The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has not yet been called to testify in the magisterial inquiry on last month’s car show accident that left 28 people injured. In another story it says community care provided by the State through the MMDNA will as of next month be provided by a new operator, Healthmark Group.
The Malta Independent reports Nationalist MP Clyde Puli’s speech in Parliament during which he challenged the Justice Ministry to seriously consider the direction Public Broadcasting Services is taking, citing financial trouble and political interference as the main issues to be addressed.
L-Orizzont says that the number of secondary school girls getting pregnant in the past 15 years has gone down considerably.
In-Nazzjon quotes Bishop Mario Grech speaking on the conclusions of the synod on his arrival back in Malta yesterday.
International news
Channel News Asia reports rescue teams are struggling to reach remote areas of northern Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan hit by a 8.1-magnitude earthquake. More than 265 people are so far known to have died and 2,000 were injured. In Kabul, buildings shook for up to 45 seconds, walls cracked and cars rolled in the streets as electricity went out. In Islamabad, frightened workers rushed from swaying buildings.
Scores of migrants are continuing to cross the Balkans on their way to Western Europe – a day after EU leaders reached an agreement aimed to slow the influx. Globus quotes Croatian police saying that more than 13,000 migrants had arrived from Serbia in the past 24 hours, while Slovenian police reported nearly 10,000 new arrivals from Croatia in the same period.
Fox News quotes a UN statement saying at least 120,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib since the beginning of October. The conflict has killed more than 250,000 people since it broke out in March 2011, sparked by a bloody crackdown on protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
An announcement by the World Health Organisation that processed meats such as bacon, sausage, ham and hot dogs rank alongside smoking as causes of cancer spurred a world-wide concerned reaction with Ansa quoting experts saying the report highlighted the need to return to the Mediterranean diet. Metro reports meat producers are angry, vegetarians are feeling vindicated, and cancer experts are welcoming the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer.
ABC quotes Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce saying it was a “farce to compare sausages with cigarettes”. He said the findings meant processed and red meat “join about 474 other things that WHO says are carcinogens, including walking outside if you’re in the city, or sunshine”.
Xinhua reports Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has today warned the US not to “make trouble out of nothing” in the South China Sea defined by Beijing as “sovereign waters”. Wang made the remarks during a seminar in Beijing when responding to a question on the US Navy's intention of sending a warship within 12 nautical miles of China's islands in the sea. The US action is being seen as a challenge to China’s territorial claims in the area.
LBC reports British Finance Minister George Osborne has sworn to rein in the House of Lords after peers delivered a double defeat to plans to cut tax credits. The Lords twice voted to delay the welfare changes, which opponents warned could leave low-paid families up to £1,300 a year worse off. Osborne said the actions of the unelected second chamber had constitutional implications.
The Guardian says British police have arrested a 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland in connection with the data breach at TalkTalk, as the broadband and phone provider faced growing criticism over its handling of the incident. TalkTalk’s website was breached last week – the third breach this year – resulting in the loss of customer names, addresses, birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers, account information, payment card and bank account details.
Avvenire reports Pope Francis has called for an end to centuries of prejudice and xenophobia towards gypsies but also said they must respect the law and send their children to school. Rights group Associazione 21 welcomed the Pope’s words but voiced “grave concern” at the pace of gypsy camp clearances in Rome ahead of the Jubilee Year of Mercy which Francis said will start on December 8.
Zim Net Radio announces that the carcasses of 22 elephants – “poisoned with cyanide” – have been found in Hwange National Park. Spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo confirmed that since the beginning of October, 62 animals were killed by the poachers.
USA Today says a state-wide bear hunt in Florida has been ended after just two days after a higher than expected number was killed. Officials had sold more than 3,200 hunting permits for the controversial week-long hunt in the state, the first for 21 years. Supporters claimed the aim was to cut down on the surging population of black bears, whose numbers have increased from 300 in the 1970s to more than 3,000.
A man is facing fraud charges for cheating his way into second place at Kenya’s Nairobi International Marathon last Sunday. The Standard reports police and race officials said the man, 28-year-old Julius Njogu, hid among a group of spectators before joining Sunday’s race near the finish. He was in line to claim around €8,675 in prize money before being caught and disqualified. Officials said they became suspicious because Njogu showed no signs of fatigue after supposedly completing the 42.2 kilometres course.