The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says Gaffarena profited from breach of laws.
The Malta Independent says Polidano and Chetcuti's Zonqor plans are not linked to the university.
In-Nazzjon leads with a PN call for the government to publish its agreement with the new university investors. A protest about development in Zonqor will be held today.
l-orizzont says economic growth is expected to gather momentum.
The overseas press
Ta Nea reports Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reacted positively to the extraordinary summit of heads of state and government of the eurozone countries on Monday to address the crisis in Greece, assuring Athens would “work for the success of this meeting”. He expressed confidence there would be “a solution within the rules of the EU but also of democracy”. The government has assured creditors the Greek banking system was stable, as its security was guaranteed by the joint actions of its Central Bank and the European Central Bank.
Meanwhile, EU Budget Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has told Focus new agency EU structural funds could be fine-tuned to help create much needed jobs. She noted the current 2014-20 budget allocated $35.5 billion to Greece. “Athens has faithfully paid all its EU budget contributions and can count on the bloc’s support to boost its stricken economy,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a prospective Russian natural gas pipeline should help Greece service its debt. Speaking of the pipeline deal at a meeting with top executives of global news agencies, including The Associated Press, which began nearly three hours behind schedule at around midnight, Putin said he saw no support for the Greeks from the EU. But the Kremlin said the question of direct Russian financial aid to Greece was not discussed.
Global terror attacks soared by a third in 2014 with an 81 per cent spike in the number of deaths. Fox News reports the US State Department’s annual report on terrorism says the deaths were largely due to activity in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, adding the civil war in Syria was a significant factor driving instability. More than 16,000 fighters from over 90 countries reached the forces of the Islamic State by the end of 2014.
The Washington Post says that according to a recently leaked document, the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia had refused a request by the son of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, to have his father’s death certificate. The US Embassy’s response, dated four months after bin Laden was killed by US forces during a raid on his hideout in Pakistan, was that none existed. More than 60,000 diplomatic messages from Saudi Arabia and additional Sony Pictures documents have been published by WikiLeaks.
CNN reports family members of those killed in a mass shooting at a South Carolina church have confronted the 21-year-old accused gunman in court as authorities said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of “domestic terrorism”. Dylann Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder over the deaths of black worshippers at Charleston’s nearly-200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday.
Ansa quotes Green Party spokesman Angelo Bonelli suggesting that Italy’s Coast Guard deserves the Nobel Peace prize for saving the lives of as many as 460,000 immigrants since 1990. Bonelli said the Italian Coast Guard had been tirelessly fighting for decades for the most basic human right, the right to life, in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, AGI reports Italy’s police acted swiftly to close down a Facebook page in which an inspector of Catania’s railway police suggested irregular immigrants should be thrown overboard. Other comments were: “Burn them alive and deport them” and “I miss Hitler”.
Kolnische Rundschau says five- and 10-euro notes rained on residents of the German city of Cologne thanks to an unusual social step launched by a financial advisor Joachim Ackva and his partner Daniela Tiben. The couple said they wanted to encourage people to donate at least one tenth of their assets to create a fund against poverty, hunger and war in the world.
North Korea claims it has developed a vaccine that can cure and prevent MERS, Ebola and AIDS, as well as a range of other diseases, state news agency KCNA reports. According to the drug’s website, the Kumdang-2 vaccine is reportedly able to treat everything – from AIDS to tuberculosis and cancer, as well as “harm from the use of computers” and morning sickness.
LBC announces British police are investigating reports a body found on the roof of a building in south-west London was that of a stowaway who had fallen from the undercarriage of British Airways aircraft as it came in to land from South Africa. Another stowaway is in hospital. The two men are believed to have clung on to the plane as it flew some 13,000 km from Johannesburg in South Africa to Heathrow.
A Russian official has cast doubt on the first moon landing and demanded an investigation into what really happened after original Nasa footage of the event disappeared. In an opinion piece in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian government’s Investigative Committee, says he wants an inquiry after the video from 1969 and a piece of lunar rock, which was brought back to earth, went missing.
Phnom Penh Post says Cambodia is training an elite squad of rats, imported from Africa, to sniff out landmines. A team of 15 rats, some weighing up to 1.2 kg, were imported from Tanzania in April after claims of success in using rats to sniff landmines, as well as detect tuberculosis, in several African countries including Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola.
The Philadelphia Enquirer reports a squirrel caused quite a commotion during the second inning of last night’s St Louis Cardinals-Philadelphia Phillies game. It started its journey by climbing the protective netting behind home plate, and then walked along the wire holding the screen in place above the home dugout. The scene went from comic to bizarre when the squirrel plummeted roughly 30 feet and quickly got out of the way through a hole under the photographer’s well.