Good morning
Your morning briefing for Friday follows with a review of the main stories and headlines from Malta and around the world.
The latest headlines:
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 hit off the coast of southern Japan on Friday.
Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday that he will refuse to assign a port for a Navy ship to dock in after it rescued dozens of migrants in waters off Libya.
A ferry carrying almost 350 people is drifting in the Adriatic Sea after experiencing technical problems.
Arsenal and Chelsea have qualified for the Europa League final, completing an historic week with European football’s two major finals now featuring Premier League teams.
Newspaper Review
These are the headline stories from Malta’s newspapers’ frontpages.
The Malta Independent reports that the remaining €2.9 million hat was stolen in the Bank of Valletta cyberattack in February have been located in Hong Kong. The bank opened legal proceedings to recover the money.
The Times leads with a new Vatican law making it mandatory for religious leaders to report cases of sexual abuse and cover-ups will not be tolerated. Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s chief investigator, said that church leaders must also abide by Caesar’s law.
The Malta Independent covers a debate between MEP candidates Alex Agius Saliba and Peter Agius during an edition of Indepth. The candidates clashed on the Socialists’ push for tax harmonisation and also discussed abortion and SMEs.
The Times says that Malta accepted an extradition request of a Sicilian man from his home country. Antonio Ricci had been residing in Malta for the past 10 years and will now face charges on links with the mafia.
L-Orizzont reports on evacuation exercises by the Philippines, Bangladesh, and other countries of their citizens in Libya as tensions in the country continue to rise. The paper says Malta has made no such plans yet.
In-Nazzjon quotes PN Leader Adrian Delia who said that the Nationalist Party is defending Malta against plans for EU-wide tax harmonisation, but the Labour Party is unable to because its political family is proposing the legislation.
L-Orizzont says that 500 doctors have voiced their opposition to the introduction of abortion soon after a Doctors for Choice group advocating for the legislation has been set up. Newly formed Doctors for Life declared its position against abortion.
In-Nazzjon covers a press conference by PN spokesperson for Rights of the Unborn Claudio Grech and MEP Candidate Peter Agius who said that the European Socialists are intent on making abortion a fundamental right, funded by citizens’ taxes.
In other headlines:
Ireland has become the second country in the world to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.
Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and a small Japanese bank and three other banks are set to be fined by EU antitrust regulators in the coming weeks for rigging the multitrillion dollar foreign exchange market.
The Malta Institute of Accountants (MIA) signed a Protocol of Cooperation with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC), forging a new alliance that promotes the interests of respective members.
The U.S. Justice Department announced that for the first time the United States has seized a North Korean cargo ship it accused of illicit coal shipments in violation of U.S. and United Nations sanctions.
Ira Losco’s Hey Now is Spotify’s selected track in a special EU election playlist, created to coincide with Europe Day (May 9).
David Beckham has been disqualified from driving for six months for using his mobile phone while at the wheel.
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