The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta quotes Lord Mandelson telling the EY investment conference yesterday that Malta must deal with China with its eyes open.
In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the PN wants an economy that is sustainable and gives dignity to everyone.
L-orizzont highlights the change at the helm of the GWU today, when Tony Zarb retires. It also reports how Malta gained ground in an EY investment attractiveness survey, a story also given prominence in The Malta Independent.
The overseas press
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Europe needs to rewrite its “obsolete” asylum rules to tackle the migrant crisis as European warships went into action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean.
Metro says Merkel made the call in a speech with French President François Hollande to the European Parliament – the first such joint address since the fall of the Berlin Wall – in which they urged the increasingly-divided EU to unite to tackle a wave of problems including migration and the war in Syria.
AFP reports Greek police they had arrested 12 members of a gang that forged documents for migrants trying to reach central Europe. The 12 – nine Pakistanis, an Egyptian, an Iraqi and a Syrian – were held in raids on three flats in central Athens where police said they found and seized “whole laboratories for producing fake papers”.
Kathimerini says the Greek Parliament early this morning (Thursday) passed a confidence vote, supporting the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Out of 299 members participating in the vote, 155 were in favour.
Al Thawra reports Russia and Syria launched a coordinated land, sea and air assault on Syrian militants, with Russia firing 26 cruise missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea, more than 900 miles away.
AP says international strains over Russia’s muscle-flexing and the Taliban’s gains in Afghanistan are certain to dominate today’s meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
Fox News reports President Obama has apologized to Médecins Sans Frontières for the airstrike that destroyed the aid group’s hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing 22. He promised a “transparent, thorough and objective accounting” of the attack, which a US commander called a mistake.
Haaretz says Palestinians wielding knives attacked Jewish Israelis in three separate assaults yesterday, as rock throwing, highway ambushes and clashes with security forces continued to flare for the sixth day in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The violence forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off a high-profile visit to Germany and prompted him to tell the nation to be on “alert” for further trouble.
China confronts a monumental and risk-fraught task as it moves toward a more market- and consumption-based economic model. Bloomberg says the focus on China came in the IMF's new Global Financial Stability Report which stresses the increased dangers across the emerging markets from slow growth and global market turbulence, to very high levels of corporate borrowing.
Wall Street Journal reports presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade deal whose early stages involved her as secretary of state. It was one of several breaks with President Obama in recent weeks, as she positions herself against her rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley – and possibly Joe Biden – ahead of next week’s Democratic presidential debate, the first in this campaign.
Detroit News says Fiat Chrysler’s 36,000 hourly workers are poised to strike if the automaker does not agree to a new contract with a cap on the number of low-wage, entry-level workers. It would be the first strike against a Detroit automaker in eight years.
The Guardian reports former Anglican Bishop Peter Ball was sentenced to 32 months in jail for sexually assaulting 15 young men between the ages of 17 and 25 during his tenure from 1977 to 1992. The presiding judge said the abuse was committed “under the guise of it being part of an austere regime of devotion”.
Tribune de Genève quotes the lawyers representing FIFA President Sepp Blatter saying their client had not yet been informed of any action taken by the FIFA ethics committee which called for the 90-day provisional suspension pending further investigations by the Swiss attorney general.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday celebrated his 63rd birthday with another demonstration of physical prowess. Sputnik says he teamed with NHL legends at the Bolshoi Ice Palace in Sochi to play hockey against Russian tycoons and officials. Putin scored seven goals as his team won 15-10.