Good morning,
Malta’s newspapers lead with statements delivered by the Chief Justice and Chamber of Advocates President, during the opening of the forensic year.
In the world, the news of fresh earthquakes in Indonesia broke the dawn. In other headlines we read about the Eurozone meeting and concern on Italy’s budget, the protests in the Catalan region and the UK Conservative Party Conference.
Your morning briefing helps you start your day informed.
The Latest
Two quakes struck in quick succession off the southern coast of Indonesia’s Sumba island on Tuesday morning, the United States Geological Survey said. Tremors comes four days after major quake killed at least 844 people on Sulawesi island.
Nearly 200,000 people displaced and in need of emergency help, while thousands stream out of stricken areas.
Finance ministers from the eurozone’s largest economies have urged Italy’s government to respect the bloc’s spending rules, as they pushed Rome for clarity on its plans to tear up a previous budget agreement with Brussels. FT/ANSA
Appeals for unity dominate UK Conservative Party on eve of speech by Boris Johnson. CD
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, one of President Emmanuel Macron’s closest allies, offered to step down on Monday but Macron refused to accept his resignation, daily Le Figaro reported on its website.
The UK will have control of its immigration policy for the first time in decades after Brexit, Theresa May has promised. BBC
A year after a banned referendum on secession from Spain, tens of thousands of Catalan protesters piled pressure on the region’s separatist government Monday during an anniversary marked by road and rail blockades and late-night clashes with police. France 24
German Chancellor Angela Merkel came out top of a new PEW survey with 52 percent of respondents expressing confidence in her to “do the right thing regarding world affairs.” Seventy percent said they had “no confidence” in US President Donald Trump. DW
A court in Iran has sentenced three men to death after they were found guilty of corruption, in what is seen as an attempt to soothe growing public anger over financial crimes and an economy devastated by US sanctions. FT
Afriqiyah Airways canceled a flight on Sunday night scheduled to fly from Benina Airport in Benghazi to Tunisia after the pilot in command was attacked by a militiaman. Libya Observer
No book, it seems, is too substantive or too insignificant to be banned in Kuwait. Recent targets of the government’s literary censors include an encyclopedia with a picture of Michelangelo’s David and a Disney version of “The Little Mermaid.” New York Times
An Italian scientist has been suspended by one of the world’s leading leading nuclear research centres after he gave a presentation saying “physics was invented and built by men”. Telegraph
Oil prices climbed above $85 a barrel for the first time in nearly four years as renewed worries about US sanctions on Iran and optimism over global economic growth propelled the market higher. FT
The Review
The Times lead with the story where over 25 kilogrammes of cannabis resin with an estimated street value of around €700,000 were seized yesterday during a Drug Squad operation in Sliema. The operation in a street-level garage in Matthew Pulis Street saw the arrest of three Italian men.
The Malta Independent leads with the statement of the Chamber of Advocates President George Hyzler when he said that he has had what he hopes was the last meeting with the Justice Ministry over a bill which will regulate the legal profession, ironing out the last points of dispute over its creation.
L-Orizzont says that the last points of controversy in the Bill regulating the law profession have now been ironed out between the Chamber of Advocates and the Ministry of Justice. In another story, the newspaper reports on Eurostat figures showing a decrease of 3.8 per cent in unemployment in August.
On the same theme, on The Times we read that the Chief Justice warned that lawyers who keep dragging cases even when they are lost on appeal are “unprofessional” and should lose their warrant.
In another story, the Malta Independent reports the initiative by the University Students’ Council has announced a number of measures to introduce sustainability in transport.
In-Nazzjon says that a company in the software sector, Hobsoft Malta Jobs, is dismissing 19 employees. The company, a subsidiary of Brandstaetter Group, has been operating in Malta since 1990.
In another story, In-Nazzjon reports on a motion tabled by the Opposition calling for the revocation of the Ġieh ir-Repubblika awarded to Tony Zarb, following comments he made referring to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The newspaper carries another story about the anti-drug operation in Sliema, leading to the arrest of three Italian men.
