Press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

Most of the local newspapers lead with the agreement reached yesterday between Transport Malta and Arriva allowing the bus company to bow out. 

The Times of Malta describes the agreement as Arriva’s last stop.

In-Nazzjon says public transport in now temporarily in government hands. L-Orizzont says the search for a new bus operator starts next week.

In other stories, the Malta Independent says evening outpatients clinics will be opening at Mater Dei Hospital. L-orizzont says the former Minister for Gozo before the elections made commitments of €500,000 to five football clubs.

The overseas press

Germany’s governing coalition is squabbling over calls to restrict welfare payments to European immigrants as Europe’s labour markets open to Romanians and Bulgarians. The conservative Christian Social Union, one of three governing parties, is suggesting other EU nationals should be ineligible for social security for their first three months in Germany and welfare cheats should be expelled to combat “poverty migration”. Centre-left Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper freedom of movement for workers is “an essential part of European integration”. Questioning that principle, he says, damages Germany and Europe.

Europe Daily reports the Italian and Greek navies have rescued hundreds of people from the waters off their respective coasts. The Italian navy said one of its destroyers, the San Marco, had plucked 233 people from a 10-metre-long boat that had been struggling in strong winds and choppy waters about 130 kilometres from Lampedusa.  The passengers reportedly came from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Zambia, Mali and Pakistan. Also on Thursday, the Greek coast guard rescued 85 people from a boat trying to reach the EU member state from Turkey through the Aegean Sea.

Ha’aretz reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted his Palestinian partner in peace-making efforts on Thursday, accusing him of embracing terrorists “as heroes”. The harsh words clouded the start of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s tenth trip to the region to negotiate a peace deal he claims is “not mission impossible”. Kerry arrived in Israel to broker negotiations that are entering a difficult phase aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He had dinner with Netanyahu and planned to be in the West Bank on Friday to talk with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Six Indian men face murder charges after a 16-year-old Indian girl they are accused of gang raping twice in October died on Tuesday, a week after she said two suspects had set her on fire. Hindustan Times reports an autopsy revealed the girl was pregnant and DNA tests are being conducted to determine if one of the suspects was responsible. In Kolkata and New Delhi, the nation’s capital, hundreds of women and their supporters took to the streets in protest Thursday and later held candlelight vigils.

The New York Times and Guardian newspapers have called for clemency for Edward Snowden, saying that the espionage worker-turned-privacy advocate should be praised rather than punished for his disclosures. The papers – both of which have played a role in publishing Snowden’s intelligence trove – suggested the former National Security Agency contractor’s revelations about the United States’ world-spanning espionage programme were of such public importance that they outweighed any possible wrongdoing.

Pope Francis is proving to be a major tourist attraction, as figures published by the Vatican show 6.6 million people visited the city-state between March and December. Il Tempo says that represents an almost three-fold increase in the number of people who visited the city in all of 2012 – the last full year of Pope Benedict’s tenure. The Vatican also said the figures don’t include the massive crowds who turned out to see the new Pope during his travels, which included three million people at an open-air Mass in Brazil.

Corriere della Sera reports Silvio Berlusconi has lodged an appeal against his conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute. The former Italian Prime Minister’s lawyers say he denies the charges. Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex on several occasions with Moroccan-born “Ruby”.  He was also accused of having called a police station to press for her release from custody when she was arrested for theft.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has put his name on the ballot to run for another term, defying repeated calls for him to step down after admitting he smoked crack “in a drunken stupor”. Ford was the first candidate to show up at City Hall when registration opened for the city’s municipal election on October 27. He promised “Ford more years” the Toronto Star reported. He also called himself “the best mayor this city has ever had”.

ABC says all 52 passengers rescued after being trapped for more than a week on an icebound Russian research ship in the Antarctic were aboard an Australian icebreaker slowly cracking through heavy sea ice Friday toward open water after their dramatic rescue by a Chinese helicopter. A spot of clear weather allowed the multinational rescue operation after blinding snow, strong winds and thick sea ice forced rescuers to turn back time and again

The world’s 300 richest people added $524 billion to their fortunes in 2013, which currently amount to around $3.7 trillion. According to Bloomberg, Bill Gates, crowned the richest person in the world in May, earned $15.8 billion in 2013 and reached $78.5 billion in total net worth, thanks also to the steep rise of Microsoft’s shares.

Sscientists saying tripling tobacco tax globally would reduce smoking by a third and prevent 200 million premature deaths from lung cancer and other diseases this century. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, says such a large tax increase would double the street price of cigarettes in some countries and narrow the price gap between the cheapest and most expensive cigarettes. This could reduce the number of smokers by 433.3 million.