The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says that 1,300 motorists are to be refunded for having been fined more than the legal limit for overspeeding
The Malta Independent reports comments by Franco Debono that party financing must be regulated. It also says that 4,500 smart meters are being installed every month.
l-orizzont shows a picture of a truck carrying gas cylinders parked near a fireworks factory in Siggiewi. It also reports on Austin Gatt’s plans not to contest the next general election.
In-Nazzjon leads with the opening of a night shelter for the elderly in Zejtun. It also says that Joseph Muscat had backed Alfred Sant’s calls to devalue the lira.
The overseas press
The Financial Times reports that Irish officials have insisted that they did not need fiscal assistance from the European Union, even as pressure mounted on Dublin to accept aid and present plans to restructure its banking system. German officials “categorically denied” they were pressing the Irish government to accept aid. The European Central Bank had no comment
Kathemerini leads with the Greek Socialist Party’s overwhelming wins in the country’s second round of municipal and regional elections where the governing Pasok Party captured the Attica region – home to almost half the Greek population – along with Athens. It was the first time in more than 25 years that New Democracy lost control of the capital. According to official projections, the socialists were also set to win nine out of 13 regional governors’ posts to four for the conservative New Democracy.
Le Figaro says re-appointed French Prime Minister Fillon has announced a restructured cabinet. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux remained in their former jobs, but Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was replaced by former Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. Speculation that former French Prime Minister and current mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppe, would become Defense Minister replacing Herve Morin was also confirmed.
Il Tempo says Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has yielded to calls for a no-confidence vote, but only after crucial budget plans have been agreed. The move is seen as a bid by the premier to regain the political initiative.
According to Aftonbladet, Sweden’s opposition Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin, who has led the party since 2007, said she would step down early next year after the worst election defeat in nearly a century. The Social Democrats are among the most successful electoral forces in European politics, having ruled Sweden for 65 of the past 78 years but has lost the past two elections to a centre-right government led by Fredrik Reinfeldt, prime minister.
Irrawaddy reports that in her first speech since her release, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told thousands of supporters on Sunday she wants "to work with all democratic forces" to bring change to the military-led country. She told throngs of cheering supporters that the "basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech". She pleaded with them not to give up hope because there was no reason to lose heart.
The Irish Times reports that Boston’s Cardinal Sean O'Malley – visiting Dublin to examine how children were protected against paedophile priests – has told parishioners he had no “quick fix offer”. He called on survivors who were harmed, as well as lay people and the religious, to come forward, saying that the crisis of the sexual abuse of minors had profound repercussions for entire communities,
Most British nationals forcus on the release of a British couple kidnapped by pirates in Somalia. Paul and Rachel Chandler, who are quoted as saying they were ‘happy to be alive’ after their 13-month ordeal, were preparing to fly home after 388 days in captivity. Reports suggested their captors were paid a ransom of up to £620,000. The Chandlers were taken hostage on October 22 last year, when 12 pirates stormed their 12-metre yacht near Somali waters. Their kidnappers beat and whipped them and also separated them at different camps for several months.
German Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel has become the sport's youngest champion after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. L’Equipe says the perfectly executed race caps a successful season for Vettel and his Red Bull team. At 23 years and 134 days old, Vettel becomes the youngest Formula One champion in history, a distinction previously held by Hamilton, who won in 2008 at the age of 23 years and 307 days.
British singer James Blunt has said his refusal to obey orders from an American general helped avert an international incident, and a potential Third World War. The You’re Beautiful singer, a former captain in the Life Guards, told BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics he risked a court martial by countermanding an order from General Wesley Clark to attack Russian forces to take control of Pristina Airfield in Kosovo in June 1999, during the Balkan conflict. Blunt, now 36 and a patron of the UK Help for Heroes charity, was at the head of a column of 30,000 NATO troops with his unit.