The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta leads with a report about the case of Nicky Azzopardi, a 22-year-old PN employee, who yesterday claimed he was accosted by former Nationalist MPs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlano and Franco Debono. The newspaper says Mr Azzopardi has filed a police report about the incident. In another story, it quotes scientist Edward Mallia saying that gas flaring at the Marsascala recycling plant happened in the past and no one in authority bothered to flag the issue.
The Malta Independent also reports on the incident involving Mr Azzopardi saying the PN has expressed solidarity with its employee. In another story, it reports Prime Minister Joseph Muscat saying that past mismanagement in the state health systems’ procurement of medicines verged on the criminal.
L-Orizzont also reports Dr Muscat’s speech saying he compared the way the health system was being administered under the previous administration to a headless chicken. In another story, it says that the PN is determined to reduce its employees by half, to around 60, and stop all its part-time workers with immediate effect.
In-Nazzjon says the Prime Minister has requested a public inquiry about the Rabat incident involving a PN worker. It also reports a PN statement stating that the government did not have a roadmap for the country.
International news
The Wall Street Journal reports the State Department has extended the closure of many American embassies in the Middle East by a week and has shuttered additional diplomatic missions, underscoring what US officials said was the continued threat posed by al Qaeda and its affiliates.
HSBC is closing the accounts of foreign diplomats in Britain and giving them 60 days to move their money. AFP says more than 40 embassies and consulates are said to have been affected, with the decision being described as creating “havoc” in the diplomatic corps. The Mail on Sunday, which broke the story, said one diplomat told them he thought the bank feared being exposed to embassies after being caught up in a costly money laundering scandal.
Avvenire quotes Pope Francis saying youth are suffering from the lack of meaning and values surrounding them.
Tripoli Post says Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Awad al-Barasi has tendered his resignation on the grounds of having been given insufficient power to carry out his duties.
Global Post reports international unease is mounting over the re-election of Africa’s oldest leader Robert Mugabe in polls denounced by Zimbabwe’s opposition as “stolen”.
Il Tempo says a defiant Silvio Berlusconi has told a cheering crowd of thousands that he is innocent of tax fraud despite a ruling by Italy’s high court confirming his guilt and four-year jail term. Mr Berlusconi told supporters that he would not resist criticising the judges who made the ruling last week, and declared: “I will say to my so-called judges: I am innocent.”
Britain's Foreign Office says it is “concerned” over comments made by Spain's Foreign Minister in which he warned the “party is over” when it comes to his country's policy on Gibraltar. José Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he was considering retaliatory measures towards the British territory, including a 50-euro border crossing fee, amid a dispute over an artificial reef being created by the Gibraltarians. He told ABC the proceeds would be used to help Spanish fisherman who have lost out because of damage to fishing grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities.
The Los Angeles Times says police have arrested a man on suspicion of murder after a driver ploughed into crowds at the Venice Beach boardwalk, a seemingly intentional hit-and-run that killed an Italian woman on her honeymoon and injured 12 others.
The mother of Simon Cowell’s unborn baby turned to him because she was lonely. Lauren Silverman, the estranged wife of the 53-year-old music mogul’s friend Andrew Silverman, is 10 weeks pregnant with Simon’s child. Lauren’s stepfather, Stewart Eisenberg, insists her marriage was on the rocks because her husband was often away on business. He told MailOnline: “I think he (Cowell) is smitten and overwhelmed by Lauren as she is with him. She was not too happy in her marriage and got swept away.”