The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Most national newspapers today lead with yesterday's power outage which left Malta in the dark for a number of hours and also led to flights having to be diverted to Catania.
Times of Malta also says that a day after the government ordered a magisterial inquiry to find out how a car was allowed to block a hospital helipad, it managed to park a vehicle right in the middle of the landing site, completely unhindered.
The Malta Independent, which did not lead with the power outage, says that unless an Appeal Court decision is handed down in the next couple of days and Parliament holds an extraordinary sitting for his impeachment, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco can retire in peace and receive his full pension.
In-Nazzjon says that a call for tenders for cars to be used by the planning authority, which had been extended by e-mail a few minutes before closing time, has been dropped.
L-Orizzont says it was the film Popeye, filmed at Malta's Popeye Village in the 1980s, which pushed Robin Williams forward in his cinematographic career.
International news
CNN reports UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has launched an appeal to the international community to come to the aid of the Yazidis, who are being persecuted by the Islamic State (IS). Ban’s call came as the Vatican has called on religious leaders to protest at the persecution of religious minorities in Iraq.
Fox News says the US has sent 130 more military advisers to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the marines and special operations forces would not be engaged in combat.
The Guardian says British Chinook helicopters will be used to help airlift refugees driven from their homes by Islamist militants in northern Iraq. And The Times reports the vast majority of Britons feel threatened by Islamic terrorism, according to a poll showing a jump in public support for the UK to join airstrikes against militants in northern Iraq.
Meanwhile, The New York Times says the Pentagon has reported that a US drone has targeted and destroyed an IS rocket launcher used to attack Kurdish troops in the Sinjar mountains in Northern Iraq. An Iraqi army source has reported that one of their helicopters crashed while involved in operations to evacuate Yazidi refugees.
Teleamazonas reports a magnitude 5.1 earthquake has shaken Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and surrounding areas, leaving two people dead, eight others injured and three others trapped under the debris. Landslides also made some roads impassable and a thick layer of dusk around Quito forced the closure of the airport in the capital. The earthquake sent people running into the streets as high rise buildings swayed.
Libya Herald announces Tripoli’s security chief, Col. Mohamed Suesi, has been killed in an ambush in Tajura, in northwest Libya. A statement on the city’s Department of Security Facebook site says the attack was carried out by masked gunmen, who abducted two people who were with him.
La Republica says the group of 282 migrants rescued off the Italian coast on Monday night has arrived at the Sicilian town of Catania on board a Navy ship. The group includes 60 women, of whom two are pregnant and 62 children. The migrants are Syrians, Sudanese, Egyptians, Palestinians, Somalis and Eritreans.
RIA Novosti reports Russia’s President Putin will go to Crimea today and tomorrow for a working meeting with members of Russia’s security council in Sebastopol. The strategically important peninsula on the Black Sea was annexed by Russia after a referendum that was not recognised by the international community.
VOA News says US President Obama has appealed for calm in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of an Afro-American teenager by police sparked two nights of violence. He described the death on Saturday of Michael Brown as heartbreaking. In two nights of unrest in the St Louis suburb, dozens were arrested, shops looted and tear gas fired by police.
Al Ahram reports Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have reached a partial agreement in Cairo, postponing discussions on a number of crucial issues, such as the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip. It remains unclear whether or not an agreement has been reached on extending the 72-hour ceasefire that expires today.
TMZ announces the death of US film and stage actress Lauren Bacall. She was 89. She reportedly died after suffering a major stroke at home in New York. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924, she went on to become one of cinema’s biggest stars, best known for her husky voice and smouldering looks.
The BBC reports an Iranian-born mathematician has become the first ever female winner of the celebrated Fields Medal. In a landmark hailed as “long overdue”, Prof Maryam Mirzakhani was recognised for her work on complex geometry. Awarded by a committee from the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the Fields Medal is regarded as something akin to a Nobel Prize for maths.
Kathimerini says archaeologists have unearthed a funeral mound dating from the time of Alexander the Great and believed to be the largest ever discovered in Greece. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras described the find as “unique” after he visited the site, which dates to the era following Alexander’s death, at the ancient town of Amphipolis in northern Greece. However, experts are baffled who was buried in it.