The following are the top stories in the national and international press today
Times of Malta says Arriva is paying more than €30,000 per day to replace the temporarily suspended bendy buses on Maltese roads. It reports former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter telling the Public Account Committee that minutes were not taken to ensure no one knew what an oil bid winning price was.
MaltaToday reports Mr Tranter saying he was proud of the decisions he took when he was chairman. The newspaper says that the Government and a Chinese energy firm are in negotiations over a strategic agreement for the energy sector.
L-Orizzont says that the Government is today expected to sign an important and strategic agreement with China on the energy sector.
In-Nazzjon says that the Court will decide in October whether two members of the Commission for the Administration of Justice should abstain or continue to take part in the hearing on an impeachment motion on Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco. In another story it says that the police acted on the arrest of 16 people who were found carrying drugs at a party only after its insistence.
The Malta Independent says that the Armed Forces of Malta were unaware that the dry cargo they helped extinguish on board a vessel last Saturday was an estimated 30 tonnes of cannabis. In another story it says that the European Public Health Alliance has expressed disappointment that the European Parliament has postponed a decision and vote on the Tobacco Products Directive.
International news
The Washington Post reports President Obama has said he would seize one last diplomatic opening to avoid military strikes on Syria but made a forceful case for why the United States must retaliate for its alleged use of chemical weapons if the effort fails. In a nationally-televised address from the White House, Obama cautiously welcomed a Russian proposal that the Government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad give up its entire stockpile of chemical weapons, signaling that he would drop his call for a military assault on the regime if Assad complies.
The BBC says that as new diplomatic divisions emerged over Syria, a UN Security Council meeting was called off at short notice. It was due to discuss Russian proposals to bring Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.
VOA reports that across the United States, Americans are preparing to commemorate the September 11, 2001 deaths of nearly 3,000 people killed when terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
La Tercera says the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has visited Villa Grimaldi, the building where she and her mother were tortured after the coup led by Augusto Pinochet 40 years ago. She called for a full investigation on the human rights abuses committed during Gen Pinochet's rule, saying Chileans had the right to find out what happened to the victims.
Seoul Times reports North and South Korea have agreed to re-open the Kaesong joint industrial zone next Monday. Operations at the complex stopped in April when the North withdrew its workers amid political tension.
USA Today says declassified documents reveal the National Security Agency violated privacy rules for three years when it sifted phone records of Americans with no suspected links to terrorists.
O Globo quotes a parliamentary commission in Brazil investigating spying allegations saying the journalist Glenn Greenwald will be invited to testify next week. Greenwald recently published allegations that US officials monitored communications of the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff and Brazil's oil company Petrobras.
ABC says a UN report has revealed nearly a quarter of men surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region say they've raped a woman at least once in their life.
Times of India says four men have been found guilty of the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in the Indian capital Delhi last December.The four men are expected to be sentenced later today. They face the death penalty.
Sky News announces the resignation of the deputy speaker of Britain's House of Commons, Conservative MP Nigel Evans, over charges of a series of sex crimes. He faces one count of rape, five counts of sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault.
RJ Sports reports German Thomas Bach has been elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee. The 59-year-old lawyer and former fencing gold medallist succeeds 71-year-old Jacques Rogge, who is standing down after 12 years in office.
Meanwhile, newly-elected International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates has told Sydney Herald that Rio De Janeiro “desperately” needs to speed up lagging preparations for the 2016 Olympics.