The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says the Malta Security Service sought to use the services of a hacking firm’s technology. It also says BOV shareholders are planning to demand answers from the bank on various bank guarantees.
The Malta Independent quotes government comments that the Opposition’s response to SPED was a direct affront to the environment and to NGOs.
In-Nazzjon features comments by former Labour supporter Manuel Calleja that he felt let down by Labour, which did not support him when he was injured and became unemployed.
l-orizzont highlights a new phenomenon of domestic violence – violence by children against their parents or carers.
The overseas press
AFP quotes a Greek government source revealing that the Tsipras administration has submitted to its eurozone creditors a bailout plan proposing a pensions overhaul and tax hikes in return for debt relief and a three-year funding programme worth €53.5 billion. They have offered to increase tax on shipping companies, end tax breaks for the Greek islands and raise VAT for restaurants. The heads of all 28 EU member states will discuss the proposals at a “decisive” summit on Sunday. The Greek parliament will vote on the reform plan later today.
The Financial Times reports heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the so called BRIC – have agreed a new development bank with an estimated start capital of €45 billion would begin financing projects as early as next year. At a meeting iin Ufa in Russia, they also announced a pool of currency reserves, worth €9.3 billion, to counterbalance the Western-dominated financial system.
Bloomberg announces the IMF has cut its forecast for global growth this year, citing a weaker first quarter in the US and warning that financial-market turbulence from China to Greece clouds the outlook. The world economy will grow 3.3 per cent in 2015, less than the 3.5 per cent pace projected in April and slower than the 3.4 per cent expansion last year. The fund left its forecast for growth next year unchanged at 3.8 per cent.
Pope Francis has urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a “new colonialism” by agencies that impose austerity programmes and calling for the poor to have the “sacred rights” of labour, lodging and land. La Prensa says that in one of the longest, most passionate and sweeping speeches of his pontificate, the Argentine-born pope also asked forgiveness for the sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church in its treatment of native Americans during what he called the “so-called conquest of America”.
Russia poses the world’s greatest threat to US national security, President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff declared on Thursday. The Washington Post reports Marine General Joseph Dunford told senators at his confirmation hearing, “If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia. And if you look at their behaviour, it’s nothing short of alarming.” The White House quickly distanced the president from the blunt assessment.
Sputnik quotes Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying Moscow wants to see a UN arms embargo against Iran lifted “as soon as possible” but it is up to Tehran to accept the terms of a final nuclear deal, “We are in favour of lifting the embargo as soon as possible and will support a decision made by Iran’s negotiators,” Lavrov told reporters on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Ufa.
US authorities foiled ISIS attacks planned around the Fourth of July. Fox News reports FBI Director James Comey said they had arrested more than 10 people, inspired by Islamic State online recruitment, during the month before the Independence Day holiday. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security had put the entire US is on high alert for possible terrorist activity as ISIS’ networks had for days hinted at possible attacks.
A 32-year-old Christian man kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad has been found dead in the Iraqi capital, Arabic news website Ankawa reports. The discovery of Hanna Souni’s body came a week after another Iraqi Christian, 58-year-old Qays Abd Shaaya, was found murdered at a Baghdad forensic medicine institute. IS threatens to kill Christians in Mosul unless they convert to Islam or paid a “protection tax”.
Applications for political asylum in the EU rose 68 per cent in the first five months of 2015, over the same period last year. Le Soir says the numbers are even more significant given that 2014 was seen as a “record year” for Europe, with over 660,000 applications – the highest since data gathering began in 2008.
Il Tempo reports Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has said an agreement “was close” on the distribution within Europe of about 40,000 refugees who arrived in Italy and Greece. His comment comes as Ansa says the bodies of at least 12 migrants were recovered and almost 500 people rescued yesterday in a series of operations by the Italian Coast Guard involving four migrant boats.
Metro reports a 16-year-old lifeguard in England has helped save a man’s life just 13 minutes into her first day of work after he suffered a suspected heart attack on a beach. Sydney Horsted had only started work at 10 a.m. on Sunday and was carrying out her first patrol on the south coast of England when lifeguards received a call for help at 10.13 a.m.
La Sicilia says Italian police have charged an Italian couple with desecration after they were caught having sex on a tomb in a cemetery in Palermo. A friar in a Franciscan Monastery next to the cemetery called police after allegedly spotting the couple in the throes of passion. On Monday, two Australian tourists were detained by police after passers-by reported the couple were having sex on a park bench at a popular riverside spot close to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence.