The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says the government is expected to “imminently” announce the preferred bidder for Marsa Shipbuilding. In another story, it says the education authorities are exploring ways to adapt methods of teaching English as a foreign language to State schools, in the wake of concerns expressed over the decline in standards among school leavers.
The Malta Independent says Dominican friar Charles Fenech has sent a Christmas card to a woman he allegedly abused.
In-Nazzjon interviews former EU Commissioner Tonio Borg about his experience in the Commission in the past two years.
L-Orizzont speaks to Maltese priest Fr Reno Muscat about the Pope’s recent criticism of Vatican bureaucracy.
International news
A global arms trade treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar business has come into force – a move hailed as “a new chapter” by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the BBC reports. He said he hoped the treaty would help prevent the transfer of weapons to “warlords, human rights abusers, terrorists and criminal organisations”. The deal also bans arms supplies if this promotes war crimes or genocide. So far 60 nations have ratified the accord, but not the US – the world's top arms exporter – China, Russia, India and Pakistan.
The UN human rights office has said fighting between armed groups in Libya has killed hundreds of civilians and resulted in widespread human rights violations – including indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, abductions, torture and executions. The New York Times says Tuesday’s joint report warned these could lead to prosecution for war crimes.
El Youm quotes Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas warning his administration would “no longer deal” with Israel if a UN Security Council resolution calling for a final peace deal fails. The Palestinian draft resolution sets the end of 2017 as the timeframe for completing an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
USA Today says a grand jury in Houston has decided not to indict a police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. Juventino Castro was off duty but working a private security job at a mall, when he fatally shot 26-year-old Jordan Baker in January. The grand jury decision follows similar ones in other US cities that have prompted protests and debates on race.
Metro reports Amnesty International has denounced the ferocity of the armed militant group Islamic State, responsible for kidnappings, tortures, rapes and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls belonging to minority Yazidi in Iraq. It describes the terrible violence suffered by hundreds, if not thousands, of women and girls yazide forced to forced marriages or given to fighters and supporters of the Islamic State. Often, the abducted were forced to convert to Islam.
There is high risk of terrorist attacks in Germany because the country takes part in the fight against the radical group Islamic State, writes German Bild citing information from classified documents of the security services. Some 550 Muslims in Germany take part in the fights in the Middle East, while 150 of them have already returned.
Le Monde reports France has stepped up security nationwide following three successive, apparently unrelated attacks, in a bid to ease growing unease in the country. The motives behind the incidents – a knife attack on police and two car rampages onto passers-by – remain unclear. Altogether, 26 people were injured in the attacks, one of whom was pronounced clinically dead.
ABC says counter-terrorism police in Sydney have arrested two men, charging one with possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack and the other suspect with breaching a control order. The arrests come after Australia’s prime minister said there had been heightened “terror chatter” since a cafe siege in Sydney last week
Kyiv Post reports the Ukrainian Parliament has overwhelmingly voted to take steps to join NATO – a rebuke to Russia that immediately drew an angry response from Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, saying it was “counterproductive”. He said the move only creates the illusion that by passing such laws it is possible to settle a deep domestic crisis within Ukraine.
The New York Post says President Obama has welcomed a decision by Sony Pictures to release the movie “The Interview” that lampoons North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Sony Pictures has earlier announced it would screen the film in some US theatres as of tomorrow – a dramatic U-turn after its widely criticised decision to cancel the film following a cyber-assault blamed on North Korea.
Director Tim Burton and actress Helena Bonham Carter have ended their 13-year relationship. A spokeswoman for Bonham Carter confirmed to the AP news agency that the couple separated amicably and have continued to be friends and co-parent their children – a son aged 11, and daughter, who is seven. Bonham Carter and Burton were never married.
RadarOnline.com announces Clint Eastwood and his wife of 18 years have finalised their divorce. Clint and Dina Marie Eastwood have one daughter together. She turned 18 this month. The Oscar-winning director’s wife filed for divorce in October 2013, citing irreconcilable differences. They married in 1996 after meeting when she was assigned to interview the 83-year-old actor for a TV news station.
A 114-year-old woman who challenged Facebook after the social media site would not let her list her real age has died. Star Tribune says Anna Stoehr, one of Minnesota’s oldest residents, died in her sleep after several days in hospice care. She drew national attention this year after KARE-TV reported her attempt to create a Facebook account. Because the site would not let her enter a birth year before 1905, she said she was 99. The station reported that she wrote a letter to the company, saying: “I’m still here.” Facebook sent her a bouquet of 114 flowers for her most recent birthday, her son said.