The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta reports that three underage boys attending a vocation group were allegedly defiled by a 44-year-old priest who was entrusted with their care. In another story, it says an inquiry into the death of a 36-year-old diver at the Palumbo shipyard in March has concluded the company’s directors should face criminal charges.
L-Orizzont also leads with a report on the priest's arraignment.
In-Nazzjon says there are 50 changes in the measures between the initial Budget document tabled by the government and that it was replaced with a day later.
The Malta Independent says the government is set to launch a pilot project through which an expected 200 pensioners can employ a full-time or part-time professional carer and have 50 per cent of the cost refunded by the government.
International news
The Jerusalem Post reports Israel has started setting up roadblocks in Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem and deploying soldiers in cities across the country to try to combat the worst surge of violence in months. Hours after the first roadblocks were erected, two more knife attacks shook Jerusalem. Seven Israelis and at least 30 Palestinians, including children and assailants, have been killed in two weeks of bloodshed in Israel, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Al Ayyam says Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for peaceful resistance against Israeli aggression. In a televised address, he also called on the international community to intervene, insisting the current conflict could eventually lead to a holy war. Palestinian officials have condemned the new Israeli security measures as “collective punishment in violation of all international law”
Warming of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above current levels could lead to “unstoppable” sea level rise that would last for thousands of years, according to a new model of Antarctic ice sheets. The new model, published today in Nature, shows that such temperatures would result in 80 to 85 per cent loss of major Antarctic ice shelves, releasing vast amounts of Earth’s freshwater stores into the ocean. By 2100 this would add up to 40 cm to sea levels.
Euronews announces Russian jets and Iranian soldiers are said to be getting ready to support a major Syrian army ground offensive in the northwest of the country targeting rebels in Aleppo. The Russian defence ministry said its warplanes made 41 sorties in the last 24 hours and attacked 40 Islamic State targets.
Ansa reports Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has called for “long-term policies” in the EU, not reactions to “daily hysteria” on migrants and other issues. Ahead of today’s EU summit, Renzi told the Senate that the European identity was being called into question.
According to Le Soir says the European Union lashed out at member countries for failing to come up with funds to help cope with the refugee emergency. The European Commission complained that only three of 28 nations have pledged a total of just €12 million to a fund to help African nations better manage their borders. The pot is meant to total €1.8 billion over two years. So far, about a dozen of the 28 EU nations have offered around 130 personnel.
CNN reports more than 150 people were arrested and nearly as many underage trafficking victims were rescued as part of a nationwide sex sting. The FBI announced the youngest victim was 12 years old. More than 3,500 sex trafficking cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Centre last year.
France 24 says a French court has upheld the right of an intersex person to be identified as “neutral” in the civil register – the first time a European court has recognised the right of an individual to go beyond the binary definition of male and female. The judges in Tours ruled in favour of a 64-year-old who was born with a “rudimentary vagina” and “micropenis” and without testes. The child was registered as male at birth, but during adolescence he realised he wasn’t a boy.
Bloomberg reports three US airlines – Delta, American and United – have called on the Obama administration to protect them from competition from foreign airlines, arguing those rivals can undercut ticket prices thanks to government subsidies or cheaper labour. At the same time, the US airlines want Congress to roll back or forestall rules aimed at protecting consumers.
Globovision reports President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela has announced that oil producing countries will meet in Vienna next week to discuss stabilizing oil prices, have plunged by more than 50 per cent since 2013. Maduro has pressed for production cutbacks both by OPEC and non-OPEC countries to turn around prices. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has stepped up production to protect against competition from US shale oil production.
Il Tempo says Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled employees cannot be sacked for watching porn on the job provided they do so during their lunch break. The court threw out claims by Fiat that a worker’s alleged porn habit had “breached his relationship of trust with his employer” and was “incompatible” with his job. But the court said the evidence was insufficient to prove that the employee viewed porn during his working hours.
TMZ.com reveals Lamar Odom is reportedly fighting for his life after being found unconscious at a brothel. The 35-year-old former husband of Khloe Kardashian is said to be in a critical condition and breathing only with the help of machines at a hospital in Las Vegas. Lamar split from Khloe in 2013 amid claims he had been cheating on her and smoking crack cocaine.
Sepp Blatter's long-time confidant Klaus Stohlker has leapt to the defence of the suspended FIFA president, calling the “father of football”, while deriding the “robber barons” of UEFA and European football – Michele Platini, and both the French and German football federations. Writing for financial news outlet Inside ParadePlatz, Stohlker said Blatter had built FIFA into a global corporation over the past 40 years – “an organisation with 1.6 billion fans, 300 million active participants and 209 national associations with a worldwide turnover of more than 300 billion Swiss francs”.