The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says Maltese holidaymakers have struck Tunisia off their destination list following the recent terrorist attack by a gunman in the popular resort town of Sousse that left 39 people dead. It also reports Madam Justice Miriam Hayman’s inaugural speech during which the judge calls for better conditions for members of the judiciary.
The Malta Independent says a Briton with known links to Malta is still being sought for his involvement in the gruesome murder of a cannabis grower in 2003, with crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers UK deeming him one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives.
In-Nazzjon says the planning authority will today be deciding whether to allow the development of a wall on the Nadur belvedere in Triq David Cocco Palmeri completely masking the view.
L-Orizzont says Malta was the country granting the second highest international protection to migrants ratio wise to its population according to a report by the a European Asylum Support Office.
International news
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has told Parliament that Greece must remain within the eurozone. France 24 reports his comments, which included a staunch defence of President Hollande’s handling of the crisis, were met with derision from opposition lawmakers. Critics accuse Hollande of alienating France’s traditional ally Germany, which has turned cold toward debt-stricken Greece’s as it rejects austerity measures in return for a new bailout package.
Strasbourg’s Metro says Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said yesterday all sides must prevent division in Europe as they try to hammer out a solution to his country’s crippling debt crisis. Just days away from a final Sunday deadline, Tsipras told the European Parliament, “This is a European problem which requires a European solution... let us not allow it to become a divided Europe.”
Ta Nea reveals Greece yesterday raised €1.6 billion in a sale of six-month treasury bonds at a rate of 2.97 per cent, unchanged from the last issue a month ago. Such sales occur every month in Greece as part of a rollover of treasury bonds. With further issues to today, the Greek Debt Agency aims to raise a total €2 billion in six-month bills as part of the rollover.
The Wall Street Journal reports International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that a new programme to prop up Greece’s finances would require creditors to restructure debt. She told a conference in Washington in addition to the reforms Athens needs to undertake, “the other leg is debt restructuring for it to have debt sustainability. Greece is in a situation of acute crisis which needs to be addressed.”
El Mundo says Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy welcomed what he said was a “positive” change in tone from Greece, which has pledged to make “credible” reforms to try to win a new bailout deal. “The tune has changed, it’s not what we were hearing until now and that’s positive.”
Sputnik reports Security is tight and preparations are at their peack in the remote Russian city of Ufa, more than a thousand kilometres east of Moscow as leaders of the world’s developing economies are gathering for a two-day summit for the world’s emerging economies, known to their friends as the BRICS. Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told reporters that the subject of aid to Greece is not on the agenda. “However, what is being discussed,” he went on, “is the situation in the Eurozone triggered by the Greek debt problem. The ongoing crisis poses a risk for everyone at this summit.”
The Times says British finance minister George Osborne said he would reshape the world’s fifth-largest economy by chopping welfare but also announced a new national minimum wage in a budget that reflects an unexpectedly decisive election victory. In the first solely Conservative budget for nearly 20 years, Osborne pointed to the turmoil in Greece as he renewed his push to fix Britain’s public finances. However Osborne also announced that it would now take four years, not three, to achieve his aim of turning Britain’s hefty budget deficit into surplus.
Il Mattino reports former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a fresh legal blow when a Naples court sentenced him to three years for bribing a senator. But the 78-year-old will not actually have to serve any time in prison because of legal technicalities, his lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said. Ghedini slammed the verdict as “unjust and unjustified” but said the case would reach its statute of limitations on November 6. The case revolved around an alleged plot to destabilise a 2006-08 centre-left government.
Radio Beograde quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the EU would help Hungary and western Balkan countries struggling with an influx of migrants. “Greece and Italy were the first destination for refugees and migrants... but the situation changed significantly in June and July,” Merkel told reporters after meeting Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist has told The Associated Press. The activist said Boko Haram’s current offer is limited to the girls from the school in northeastern Nigeria whose mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that stretched to the White House.
Burma Today reports Myanmar has announced November 8 as the date for a historic general election set to be the first contested by Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition in a quarter of a century. The announcement from the country’s election commission fires the starting gun for the much-anticipated poll in the former junta-run nation, which has launched a series of reforms since the end of outright military rule in 2011.
ABC Online says an independent Australian senator has threatened to physically intimidate Prime Minister Tony Abbott, using illegal rugby tactics including grabbing his testicles, if he does not limit coal-seam gas exploration. Glenn Lazarus, a former rugby league prop and a senator for the eastern state of Queensland, said he submitted a petition to Abbott calling for health impact assessments, exclusion zones and community consultations over mining developments near residential, agricultural and farming areas.