The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press. The local newspapers are dominated by yesterday's announcement on the gas power station plans.
Times of Malta reports how energy from gas power stations will start being generated in June 2016.
The Malta Independent and In-Nazzjon say the new power plant will be 15 months behind schedule.
l-orizzont says the gas plant will start to operate in 2016 and the interconnector will be commissioned next year.
In other stories, Times of Malta reports how a Mellieha resident found that somebody had used her address to apply for a residence permit.
Malta Today quotes the Ombudsman saying his conflict with the Ministry of Home Affairs had led to a campaign to undermine his office.
In-Nazzjon reports that senior government officials in conversations immediately after the shooting by a minister's driver agreed to say that he had fired warning shots in the air.
The overseas press
Seven people were killed, including five African migrant workers, as pro- government forces carried out air strikes on the coastal city of Zuara in western Libya. A city official told AFP that 25 others were wounded in the three raids that targeted a food depot, a chemical goods factory and a small port. Meanwhile, in Benghazi, four people were killed and seven wounded when a rocket was fired into the centre of the city.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) estimates that between 1999 and 2014 around €4.4 billion went towards kickbacks. Le Monde quotes the first OSCE report on the ability of member states to tackle the issue showing the US was driving the anti-corruption battle, with 128 cases closed and sanctioned, followed by Germany with 26 cases, Korea with 11 and six in Italy, Switzerland and the UK.
Le Parisien reports French lawmakers on Tuesday passed a non-binding motion to recognise Palestine as a state. French MPs voted 339 to 151 for the measure, which followed similar initiatives taken by Switzerland, the UK and Spain.
The Jerusalem Post says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired two rebellious cabinet ministers and called for a new election more than two years ahead of schedule. The election, expected to be held early next year, would come at a time of growing violence between Palestinians and Israelis and deepening despair over the prospects for peace.
Fox News quotes the Pentagon saying Iranian fighter jets have bombed Islamic State (IS) jihadists in eastern Iraq, but the strikes were not coordinated with US forces. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby’s comments came after Al Jazeera ran footage of what appeared to be an F-4 fighter, similar to those used by the Iranian air force, attacking targets in the eastern province of Diyala.
al bawaba says uncertainty surrounded reports that the Lebanese authorities had detained a wife of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, head of the militant group Islamic State. Various news outlets quoted security sources as saying that a woman identified as one of Baghdadi’s wives had been taken into custody while trying to cross into Lebanon from neighbouring Syria. She was accompanied by another person, alternately identified in media reports as her son or daughter.
The East African reports Kenya’s president has replaced his interior minister and the chief of police in the wake of fresh terrorist attacks in the country’s north-east. At least 36 non-Muslim labourers died when Somali al Shabaab Islamist militants crept up on the workers’ tents while they slept at a quarry near the town of Mandera and executed them, beheading at least two.
Tribune de Genève says new cervical cancer guidelines have been introduced, making it easier and cheaper to protect women against one of the deadliest, but most preventable, diseases, which kills 270,000 women each year. WHOt now recommends nine to 13-year-old girls should receive two doses of the HPV vaccine, rather than the previous three after studies had shown that reducing to two doses was as effective as three.
Following a Mediterranean diet might be a recipe for a long life because it appears to keep people genetically younger, say US researchers. A study in the British Medical Journal confirms its mix of vegetables, olive oil, fresh fish and fruits may stop the DNA code from scrambling as one ages.
The mob makes more money on counterfeit medicine than with illegal drugs. Ansa quotes Carabinieri Commander Cosimo Piccinno telling an anti-doping conference that a one euro investment in narcotics yields a return of 16, but one euro invested in pharmaceuticals yields 2,500. The business is worth at least €50 billion a year. What Piccinno called “the cyber-pushers” belong to the Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, and the Chinese, Japanese and Russian mobs.
The Miami Herald says a doctor thought it might be funny to crack a joke about a bomb in his luggage. Instead, he partly forced the evacuation of Miami International airport, and earned a $90,000 (€73,000) fine. Just before boarding an Avianca flight to Bogota on October 22, a security officer asked Manuel Alvarado, 60, routine questions; the Venezuelan doctor responded that he was carrying C-4 explosives. Though he corrected himself and said he was just joking, it was too late for airport authorities’ taste.