The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports that the former Libyan Prime Minister did not seek political asylum when he stopped briefly in Malta after fleeing his country late on Tuesday. It also says in another story that Senglea is one of the most densely populated towns in the world.
The Malta Independent reports how a father won a paternity victory after a DNA check. It also reports that a teenager who was hospitalised last year has now snapped out of a coma.
l-orizzont reports how a man is under investigation for a false signature on a Customs document.
In-Nazzjon says Marlene Farrugia yesterday agreed with the Opposition that the parliamentary Environment Planning Committee should discuss the environment impact assessment of the new power station.
The overseas press
Satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight have been released on a Chinese government website. China's official Xinhua news agency says the three images, the largest of which measures about 24m x 22m, show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea east of Malaysia and off the southern tip of Vietnam. The images were taken on Sunday, a day after the plane disappeared with 239 people on board, but were only released on Wednesday.
VOA News says President Obama has warned Russia to end its intervention in Ukraine’s Crimea region or face sanctions. Speaking at the White House after talks with the interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Obama said one country could not dictate to another at the barrel of a gun. Yatsenyuk said his country would never surrender.
Meanwhile, Euronews says the leaders of the G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission have announced they would not acknowledge the result of the Crimea’s referendum on secession. A statement condemned Russia’s “clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
Following wire tappings by the US National Security Agency, the European parliament has approved stricter laws concerning the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European Union. El Europeo says the new rules are aimed at guaranteeing citizens full control over their personal data while also facilitating the circulation of business data within the EU. MEPs would also like to increase fines for companies not respecting the rules, bringing them to five per cent of their global turnover.
Il Tempo writes Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has presented 10 billion euros in income tax cuts, saying it was a move of a “historic dimension”. He said the cuts would take effect from May and would benefit “10 million Italians” who will have €80 a month more net in their pay packets on average. The cuts would not be covered by increases in other taxes. Renzi said he would “quit politics” if he failed to push through a reform stripping the Senate of its lawmaking powers and turning it into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives. His government is set to present a bill on the reform in parliament within two weeks.
Israeli military planes have bombarded the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel. Haaretz quotes an Israeli spokesman saying 29 sites in Gaza were targeted. One air strike caused power cuts across Gaza city. Hours earlier, the militant group Islamist Jihad carried out the heaviest barrage of southern Israel for more than a year.
Hurriyet says two people have been killed during mass protests around the country that followed the funeral of a teenager caught up in earlier demonstrations last June. The protests ere prompted by the death on Tuesday of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who spent nine months in a coma after being hit by a tear gas canister as he went to buy bread in Istanbul.
Fox News reports that a court in New York has dismissed charges against an Indian diplomat whose arrest and strip search last December sparked a diplomatic row between India and the United States. The District Court in Manhattan ruled that Devyani Khobragade had diplomatic immunity when she was indicted on charges of visa fraud.
The Mail & Guardian says Oscar Pistorius’s defence lawyer on Wednesday forced police to admit they had mishandled key evidence, as the Olympian battled to discredit forensics that could prove he lied about the night his girlfriend was killed. In his testimony Colonel Gerhard Vermeulen admitted the toilet door in the athlete’s apartment was not handled with care and potentially important evidence was missed at the crime scene, which could have far-reaching consequences for the prosecution’s case.
Three people have died and nine are missing after a gas leak sparked an explosion which levelled two buildings in the East Harlem neighbourhood of New York. USA Today says scores of others have been injured in the incident, which sent smoke billowing into the city sky. Mainline train services in and out of Grand Central terminal were suspended as a result of the incident next to its tracks.
A study released today in the United States concludes that the lucrative underground commercial sex economy in eight large US metropolitan areas brings in anywhere from $40 million annually to as much as nearly $300 million. The Los Angeles Times said the unprecedented 340-page study by the Urban Institute, a policy research group, finds that the reach of the Internet has facilitated the flesh trade and made it harder to combat. Researchers found that in seven of the eight cities, the commercial sex trade had a combined estimated annual cash value of $975.3 million. And, they said the recruitment and pimping of women is no longer just a man’s world.