The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports that the police have absolved Home Affairs Ministry chief of staff Silvio Scerri of accusations he was behind an alleged plot to murder
his estranged partner’s boyfriend.
The Malta Independent says no alternative routes for the Kappara junction works have been determined yet.
In-Nazzjon quotes MP Ryan Callus saying the Minister for Equal Opportunities has more rights than others as she and her husband are responsible for illegal works on a property near Zejtun.
l-orizzont says the film Popeye, shot in Malta in the 1980s, is yielding Malta €12m in free advertising per year.
The overseas press
ABC reports Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has urged world leaders to speak from the heart, rather than a script, at this weekend’s G20 summit which opens today in Brisbane. He told them to use the summit to discuss job creation, identifying tax cheats and strengthening the global economy. The G-20 has vowed to focus on a plan to add $2 trillion to world GDP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed G20 member countries for imposing sanctions on Russia, saying this violated the group’s principles, but said he did not plan to raise the issue at the summit in Australia. Putin told the TASS state news agency sanctions against Russia “contradict international law because sanctions can only be imposed through the United Nations and its Security Council”.
AP reports European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker urged a global fight against tax evasion while defending his position after revelations top companies paid less tax during his time as Luxembourg premier. Tax avoidance is a key issue at the G20 summit with the host country vowing a “very aggressive” crackdown on the practice.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told The Daily Telegraph Britain would walk away from negotiations with European Union partners if its pleas for immigration reform are ignored, raising the real possibility of leaving the bloc altogether. He said the British public could vote to end the country’s membership unless there was “substantial, meaningful reform” from Brussels.
The Washington Post says the US military has launched a number of radical reforms for its nuclear weapons programme. Scandals revealed mismanagement and a record low morale among its personnel, problems which posed great security risks.
US justice officials are scooping up mobile phone data from unwitting Americans as part of a sophisticated airborne surveillance programme designed to catch criminals, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Documents obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung detail the complex bureaucratic system that has been set up by the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” terrorist group. The documents show a complex health care and pension system, marriage benefits along with financial benefits to widows or wives of IS fighters captured in combat. In an announcement on Thursday, the Islamic State said it would begin minting gold, silver and copper coins, similar to the days of the seventh-century caliphs.
La Prensa says the former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala has been charged with the murder of six people who died in a chain of confusing events that began when municipal police attacked a convoy of student teachers. The attacks on the students on September 26th took place during a night of terror that included the arrest, subsequent disappearance and probable massacre of 43 students after police handed them over to a local drug gang.
Nigerian Tribune announces Boko Haram militants have seized the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, from where 276 girls were kidnapped more than six months ago. On Friday night, Boko Haram was also suspected of killing six people, including three police officers, in a suicide car bomb attack at a filling station in north Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano.
Ansa says demonstrators have taken to the streets in many Italian cities to protest against the government’s labour and social reforms.
Il Tempo reports three activists of the Femen movement have paraded topless under the Vatican’s Bernini colonnade “to denounce the visit of Pope Francis to the European Parliament on 25 November”. The sported on their bare breasts slogans which read “Religion has no place in politics!”, “God is not a magician” and “Pope is not a politician.” They were immediately stopped by the Police.
L’Équipe says Equatorial Guinea has been chosen as the new host of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, following a rejection of original host Morocco’s advice to delay the tournament finals because of Ebola. Morocco has been expelled from the tournament.