The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says the PN wants drug users to get help, not court.
The Malta Independent says an 'illegal' developer is San Blas is buying another eight tumoli in the bay.
In-Nazzjon says the government leased a large mobile air conditioner for the hall where a Cabinet meeting was held in Gozo yesterday, instead of opting for another hall. It also reports how 100 promotions have been given in the AFM.
MaltaToday says a magistrate hit out at the Attorney General over unnecessary delays caused by archaic laws.
l-orizzont says the government is planning to declare an exclusive economic zone.
The overseas press
France 24 reports former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation over alleged influence peddling to pervert the course of justice by seeking to obtain inside information from a magistrate about a probe into alleged misdeeds in the financing of his 2007 election campaign. He appeared before a judge around midnight on Tuesday. His lawyer, Thierry Herzog, was also placed under formal investigation as part of the same case. A magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, also appeared before a judge.
Yedioth Ahronoth reports Israel’s security cabinet has again been meeting into the night to discuss the government’s response to the discovery of the bodies of three abducted Israeli teenagers. Before the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again promised to strike at the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas he blames for the killings.
La Republica announces that Italian police have detained five people in an operation in Agrigento, Catania, Milan, Rome and Turin in a probe into the October 3, 2013 migrant boat disaster off Lampedusa that killed 366 people. Four ther arrest warrants were issued but the persons were declared fugitives: two in Africa, one in Sweden and the fourth in Rome.
Ansa quotes the health ministry confirming that a rescued migrant aboard the Italian Navy patrol boat Orione has chickenpox. The patient was flown for treatment to Rome’s Spallanzani hospital. Also yesterday, health authorities in the port city of Salerno found 85 scabies sufferers among 1,044 migrants rescued by the Navy in the Strait of Sicily. And four police officers deployed in Mare Nostrum tested positive for TB during routine screenings over the weekend in the Sicilian port city of Catania, meaning they were exposed to TB bacteria, but not that they are themselves infected or contagious.
Tribune de Genève says the World Health Organisation is holding an emergency meeting in Ghana with West African health ministers to try to curb a rapidly-worsening outbreak of Ebola. More than 450 people have died, the majority of them in southern Guinea. The virus has now spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It’s the biggest number ever of Ebola.
California Globe reports a group of protesters shouting anti-immigration slogans blocked the arrival of two buses carrying a group of 140 undocumented Central American people to a US Border Patrol station in California on Tuesday after they were flown to San Diego from Texas. The mayor of Murietta, Alan Long, said the migrants posed a public safety threat to his community. Police did not attempt to intervene physically to break up the demonstration.
al bawaba reports the leader of the Islamist militant group that seized part of Iraq and northern Syria has urged Muslims worldwide to help build an Islamic state there. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appealed to those with specialist skills, such as scholars, judges, doctors and engineers to immigrate to the “Islamic State”. Al-Baghdadi also swore he would seek revenge for all violations of the rights of Muslims in the world.
Il Tempo says all eight defendants were found guilty yesterday over a prostitution ring involving two girls aged 14 and 15 based in Rome’s posh Parioli neighbourhood. A 38-year-old Roman barman, Mirko Ieni, was given the longest sentence, 10 years, as the ringleader.
The Daily Mirror quotes Wimbledon teenage sensation Nick Kyrgios saying getting angry at his mum thinking he couldn’t beat the world number one inspired his shock victory over 14-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal. The 19-year-old Australian, ranked 144 in the world, said he got all fired up by his Malaysian mother Norlaila thinking he had no chance against the two-time Wimbledon champion. Kyrgios today faces the huge-serving Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic on Court One for a place in the semi-finals.