The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Kathimerini says Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras later spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a day of tense efforts aimed at securing a compromise. The Greek premier described the conversation as taking place “in a positive climate”. Tsipras also spoke with French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
According to the Libyan news website al-Wasat, Islamic State militants have total control of Sirte, Libya’s central city. The website quotes a source close to the university board saying the ISIS had taken over the University of Sirte, of all its facilities and government offices.
Music in Libya has also become a casualty of fundamentalism. Mail Online says a group of armed and hooded Isis militiamen set musical instruments on fire because they were “non-Islamic” and, “under Sharia law”, deserved to be burned. These included saxophones, bongos and drums.
Euronews reports senior Western officials have accused Russia of redrawing the map of Europe by force and posing a threat to the Baltic. As Britain scrambled jets to see off Russian Bear bombers, British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Putin could try to destabilise Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – the three former Soviet republics, all now members of NATO. Putin was a “real and present danger” to and NATO was getting ready to repel any aggression. Meanwhile, Russia bridled at the remarks, saying Fallon’s comments were “already beyond diplomatic ethics” and the characterisation of Russia was “completely intolerable”.
The truce in eastern Ukraine is observed nearly everywhere except for Debaltseve and a few other spots, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine said in its daily report, quoted by Itar Tass. It said its drones registered the pullout of some armaments from the city of Mariupol, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine said in a daily report Thursday.
as a small concentration of battle tanks spotted the previous day had been re-located to an unknown destination.
El Mundo reports the mayor of Venezuela’s capital, Antonio Ledezma, has been arrested amid accusations of a coup attempt. President Nicolas Maduro said the opposition leader must answer “for all the crimes committed against the country’s peace and security”. Human Rights Watch has called for his immediate release.
AGI says that at the meeting in the Vatican with the priests of Rome, Pope Francis revealed that the issue of married priests is on his agenda. He said on February 10, he celebrated at Casa Santa Martha with seven priests who celebrated the 50th anniversary of priesthood. Five former priests, defrocked because they married, were also present. The pontiff was reacting to a remark by Don Giovanni Cereti, rector of the church of San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi, who recalled the case of the Eastern Churches, where those who are married can also be ordained priests. “The problem,” said Bergoglio,”is present in my agenda.”
Ireland will vote in a referendum on same-sex marriage on May 22, Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced during a wide ranging interview on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme yesterday. The Toaiseach also revealed he hopes the referendum would pass because he believes it would portray “a very tolerant and inclusive image of Ireland”.
Le Parisien says France’s Socialists have survived a no-confidence vote, enabling Prime Minister Manuel Valls to proceed with economic reforms he passed only by decree to unblock France’s sluggish economy. Detractors of Valls’ pro-business policy, mainly opposition conservatives, but also rebels within the Socialist party, failed to muster enough votes to topple the government. Some 234 lawmakers backed the no-confidence motion, short of the 289 votes required in France’s lower house of parliament.
Times of India reports yet another episode of sexual violence where a seven year old girl was raped and murdered after being kidnapped during a wedding reception. At the news of the murder, an angry mob stormed the holiday centre and organised a protest rally. The police use batons to disperse the protesters and five people were slightly injured.
Britain’s electronic spying agency, in cooperation with the US National Security Agency, hacked into the networks of a Dutch company to steal codes that allow both governments to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide, according to the documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden. A story about the documents posted on the website The Intercept offered no details on how the intelligence agencies employed the eavesdropping capability.
Some 500,000 pornographic images are posted daily on Twitter without filters. Raising the alarm raised, The Daily Mail says the social network had become the preferred medium for the dissemination of red light content very often aimed at younger kids. The leaders of Twitter came under indictment for failing to take part in a meeting organised by the British government in London to counter pornography online. Facebook and Google gave their support.
An Indian couple who were ostracised after their families disapproved of their wedding have decided to leave all their property to their pet monkey. Brajesh Srivastava, who is Hindu, and wife Shabist, a Muslim, told BBC Hindi they were “lonely for many years” before they bought Chunmun the monkey in 2005 for 500 rupees (€7). The couple, who have no children, say they have raised him like a son.