that Italy would need a full-blown bailout. He urged his European counterparts to work collectively to lower borrowing costs across the region. Monti meets Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today to discuss stepping up efforts to resolve the eurozone crisis. Their meeting will coincide with a session of the ECB, its first meeting since ECB President Mario Draghi cheered markets and heightened expectations after pledging he would do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.
Kathimerini says Greek political leaders have agreed to €11.5 billion of austerity cuts demanded under its bailout terms – opening the way for a deal with foreign lenders within the month. The junior partners in the conservative-led coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras set aside demands for an immediate renegotiation of the terms of the deal to ease talks with the troika of IMF and EU lenders.
Andreas Treichel, the chief executive of Austria’s regional influential Erste Bank, has recommended the Czech Republic stay out of the crisis-struck eurozone until its escalating debt problems were resolved. Treichl told the Czech Hospodarske Noviny that instead of drawing closer, eurozone states had grown apart in recent years in terms of their economic development. Erste Bank is Austria’s biggest lender and a specialist in Eastern Europe economic affairs.
Al Jazeera reports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the army's battle with rebel forces would determine the fate of his country, and praised soldiers for confronting "criminal terrorist gangs". In a written statement marking Armed Forces Day, Assad said the army was waging a "heroic" battle against the enemy and that the country was engaged in a "crucial battle for its destiny".
The US State Department has called the Syrian president a coward for marshaling his forces from the pages of the army's official magazine.CBS News says Assad’s written call to arms only deepened a mystery over his whereabouts two weeks after a bomb penetrated his inner circle, killing four of his top security officials during a rebel assault on Damascus. The president's low profile had raised questions about whether he fears for his personal safety as the civil war escalates dramatically.
Human rights activists have condemned the public shooting in Syria of four apparent Assad loyalists by rebels in the battleground city of Aleppo. Video posted online shows the men, who included the alleged head of a feared local militia, being put up against a wall and shot with Kalashnikov rifles. Human Rights Watch has told the BBC the act was potentially a war crime.
Haaretz reports US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has assured Israel that the US would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. In Israel to highlight security ties between the two countries, Panetta said if Iran decided to proceed with a nuclear weapon, the US would work to stop it becoming a reality. Israel has also made clear that all options were on the table, but Panetta says diplomacy should be given more time.
USA Today says blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng , who is in the United States after escaping house arrest, has urged Washington to investigate his case. Speaking after meetings in the US Congress, Chen accused Beijing of breaking its promise that it would not punish his family in China. Chen was jailed after exposing abuses in China's one-child policy.
Canberra News reports Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith has flatly rejected a proposal to expand a naval base in Perth to accommodate US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier groups. Smith said while increased US access to the Stirling base was on the cards in the long term, American aircraft carrier groups – including submarines, destroyers and fighter jets – would not be based in Australia.
Metro says Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing has pleaded guilty to delaying the burial of his wife after her body lay rotting at their London mansion for two months. The 49-year-old millionaire said he had been unable to “confront the reality” of the death of his US-born wife Eva and tried to act as if it had not happened. Sentence will be delivered at a later date.
Sky News reports Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo has been named the greatest film of all time in the once-in-a-decade survey held by the British Film Institute (BFI) Sight & Sound magazine, knocking Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane off the top spot for the first time in 50 years. Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story was third ahead of Jean Renoir's La Regle Du Jeu. Other films in the top 10 include Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and John Ford's classic 1956 western The Searchers.