The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta leads with a press conference by Joseph Muscat and Matteo Renzi where they insisted they want to stop the people smugglers. The newspaper also reports from Brussels that it is time to address migrant pressure on Malta.
The Malta Independent says that Europe has finally woken up to the migrant crisis.
In-Nazzjon reports how 24 victims of the migrant boat disaster were brought to Malta yesterday. It also reports comments by Simon Busuttil that the PN has cut the gap to Labour by half, but needs to tackle the other half.
l-orizzont also leads with the migrant tragedy, focusing on the flowers for the victims taken to the Mater Dei Hospital morgue yesterday.
The overseas press
European migration policy chief Dimitris Avramopoulos has said the European Commission is planning to propose a pilot programme on sharing the burden of refugee resettlement among all EU members. Sputnik reports that after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Avramopoulos said all member states could participate in the programme “if they were willing to do so”.
Euronews says Libyan officials have echoed Italy’s calls for help as the country struggles to cope with an influx of migrants. Saleh Abu Dabbous, the Libyan Director of the Office of Deportation, fears “a major humanitarian crisis” may occur if nations concerned with combating illegal migration did not intervene decisively. In Libya, there are between 500,000 and one million migrants, mainly Syrians, waiting to flee to Europe.
Meanwhile, a Misrata municipality spokesperson has told Ansa that Italy should negotiate with a self-declared Islamist fundamentalist government in Tripoli “directly” if it was “serious” about fighting people smugglers. Libya’s elected government fled to Tobruk after an Islamist insurgency captured Tripoli last summer.
AGI quotes Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano saying he reckons there were a thousand people involved in the trafficking of immigrants. Of the 24 of arrested, two were yesterday accused of multiple manslaughter, shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. The two alleged smugglers – a Tunisian commander and his Syrian assistant – had been identified by the survivors who were on board the Gregoretti and the young Bangladeshi who revealed some 950 migrants were on the ship – many locked in the holds bu the smugglers.
Meanwhile, La Sicilia quotes the deputy prosecutor of Palermo, Maurizio Scalia, saying the average price paid by migrants to reach Libya from countries such as Ethiopia is about $5,000 (€4,660). The trip to Italy by sea on unseaworthy vessels, costs about $1,500 (€1,400).
In other news...
Avvenire reports Pope Francis has condemned the “continuing martyrdom” of Christians after 30 Ethiopians were shown being shot and beheaded in Libya on a video purportedly made by Islamic State militants. The video, in which militants call Christians “crusaders” who are out to kill Muslims, showed about 15 men being beheaded on a beach and another group of the same size being shot in the head in a patch of scrubland.
The Nation says 10 people, including four UNICEF employees, were killed when al-Shebaab militants detonated a bombed placed under a seat of the bus they were travelling on. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed outrage at the attack and assured that terrorist attacks would not weaken the UN’s resolved to help the country.
Börzen Zeitung quotes the European Central Bank saying in its annual report that “resolute action” was needed to implement structural reforms in France, Italy and Portugal. The European Commission had detected excessive imbalances in the three eurozone member-states but the implementation of recommendations had, so far, been “disappointing”.
The Greek government has ordered that some two billion euros held by local administrations in cash reserves and deposits be transferred to the Bank of Greece. Confidential sources told Bloomberg the government intends to use the money to pay salaries and pensions at the end of the month.
Kathemerini says leaders of Greece’s third-largest political party, the extreme-right Golden Dawn, have gone on trial charged with operating as a criminal organisation that allegedly carried out a campaign of violence against immigrants and left-wing opponents. Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and senior officials are among 69 defendants.
VOA News announces that a mother who killed six of her newborn babies and hid their bodies in her garage has been sentenced to up to life in prison. At an emotional hearing, the prosecutor described Megan Huntsman as an “incredibly indifferent and callous” murderer.
Baltimore News says city officials have suspended six police officers as they investigate the death of a 25-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody. Freddie Gray had been hospitalised since his April 12 arrest and, according to his attorney, was in a coma when he died Sunday.
USA Today says a passenger was thrown off a US domestic flight after she repeatedly stabbed with a pen a 68-year-old man sitting next to her because he was snoring. After Lenny Mordarski complained to the cabin crew, the woman was taken off the flight from Chicago to Manchester in New Hampshire – causing a two-hour delay in the process.
The Dominion Post says the drummer of the rock band AC/DC has surprised a New Zealand court by pleading guilty to charges of drug possession and issuing death threats. Phil Rudd had previously denied the charges against him. Appearing in front of a judge at the Tauranga District Court today, 60-year-old Rudd pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. Rudd was granted on bail until a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 26.