The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says about three people are admitted to hospital every day after harming themselves. It also reports the arraignment over 49 charges including five attempted murders of convicted criminal Darrin Debono, known as it-Topo, who is serving time over a botched robbery.
The Malta Independent says Health and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has succeeded President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as the best performing member of cabinet.
l-Orizzont says that a man who last May started serving a two year jail term for abusing his daughter filed an urgent application in Court requesting release yesterday when his former wife was arrested and accused of being the mind behind their daughter’s testimony.
In-Nazzjon says that the Nationalist Party managed to reach its aim of electing the third Member of the European Parliament.
International news
Ansa reports Geert Wilders has said his Dutch far-right Freedom Party, Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, France’s National Front (FN), Belgium’s regionalist Vlaams Belang and Austria’s right-wing FPO were “making history” by joining forces in a bid to forge a new political bloc in the European Parliament.
Libyan warplanes bombed militia bases in Benghazi yesterday as part of a renegade former general's campaign to purge the chaotic North African state of militants, witnesses and officials said. A Reuters witness and an air force official said two jets attacked a base belonging to the February 17 brigade, one of the Islamist-leaning armed groups operating in Benghazi, and an Ansar al-Sharia militant base in the west of the city.
CNN says President Obama has been outlining his vision for future American foreign policy.
Fox News quotes US Secretary of State John Kerry calling the fugitive American intelligence analyst Edward Snowden “a traitor and a coward” for not facing American justice.
France 24 says four more girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in April have escaped their captors.
Huryiet reports Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that 134 children had been kidnapped by the PKK rebel group.
Italy’s health ministry is seeking €1.2 billion in compensation from Swiss pharma giants Novartis and Roche for the manipulation of sales of a cheap drug used to treat eye problems. Sole 24 Ore says the ministry’s move came after Italy’s antitrust body fined the two firms €182.5 million over their “illicit deal to prevent the use of a very cheap drug, Avastin, in treating” sight problems. Novartis has rejected the anti-competition accusations.
Huffington Post reports that for the fourth year in a row, German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the Forbes list of the world's 100 most powerful women. After Merkel, the top four most powerful women in order are Janet Yellen, Melinda Gates, President Dilma Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde.
Times says President Obama has led the tributes to Maya Angelou, describing the poet, author and activist as “one of the brightest lights of our time”.
USA Today announces the death of Malcolm Glazer, the billionaire Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner who led a controversial takeover of Manchester United in 2005. He was 86.