The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how a jailed drug dealer has filed an appeal after it resulted that the charge sheet had a date error.
The Malta Independent says the gap between VAT revenue and potential revenue in Malta is one of the lowest in the EU.
In-Nazzjon says the PN is being strengthened in order to give new vision for the country. The comment was made by Simon Busuttil yesterday.
l-orizzont leads with comments by GWU General Secretary Tony Zarb of how big firms are exploiting workers by engaging them through sub-contractors instead of employing them. It also says needless medical tests on Vince Farrugia cost taxpayers €2,000.
The overseas press
Pope Francis has warned that the Roman Catholic Church will “fall like a house of cards” if it continues to obsess about issues such as abortion, gay marriage and contraception. In an in-depth interview with Civiltà Cattolica, an Italian Jesuit journal, the Pope urged “mercy” for homosexuals, divorced people and women who have abortions, saying the Catholic Church had to show understanding for the real conditions of people's lives.
AFP quotes EU Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta saying EU countries lose nearly €200 billion in sales-tax revenue every year due to fraud and errors. According to a commission study which covered 26 of the EU's current 28 members, a staggering 193 billion euros was missed by tax authorities in 2011. The findings, which were first leaked to French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday, have been bitterly contested in some European capitals with an unnamed official in Paris telling the newspaper the work was “not serious”.
The Syrian conflict has reached a stalemate and President Assad's government will call for a ceasefire at a long-delayed conference in Geneva on the state's future. Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil has said in an interview with The Guardian that neither side was strong enough to win the conflict, which has lasted two years and caused the death of more than 100,000 people.
The Washington Times reports US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged the UN General Assembly to move swiftly to approve a US-Russia deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons. In an indirect reference to comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kerry said there was no time to argue with those who remain unconvinced that Syrian president Bashar Assad’s government carried out a chemical attack last month. Kerry also called on China to play a “constructive and positive role” during the drawing up of the UN Security Council resolution on Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons. His Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, said he would approach “in-depth” talks on all issues, including Syria, “with an open mind”.
Iranian President Hassan Rowhani has said his government was ready to “help facilitate dialogue” between the Syrian government and the opposition. In a column for The Washington Post, he wrote that “We must create an atmosphere where peoples of the region can decide their own fates.”
Environmental group Greenpeace has claimed that armed Russian officers had stormed its ship protesting oil exploration in the Arctic and detained all its crew in a locked room. Activist Faiza Oulahsen called AFP from Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise icebreaker and said the crew had been locked in the ship's mess. The group said its activists would hold a protest this morning outside Gazprom's Moscow offices – the world's largest gas company which risks causing a catastrophic oil spill in an area with three nature reserves that are home to polar bears, walruses and rare seabirds.
Scientists believe they have found the first evidence of life arriving to Earth from space, which could “completely change our view of biology and evolution”. The Evening Standard says team, from the University of Sheffield, made the discovery after sending a balloon high into the stratosphere. On its return they found organisms that were too large to have originated from Earth. Professor Milton Wainwright, who led the team, said the results could be revolutionary.
The Wall Street Journal says a New York skyscraper has been seized by US authorities who believe it is secretly owned by the Iranian government. Prosecutors allege that the rental income on the Manhattan tower block, said to be 650 Fifth Ave or the Piaget building by the Washington Post, was secretly channelled to Iran's state-owned bank. The US justice department has described the seizure as the “largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture”. The Alavi foundation which is registered as owner of the building said it would appeal the seizure.
The Guardian says 54 members of UEFA are backing Qatar’s proposal to move the 2022 World Cup to the winter to avoid temperatures of up to 50ºC. Fifa is believed to favour moving it to November and concluding before Christmas, avoiding a clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics at the start of the year and concluding in time for the traditional English Christmas programme. But UEFA is likely to back playing the tournament in January in order to avoid a clash with its lucrative Champions League group stages. FIFA is likely to ratify the decision to move to the winter in principle at a meeting of its executive committee early next month in Zurich.