Press digest

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

The Times and most of the other newspapers lead with the theft of gold items from the statue of Our Lady of Graces in Zabbar. It also quotes Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna saying the allocation of €1.5m for the restoration of Fort St Angelo is too little.

The Malta Independent says six agreements will be signed this week during the visit to Malta by Spanish King Juan Carlos.

In-Nazzjon carries a picture of former President Vincent Tabone and his wife, on the 68^th anniversary of their marriage. It also reports comments by the Prime Minister that recent investment projects would employ hundreds of people.

l-orizzont quotes Joseph Muscat saying the new higher tariffs for electricity were a threat to jobs. It also reports that although a police sergeant had been found to be entitled for an on call allowance, none had been given to him. His file at police headquarters has been lost.

The Press in Britain...

The Daily Mirror leads with the growing fears for victims of the Cumbria floods as volunteers say foods stocks are dwindling.

According to the Daily Mail, the family of Jean Charles De Menezes, who police shot dead at Stockwell tube station, will receive a reduced compensation payout.

The Times says the MoD has been criticised for spending £149m on an "urgent" upgrade to 900 tanks that can still only be used for training.

The Daily Express takes the view that Britain's obesity crisis is being made worse by fad diets promising a quick fix for weight loss.

The Guardian focuses on a crisis in public confidence in Ofsted, the school watchdog, as local authority service heads accuse it of being "flawed, wasteful and failing".

The Independent claims English universities' funding body has called for governors at a university accused of misusing public money to quit.

The Daily Telegraph reports a second member of the Commons committee that governs MP's conduct is facing calls to step down.

The Financial Times says British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, will not be compromising on cost cutting measures as cabin crew prepare to strike.

The departure of the X Factor twins, John and Edward from the reality TV programme is the top story in The Sun.

However, the Daily Star. Says they are set to make a fortune starting with a Christmas hit.

The Daily Record exposes a high-flying businessman as a serial love rat and bigamist.

The Herald says ministers plan to create a massive quango to buy unsold new homes in Scotland and help families and housebuilders through the recession.

The Scotsman says David Cameron revived SNP hopes by admitting a hung parliament would be better for the UK than another five years of a Labour government.

And elsewhere...

Adevarul announces that exit polls in Romania show that President Traian Basescu has won the first round of the country's closely fought election, but will face Mircea Geoana in a run-off on December 6.

Abendzeitung says Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has threatened to use military force against Armenia if the two neighboring countries do not resolve a long-running territorial dispute during talks in Munich.

According to a new study published in Nature Geoscience, the East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future. The same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antartic icesheet is also shedding significant mass.

Al Rayaam reports Sudan has sentenced six children to death for taking part in a Darfur rebel attack on Khartoum. However, the government has since promised not to execute them.

Asia Observer says rescuers have saved more than 240 people aboard a crowded Indonesian passenger ferry that sank in rough waters off Sumatra island, but 29 people have died and at least 17 others were missing, officials said. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but all its passengers were said to be safe.

China Daily says at least 92 people have died and 16 are still missing after an underground explosion at a Chinese coal mine

Times of India reports suspected militants have set off two bombs outside a police station in north east India, killing seven people and wounding more than 50, police said. A third bomb reported in a market a few miles away turned out to be a firecracker. India's north-east is beset by scores of conflicts which have killed more than 10,000 people over the past decade.

USA Today says astronaut Randolph Bresnik is a father. He announced the birth of his daughter, Abigail, on Nasa's airwaves on Sunday morning. His wife, Rebecca, gave birth to their second child back home in Houston on Saturday night. They have a three-year-old son, adopted from the Ukraine.

A Roman Catholic bishop in the US has banned Patrick Kennedy, the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, from receiving Communion because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Mr Kennedy told The Providence Journal in an interview. The decision by Bishop Thomas Tobin significantly escalates a bitter dispute between the prelate, and Mr Kennedy, a son of the most famous US Roman Catholic political family.

Metro reports that a first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal On the Origin of Species will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain. The book, which was first printed in 1859, was bought by a family for just a few shillings in a shop about 40 years ago. The book is expected to fetch €60,000.