The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Sunday Times of Malta reports that Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca is carrying out routine eye operations against payment in clear breach of the special waiver from the ministerial code of ethics he was granted by the Prime Minister. It also reports the Police Commissioner saying he believed there was insufficient evidence to charge former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli with a criminal offence.
Torca reports that Italian architect Giovanni Trevisan has filed a judicial protest claiming that parts of the City Gate project were copied from plans and designs he gave the government in 2008.
Maltatoday says the Maltese courts have frozen the properties and bank accounts of multi-millionaire Rakhat Aliyev. The courts also impounded his yacht as the Attorney General requested a money laundering investigation.
Il-Mument says that relapser Ian Farrugia is among those who left prison after benefitting from the amnesty given by the government. In another story it says that the management of St Vincent de Paul Home for the Elderly has been taken over by a gang of Labour activists with 90 transfers already being given.
Illum says Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella was disappointed at the way Air Malta was managed in the past years. He tells the newspaper he could not say he was happy with CEO Peter Davies. The newspaper says that new PN leader Simon Busuttil was refusing to condemn blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia for her writings.
Kullhadd says that former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has spent his first weeks in Opposition ‘in denial’.
The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that non-governmental organisations have hit out at the planning authority’s renewal of a permit for the construction of the island’s tallest building in Gzira.
The international press
At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others injured during clashes which broke out during a demonstration in front of the headquarters of a militia in Benghazi. According to the BBC website, dozens of people were participating in the protest to demand the dissolution of the Shield Brigade, a militia of former rebels who claims to be acting with the authorisation of the Ministry of Defence.
China and the United States have agreed to scale back production of “super greenhouse gases” used in refrigerators and air conditioners in a joint bid to fight climate change. CNN reports the two nations made the pledge after a closely watched first summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, who lead the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for the planet's increasingly volatile climate.
Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper has criticised the news media for what he called a “rush to publish” information based on “reckless” leaks about the government surveillance tool PRISM. Politico quotes him saying the programmes were both longstanding and well-known to Congress, which he said was briefed twice a year about the surveillance activities approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.
The British Justice Secretary has launched an outspoken attack on the “mad” policy agenda of the European Commission, accusing it of putting jobs and growth at risk. The Sunday Telegraph says Chris Grayling’s comments follow the latest chapter in a long-running row over moves by Brussels to reform data protection laws for the first time since 1995.
Turkish police again used tear gas and water cannons late Saturday to disperse 5,000 people demonstrating in the centre of Ankara on the ninth day of nationwide protests against the conservative Islamic regime. Gazete Oku reports hundreds of riot police flooded the demonstrators with gas to dislodge them from Kizilay Square, the scene of week-long anti-government protests, after they refused to disperse and blocked traffic.
The Irish Times says some 40,000 anti-abortion campaigners took to the streets of Dublin yesterday, urging the Government to scrap its plans for new abortion laws.
Mail & Guardian reports the South African presidency has confirmed that former president Nelson Mandela was breathing on his own after being admitted to hospital due to a lung infection.
Rock icon Elton John has urged compassion for people who inject drugs, saying “stigma and criminalisation” robbed them of their humanity and exposed them to a life of addiction and disease. Speaking to AFP in an e-mail exchange ahead of an International Harm Reduction Conference opening in Vilnius, Lithuania, today, Elton John blasted politicians who, he said, appealed to selfishness rather than compassion.
ABC reports Australia’s New South Wales shop owners have been warned to clear their shelves of synthetic drugs or face fines of up to €720,000. The government is banning the sale of several synthetic drugs for 90 days following the death of a Sydney teenager.