The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says Malta is to extradite an alleged war criminal to Croatia.
The Malta Independent claims ministers have been called to Castille amid preparations for a Cabinet reshuffle.
In-Nazzjon says pressure is being placed on some pharmacists to serve patients in the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme before others.
l-orizzont asks if Godfrey Farrugia will replace Marie-Louise Coleiro at the Social Policy Ministry.
The overseas press
The Los Angeles Times reports Ukraine’s acting prime minister has appealed to the UN Security Council and Russia’s ambassador to the world body to end the “military aggression” against the Crimean peninsula that threatens to plunge the two former Soviet republics into war. Arseny Yatsenyuk urged Moscow to return its troops to barracks and negotiate an end to the crisis. He switched from English to Russian to appeal directly to Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, asking him whether his nation really wanted war with Ukraine. Churkin responded by reminding the council that Ukraine’s new interim leaders had failed to fulfill the terms of a February 21 agreement that put an end to months of violence that took scores of lives in Kiev.
Deutsche Welle says the Kremlin has reportedly dropped its opposition to the deployment of a 100-person international observer mission in Crimea and agreed to support an OSCE observer mission. Word from Vienna of a positive Russian shift on the OSCE observer mission came after Western leaders stepped up pressure on the Kremlin earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Russia has conducted military exercises near the Ukrainian border, while Kiev has voted to establish a new national guard. And at least one person has been killed and more than a dozen injured in clashes between hundreds of pro- and anti-government protesters in Donetsk.
Australia’s ABC TV reports the Malaysian authorities have denied a media report that missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continued flying for several hours after it last made contact, and say satellite photos released by a Chinese state agency “do not show any debris”. Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein used a press conference to debunk earlier reports from the Wall Street Journal which cited two security sources saying the plane could have flown four hours longer than initially thought. Search teams have been scouring a vast area of ocean around the Malay Peninsula where the plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.
Ali Zeidan, who was ousted as prime minister by Libya’s parliament this week, has told France 24 that the parliamentary no-confidence vote that deposed him was “falsified”. After the vote Zeidan fled to Germany via Malta, while Libya’s General National Congress named Defence Minister Abdullah al-Thani to serve as caretaker prime minister. Parliament voted to oust the premier on Tuesday after a tanker loaded with crude oil set off from the rebel-held port of Es Sider and evaded navy attempts to halt it.
The Washington Times reports US House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday invited Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress – an unprecedented event – during an expected visit to the United States next year. Francis, who yesterday marked the first anniversary of his election as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, is widely expected to travel to Philadelphia in September 2015 to attend the World Meeting of Families. While Pope John Paul II visited Washington in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI visited the US capital in 2008, there is no record of a pontiff ever addressing Congress.
The Daily Express says late Princess Diana leaked a Royal phone directory to the now defunct News of the World tabloid to get back at Prince Charles, its former Royal editor has told Britain’s phone-hacking trial. Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007, along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, for hacking into the phones of the Royal household. He is now standing trial accused of making illegal payments to police officers to obtain telephone directories of the Royal household, which he denies. Police found 15 such directories at the 56-year-old’s home when he was arrested in 2006.
According to USA Today, fast-food giant McDonald’s has been accused of systematically stealing workers’ wages through illicit practices like shaved hours and unpaid overtime. Seven class-action lawsuits have been filed in California, Michigan and New York demanding that McDonald’s pay back the stolen wages and end the practices that violate state and federal laws. McDonald’s said the company was currently reviewing the allegations in the lawsuits. The corporation’s shares slid 1.4 per cent to $97.30 in afternoon trade in New York.
Le Parisien reports public transport in Paris will be free for three days – from this morning to Sunday night – in an effort to encourage citizens to leave their cars at home and reduce smog levels. Jean-Paul Huchon, the head of the capital’s transportation authority, warned of “signifcant risks” to Parisians’ health due to the extremely high levels of smog registered in the last few days. Further measures might be implemented if the situation does not improve, such as alternating license plate bans.
A German court has sentenced football legend Uli Hoeness, president of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich, to three and a half years in jail for evading millions in taxes. Die Welt says Hoeness, 62, had admitted to avoiding €27.2 million in taxes by hiding funds in Swiss bank accounts while obsessively “gambling” on stocks and currencies for years. His defence lawyers had argued that he should escape punishment or receive a suspended term because he turned himself in to authorities in January of last year.