The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna yesterday urged the Maltese not to let Islamic State win by “filling our hearts with fear and hate”, after they brutally murdered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya earlier is week. In another story, it says Libya and Egypt have asked the UN Security Council to lift an arms embargo on Libya to help it build up its army and tackle Islamic State and other extremist groups.
The Malta Independent says the Electoral Commission’s appeal against a Constitutional Court decision to grant the Nationalist Party two extra seats in Parliament was almost filed in the wrong court.
L-Orizzont says that Benghazi’s Bishop Silvestro Magro will be returning to Malta for holidays in the coming days.
In-Nazzjon says Labour councillors in Nadur abstained when it came to a vote on the Nadur belvedere controversy.
International news
Fox News quotes the Foreign Minister of the Libyan government of Tobruk telling the UN Security Council that Isis in Libya threatened the peace and security not only of his country but also the security of neighbouring African states and Europe. Asking the Security Council to lift the embargo of arms sales to Libya, Mohammed al Dairi stated that his government was not asking for international intervention in Libya. The UN emergency meeting was convened to discuss Egypt's request – which continues to hammer the Isis – to deal with the expansion of the Islamic state in Libya with an iron fist, or with a military force backed by the UN.
Libya Herald says Libyan Prime Minister Abdallah al Thani has stated that members of Boko Haram and Isis have reached, or are reaching terrorist groups in Libya, which in turn they would be closer to the border with Tunisia.
His comments came as The Daily Telegraph reported Isis want to use chaos-hit Libya as a “gateway” to infiltrate migrant boats and wage war across southern European states. The British newspaper quoted letters written by a recruiter for Isis saying the jihadists hoped to “flood the North African country with militiamen from Syria and Iraq”, who will then sail across the Mediterranean posing as refugees on migrant boats. However, members of the Italian intelligence and police community threw cold water on the claims suggesting such a plan was too complicated.
CNN reports a 25-year-old woman of Birmingham has been arrested in London on suspicion of terrorism. She had had just arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport from a flight from Turkey, along with a one-year old baby. Investigators believe the woman came from Syria.
The Washington Times says President Obama has called on Muslim communities in the United States and abroad to do more to counter “violent extremism”. He told a White House summit on the issue, the terrorists do not speak for a billion Muslims. The three-day international summit on extremism comes after deadly gun attacks in Copenhagen and Paris.
The New York Times says Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations has invited international observers to investigate corpses discarded by Islamic State militants, whom he has accused of harvesting organs from captives. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim made the accusations following a council briefing session on the overall state of Iraq, in which he said the Islamic State were guilty of “crimes of genocide” against ethnic minorities in Iraq. The ambassador also claimed that militants had killed doctors in Mosul for refusing to harvest organs.
Kathimerini announces the Greek parliament has elected former Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos as the country’s new president. Pavlopoulos won a large majority of 233 votes (out of 300) – well above the 180 needed for the election in the first round. Pavlopoulos, a lawyer and university professor, had openly criticised the bailout agreement entered into with the troika by the previous conservative government. The appointment came as the government confirmed its intention to request an extension of the funding.
Kyiv Post says Ukrainian government forces pulled out of a ferociously-contested railway hub in eastern, ending a siege so intense the retreating troops said they could not get water or food amid relentless shelling by Russian-backed separatists. At least six soldiers were killed in the withdrawal and more than 100 wounded. President Petro Poroshenko sought to portray the fall of Debaltseve in a positive light, saying the pullback was carried out “in a planned and organised manner” despite assertions by exhausted and dirt-caked soldiers, some of whom made their way out on foot, that their forces suffered heavy losses.
Tribune de Genève reports Swiss prosecutors have raided offices of the Geneva subsidiary of British-based HSBC bank in an inquiry into alleged money-laundering. The raid came just over a week after allegations first emerged that HSBC’s Swiss private bank may have helped wealthy clients evade tax. HSBC published a full-page advert in several weekend papers containing an apology over the claims made by whistleblower Hervé Falciani.
Clarin says more than 400,000 people have walked in silence through the streets of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires demanding an independent judiciary, marking a month since the suspicious death of a state prosecutor who had been investigating the country’s president. The protest is the first major public show of defiance since the death of Alberto Nisman, who had accused President Cristina Kirchner of plotting to cover up his investigation into a 1994 bombing.
The Daily Telegraph quotes a University of Cambridge study concluding that babies born to fathers in their teens are more likely than their peers with parents a decade older to inherit genetic defects and develop conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and spina bifida. The research, which examined the DNA of 24 000 families (parents and children), found that the sperm of teenage fathers had a genetic mutation rate of 30 per cent higher than those over 20.
AFP reports five months after Scotland voted against independence from the rest of the United Kingdom, the Scottish government has seceded – at least online. The devolved government in Edinburgh has replaced its old domain name gov.uk, which is also used by British ministries in London, with the newly introduced .scot. The main website for the Scottish government is now www.gov.scot , rather than www.scotland.gov.uk, although that link will continue to work for the forseeable future.