The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how Gaddafi loyalists are fighting back in a number of areas of Tripoli while the rebels have offered a reward for anyone producing Muammar Gaddafi, dead or alive.
The Malta Independent says Gaddafi has vowed to fight on till victory or martyrdom.
l-orizzont says a contractor working for the government on the Cospicua seafront project has stopped work because he has not been paid for two months
In-Nazzjon reports how international journalists held in a hostage situation in Tripoli were freed and transferred to the Corinthia hotel.
The overseas press
The Daily Telegraph discloses that British SAS forces are on the ground in Libya helping to spearhead the hunt for Col. Muammar Gaddafi. In an exclusive from Tripoli, the paper says that for the first time, defence sources confirmed that the SAS had been in Libya for several weeks, and played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli. With the majority of the capital now in rebel hands, the SAS soldiers – who have been dressed in Arab civilian clothing and carrying the same weapons as the rebels – had been ordered to switch their focus to the search for Gaddafi, who has been on the run since his fortified headquarters was captured on Tuesday.
Al Mostaqbal says Libyan rebels have, for the first time, offered Col. Gaddafi safe passage out of the country of he renounced his leadership. At the same time, they offered a reward of €1.2 million to anyone who killed or captured him – with the promise of amnesty for anyone to do so from within his inner circle.
Meanwhile, in an audio message on Syrian TV, Gaddafi renewed his calls for loyalist Tripoli residents to fight. He claimed that he had walked through Tripoli without being spotted and was confident that the city would be defended. He did not specify when he had taken to the streets. Meanwhile, in a telephone message to al-Orouba TV, Gaddafi’s only daughter Aisha has appealed to Libyans loyal to the regime to unite against “Nato and foreign aggression”.
Al Arabiya reports that a plan to move rebel headquarters from Benghazi to Tripoli has been postponed until next week because the capital has not yet been secured. Col. Gaddafi’s fighter were still putting up fierce resistance at his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli and making sporadic attacks elsewhere in the capital and other areas of the country. More than a day after the Colonel’s barracks were stormed by the rebels, a BBC correspondent there said the situation was still precarious. The rebels say their advance towards Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte had been stalled by heavy artillery fire.
Corriere delle Sera says four Italian journalists have been abducted in Libya, reportedly by Gaddafi loyalists as they were on their way from Zawija to Tripoli. Their driver was killed in the attack.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that dozens of reporters who had been trapped for five days at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, were evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They were being held against their will.
Le Monde says President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced France would host an international conference on helping Libya on September 1. Aref Ali Nayed, a senior Libyan diplomat has said the rebels urgently needed world leaders to release at least $5 billion in frozen assets to pay state salaries and maintain vital services like medical care. The United States has asked the UN Security Council to unfreeze immediately $1.5 billion.
USA Today reports the co-founder of the computing giant Apple, Steve Jobs, has resigned as the company’s CEO with immediate effect. Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January,was widely regarded as being the driving force behind a series of pioneering new products. He will stay on as Apple’s chairman. His replacement as CEO would be Tim Cook, who is currently the company’s chief operating officer.
The Washington Times says that a navy panel has ruled that Capt. Owen P. Honors, the former commander of USS Enterprise, could remain in the navy despite a finding that he committed misconduct when producing raunchy videos aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Among other things, the videos included simulated same-sex shower scenes, anti-gay slurs and references to prostitution in foreign ports.
The Orange County Register announces that a seven-month-old baby boy who was thrown from the fourth floor of a hospital parking structure died yesterday, the same day his mother made an initial court appearance on charges of attempted murder and felony child abuse. A police spokesman said the charges against the mother, Sonia Hermosillo, 31, would be upgraded to murder. Hermosillo's husband, Noe Medina, told the paper his wife had been hospitalized for postpartum depression in June after she said she didn't want their son, who was diagnosed with physical disabilities.