The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Sunday Times of Malta says the General Workers Union was legally bound to pay at least €3.2m for its landmark Valletta property before it could lease the building to government utility bills company ARMS Ltd and other entities within the complex. The newspaper also interviews former Prime Minister who says the government should clarify whether it has “horse-traded” Malta’s national assets with Italy in return for absorbing migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.
The Malta Independent says the Prime Minister’s cousin, Robert Falzon, had been serving as Malta’s Consul in Algeria since March 2014 and throughout the entire span of the alleged Algerian visa scam.
MaltaToday says businessman Joe Gaffarena paid an €8,150 bill for construction works carried out at Former Health Minister Joe Cassar’s Dingli home.
Illum says the government has been asked for millions by the Cottonera Waterfront Group for the return of Fort St Angelo.
Kullhadd says Gozo will be getting an animal emergency service as from next year.
It-Torca publishes a fiscal receipt which it says is proof that former Health Minister Joe Cassar had accepted as a gift from businessman Joe Gaffarena.
Il-Mument says members of the Islamic States were among those granted a visa from Algeria to pass through Malta and head on to Europe.
International news
Al Ahram reports investigators are trying to establish the cause of the crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt, which killed all 224 people on board, after an Islamic State affiliate in Cairo claimed to have “brought it down”. But both Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov denied the claims. However, three airlines - Emirates, Air France and Lufthansa - have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available. According to reports, the wife of the plane’s co-pilot said he had complained to her about the plane’s condition.
Gazete Oku announces that polling stations have opened in eastern Turkey for one of the most crucial elections in years, as the deeply divided country confronts a bloody wave of jihadist attacks and a renewed Kurdish conflict. Some 54 million people are registered vote at 175,000 polling stations. The poll is the second in only five months, called after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in June for the first time in 13 years of single-party rule and then failed to forge a power-sharing government.
Al Ayyam says violence broke out yesterday in the West Bank city of Hebron as Palestinians buried five teenagers killed in a wave of attacks and clashes with Israeli forces. The funerals came as Israeli border guards shot dead a Palestinian at a checkpoint between the West Bank and Israel after he allegedly tried to stab one of them. Nine Israelis, 66 Palestinians and an Arab Israeli have been killed since the violence erupted in Jerusalem a month ago.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told Spanish newspapers El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia that this week’s talks on the Syrian war had been taken “hostage” by the question of whether President Bashar Assad should stay or go. “It is totally unfair and unreasonable that the fate of one person takes the whole political negotiation process hostage. It is unacceptable,” he said, adding that “the future of Assad must be decided by the Syrian people”. Ban also referred to Catalonia’s push for independence from Spain, saying this was illegitimate, as the region has not been recognised by the UN as a non-autonomous territory.
Four people have been killed in a shootout in Colorado Springs. According to CBS, an armed man allegedly killed three people – a man and two women – before being in turn killed by the police.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports three people, including a girl of 10, died after being run over by a car while they were on the sidewalk in the traditional ‘Trick or Treat’ Halloween. The incident happened as the driver made wrong manoeuver and instead of turning on the road, he directed the car into the group of people.
Times of India says a new toll for all trucks and commercial vehicles came into force in Delhi today in an attempt to improve air quality in the world’s most polluted capital ahead of Diwali celebrations. Trucks are banned from entering the Indian capital during the day. Lorries account for nearly a third of the pollution in Delhi, adding to a toxic mix of industrial fumes and dust from construction sites to produce hazardous levels of smog.
Fox News says the wreck of the American freighter ‘El Faro’, which sank early last month after Hurricane Joaquin struck, has been located at a depth ‘of 15,000 feet, off the Bahamas. On board the cargo were 33 crew members: 28 American and 5 Poles. Nobody and survived.
Focus reports the Bulgarian police have found 129 refugees, including 58 children, in a refrigerated truck from Turkey. The refugees, who had no documents with them but said they were Syrians, were hidden behind packs of bottles of mineral water. The driver of the truck, a Turk, has been arrested.
Roman Polanski’s victim, Samantha Geimer, has told NBC News in an exclusive interview she’s “very pleased” a Polish court rejected a US extradition request for the famed director, calling the decades-long legal battle a “travesty” that has brought unnecessary harm. Geimer, 52, said that’s partially for “selfish” reasons – the media attention around each twist and turn of the nearly 40-year saga has been “horrible” for her and her family.
A yearlong Associated Press investigation uncovered about 1,000 officers in six years who lost their licenses to work in law enforcement for rape, other sex crimes or sexual misconduct. The agency says the number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers who faced an administrative process known as decertification, and not all states take such action or provided records. Most of the officers have been convicted and are serving time. Some await trial.
Hollywood Reporter announces the death of Al Molinaro, the loveable character actor with the hangdog face who was known to millions of TV viewers for playing Murray the cop on “The Odd Couple” and malt shop owner Al Delvecchio on “Happy Days”. He was 96. Molinaro, retired from acting since the 1990s, died of complications of gallstone problems, his son said.