The following are the top stories in the national and international press today,
Times of Malta quotes a study saying that the procurement system in place and the management of medicines and medical devices by the Government has to be completely revamped. It also reports about the Israeli caught with a weapon and ammunition in his luggage at Malta International Airport saying that, according to the police the man was “a trustworthy police officer”.
The Malta Independent also reports about the incident and in another story says that the United States is closing its embassies and consulates throughout the Muslim world tomorrow after receiving an unspecified threat.
L-Orizzort interviewed officials who had accompanied Eritrean migrants who were repatriated in 2008. The officials recounted the scenes of terrified migrants at the airport before their departure.The newspaper also reports about a meeting the General Workers’ Union had with the Prime Minister during which the union promised to help the government in the interest of the country.
In-Nazzjon says that drug trafficker Mario Camilleri was killed when Jason Galea, one of the accused, went to him and told him that a woman wanted to speak to him. In another story it says that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat believed the different versions of Minister Manuel Mallia’s declarations of assets.
International news
The United States has issued a worldwide security alert for its citizens following concerns about possible terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda or similar groups. VOA News says the State Department will close almost two dozen embassies and consulates across North Africa and the Middle East on Sunday, generally a day of work in the Arab world. A senior Yemeni national security official told CNN that the government was “on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come”.
Al Jazeera reports UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon has called for calm as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe looked poised to win a seventh term as president after romping to victory in parliamentary polls dismissed as fraudulent by the opposition.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has told his People of Freedom (PdL) Party members that justice reforms must be made or that he would push for elections. Corriere della Sera says Berlusconi maintains he is being persecuted by magistrates after a tax-fraud jail term was upheld by Italy's Supreme Court on Thursday. Meanwhile, Ansa says Berlusconi has until mid-October to decide whether he wants his tax-fraud sentence transformed into community service or house arrest.
The next session of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will be held in Israel next week and a first group of Palestinian prisoners will be freed by then. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator, told Israel's Channel 10 TV that the parties had agreed on alternating venues for talks in initial meetings with the first to be held in Israel.
Al Ahram reports supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi are refusing to leave two protest sites in Cairo despite warnings that authorities will soon enforce a blockade.
Pope Francis called for “mutual respect” between Christianity and Islam and an end to “unfair criticism”. Avvenire reports that in a personal message congratulating Muslims on the feast of Eid al-Fitr, he said “mutual respect is fundamental in any human relationship”.
A team of Turkish archaeologists claim to have found, during excavations on the site of a church of the seventh century in Sinop on the Black Sea, a stone box containing a relic that could be a fragment of the cross of Jesus. Zaman reports the specimen was found in the Church of Balatlar, built around AD660.
Texas Globe reports that stocks of pentobarbital, the drug used for executions are at a low ebb. According to the state’s Department of Criminal Justice, the remaining packs expire in September, and so far they have not been found other alternatives.
TO LET: breasts for gay couples with babies. The announcement, which appeared on the French website e-loue.com, was published by a young new mother who is willing to nurse the children of same-sex couples.
Russian anti-gay laws will not be applied to the guests and athletes of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, the flagship of Vladimir Putin. Ria Novosti quotes Ananskikh Igor, deputy chairman of the Duma Committee for Sport, contradicting the controversy which erupted yesterday after the Russian Minister of Sport, Vitali Mutkho, had declared that the athletes and enthusiasts who “flaunt” their sexuality during the Russian Games would be prosecuted.