The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports that prison warders who were found skiving have not been suspended. It also reports how the President vowed no political speeches.
The Malta Independent and In-Nazzjon pick up on the same story. In-Nazzjon’s focus is on a subsequent statement by the PN, saying the president’s comments confirmed how the president was forced to make a political speech.
l-orizzont says it has been confirmed that no funds had been allocated for education schemes.
The overseas press
Senior advisers to Chancellor Angela Merkel are pushing for better-off households to pay towards the cost of any future bail-outs for the weaker members of the single currency. The Daily Telegraph reports that the proposals, from members of Germany’s council of economic experts known as the “Five Wise Men”, raise the prospect of taxes being imposed on property in a country which is forced to seek a bail-out. The German suggestion is the latest sign that Berlin is intent on imposing even tougher rules on weaker southern euro members in exchange for using its economic might to support their finances.
Meanwhile, a new political party – the Alternative for Germany Party – has been officially launched in Berlin, calling for the “orderly dissolution of the euro” and the return of some sovereignty from the EU to the member states. The party, created by economists and professors dissatisfied with the euro, claims to have already received 7,000 membership applications. Party spokesman Bernd Lucke told Bild that a “double digit result is realistic” in September's general elections. He rejected the idea of a coalition with other parties.
Cyprus Mail says the government is to relax its citizenship rules for foreign investors who lost at least €3 million under an EU bailout deal. Speaking at a Russian business conference in Limassol, President Nicos Anastasiades said new measures would be approved at a cabinet meeting today. Russians investors, who have billions of euros in Cypriot bank deposits, were angered when it emerged they would lose up to 60 pr cent of their savings under the terms of the bailout.
According to NBC, the United States and Japan have offered new talks with North Korea to resolve the increasingly dangerous stand-off over its nuclear and missile programmes, but said the reclusive communist government first must lower tensions and honour previous agreements. US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters North Korea had a clear course of action available to it, and would find “ready partners” in the United States if it follows through. Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was more explicit, saying that North Korea must honour its commitment to earlier deals regarding its nuclear and missile programmes and on returning kidnapped foreigners.
Associated Press quotes a Libyan security official saying the leader of an Islamic extremist militia, suspected of involvement in an attack in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador, has been shot. Sufyan bin Qumu, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, was shot Sunday in the area of al-Thruwn in the eastern city of Darna, a stronghold of Islamic extremists. He was taken to a nearby hospital and is in the intensive care unit. No suspects have been named in the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
A meeting of the Arab Labour Organisation, which is affiliated to the 22-member Arab League, opens today in the Algerian capital. The Economic Times says ministers from the region, experts and trade union representatives are to discuss ways of tackling unemployment, which last year rose to 16 per cent or 20 million. ALO chief Ahmed Mohamed Luqman said the upheavals that swept the Arab world in 2011 and 2012 had caused the rise, particularly because of a plunge in foreign investments and the number of tourists visiting the region.
AFP quotes a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showing the world spent less on weapons and military services in 2012 than the year before – the first annual drop since 1998. However, despite the overall decrease, driven mainly by budget cuts in the Western countries, China and Russia both boosted military spending last year. Excluding inflation, world military expenditure fell 0.5 per cent to €1.33 trillion. However, China increased its spending by 7.8 per cent, while Russia's spending was up by 16 per cent.
Panapress reports a nine-man suicide squad blasted its way into Mogadishu's main court complex on Sunday, some blowing up their explosives vests while others sprayed gunfire in a rampage that left 29 civilians dead and 58 people injured, while a separate bomb attack killed five more.The Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the courthouse attack. Interior minister Abdikarin Hussein Guled said all the attackers in the courthouse raid were killed.
Reuters reports a campaign by opponents of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to get the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of the British pop charts to celebrate her death has failed, although it did manage to reach second place. The Official Charts Company said 52,605 copies of the song had been sold, but that was about 6,000 shy of the chart-topping track “Need U” by British DJ Duke Dumont and singer A*M*E. Meanwhile, a rival campaign by the former premier's supporters to promote the 1979 single “I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher” by punk band the Notsensibles fared less well, making its debueg in 35th place after sales of 8,768.