The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta quotes a government spokesman who said advice by the Attorney General after the Audit Office found irregularities in the lease of part of the GWU’s headquarters had “potential ramifications” for social housing. In another story, it said a clause in the new collective agreement raised eyebrows among Bank of Valletta staff fearing a possible move to reduce its labour force in the coming years.
The Malta Independent says that Naxxar councillor Clifford Galea’s car was used by the three people who were recently arraigned for using false €50 banknotes in Gozo.
Malta Today says that according to a survey carried out in October, businesses are convinced of a rise in corruption and nepotism since the last election.
L-Orizzont says that a record number of operations, more than 60,000, were carried out in Maltese hospitals last year.
In-Nazzjon says soldiers are disappointed at getting just a €100 allowance for their sacrifices during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta last month.
International news
An Islamic State leader with “direct” ties to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks was among 10 senior figures of the militant group killed in Syria and Iraq this month. Fox News says French national Charaffe al Mouadan was killed in a strike last Thursday.
The Daily Press quotes the US Navy saying the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, now in the Arabian Gulf, has started launching airstrikes against Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. US officials have told NBC News the aircraft carrier came within about 1,370 metres of Iranian rockets in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday while Iranian Revolutionary Guards were conducting a live-fire exercise.
Islamic State theologians have released a document detailing what “owners” are permitted to do with enslaved women. According to Reuters, among the fatwa’s injunctions are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. The Islamic State has been accused by the UN of systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12. Many are given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.
Al Sumaria TV reports Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has visited Ramadi after government forces recaptured the government compound in the key western city. Meanwhile, Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari has said the Iraqi army would need Kurdish fighters’ help to retake Mosul, the largest city under the control of Islamic State.
Would-be suicide bomber Mohammed Rehman and his wife Sana Ahmed Khan have been found guilty of planning a major terror attack in London. Sky News reports Rehman, 25, had stockpiled bomb-making material at his Reading home and using the Twitter username ‘Silent Bomber’ he asked his followers which targets they thought suitable for a massive terror attack: Westfield shopping centre or the London Underground. Khan, 24, was convicted of helping her husband plan the atrocity.
As Belgian police arrest two holiday terror plot suspects, La Derniere Heure and De Standaard report eight male soldiers and two policewomen have been accused of having an orgy during the Brussels lockdown. The papers say the soldiers and the policewomen allegedly turned a police station in the nearby neighbourhood of Ganshoren into a den of iniquity. An internal investigation has been launched into the allegations.
France 24 says the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in France placed the country in the top three deadliest nations for journalists in 2015, coming in just behind Syria and Iraq. The report, from Paris-based media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders, documents that 67 journalists were killed globally this year, either as a result of their work or while reporting. An additional 27 citizen journalists and seven media workers were also killed.
Governments across Europe should share more intelligence, the EU’s counter-terror coordinator has said. Le Soir quotes Gilles de Kerchove telling MEPs that countries need to be better at exchanging information if they want to tackle threats such as ISIL.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has called on the EU to tighten security by improving the quality of equipment used to check travel documents at external borders, notably in Greece and Italy.
Over 400 refugees trying to cross the border from Slovenia to Austria have been turned back by Austrian police. ORF quotes Carinthia’s police spokesman Rainer Dionisio as saying that the migrants had apparently lied about their nationality to be granted entry.
A Die Welt survey shows Germany’s federal states plan to spend about €17 billion next year for the country’s record refugee influx. The funds will go towards housing, food, education and other care for the asylum seekers from Syria and other trouble spots across the Middle East and Africa who have flocked to Europe’s biggest economy.
Corriere della Sera says Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has threatened to resign if Italians reject planned constitutional reforms he claims will make their country more governable. He said at a year-end press conference that his government is planning to call a referendum on its Constitutional reform law next October. The Italian parliament has yet to ratify the government-sponsored reforms, which strengthen executive power.
Ansa reports Italy’s postal police said yesterday they put 1,819 child-porn websites on their black list in 2015 and made 67 arrests. They also shut down 6,612 sites plus 23 Facebook and Twitter profiles to thwart cyber terrorism attacks.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times says former “Glee” star Mark Salling has been arrested for investigation of possessing child pornography. Salling is best known for playing bad-boy Noah “Puck” Puckerman on TV’s musical “Glee,” which aired on Fox from 2009 until earlier this year.
Il Tempo reports cleaners and other workers at Rome’s Fiumicino airport stole paintings from passengers in transit, including works worth over €50,000 euros each in an alleged scam uncovered by police on Tuesday. Instead of taking the works of art owned by galleries and private collectors as hand-luggage to designated collection points at the airport, the gang hid them and later sold the paintings on the black market.
A French prosecutor says choosy thieves returned a delivery of police armbands they say they inadvertently stole while targeting luxury goods. Vienne prosecutor Matthiew Bourrette told the Dauphine Libèrè newspaper that five masked thieves made off with a shipment of Louis Vuitton products. The thieves, and the Louis Vuitton merchandise, remain missing.
Deutsche Welle says police in Bavaria have interrogated a 67-year-old woman after she presented a box of liquor-filled chocolate to her 11-year-old grandson. The child’s mother was “hysterical” and “furious” when she arrived at the police station to file a complaint. The boy did not eat the candy: he just took a bite but spat it out after he tasted the alcohol.