The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that the defecting pilots get a heroes’ welcome on their return to Libya.
The Malta Independent also leads with the return of the Libyan fighter pilots. Like The Times, it also gives prominence to the short visit to Malta yesterday by Libyan NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
l-orizzont says the Libyan pilots were grateful to Malta for its protection. It also quotes Joseph Muscat saying families are the best economic yardstick.
In-Nazzjon reports that Mr Jalil expressed gratitude and appreciation to Malta. It also features comments by the prime minister who said the PN was proud of the past and confident for the future.
The overseas press
Berliner Zeitung reports German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition suffered a setback in Berlin state elections on Sunday, as the coalition's junior partner, the Free Democratic Party, was dealt a heavy defeat that could fuel infighting in the government over its handling of the euro-zone debt crisis. Based on exit polls, the Social Democrats were expected to remain in power in the city-state, likely in coalition with the rising Greens, who were expected to win just over 18 per cent of the vote. While Merkel's conservative CDU was on course for just over 23 per cent of the vote, its partner the FDP crashed to around two per cent – well short of the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter the state legislature. This was the fifth time in seven regional elections this year that the FDP had failed to enter regional parliaments.
The Jerusalem Post reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his cabinet that the Palestinians’ UN bid for statehood would never succeed and that peace would only come through direct negotiations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads for New York this week, to ask the General Assembly to grant membership. Netanyahu is also going to the US to ensure that the Palestinians’ attempt to avoid talks will be blocked at Security Council level and to present the Israeli case to the UN General Assembly. The US has declared it would veto the move.
Meanwhile, a BBC poll across the 19 countries found that 49 per cent support UN recognition of Palestine as an independent state while 21per cent said their government should oppose it. The Palestinians say they would ask for full membership based on the 1967 borders. The Israelis, while officially accepting the idea of a Palestinian state, want to leave nearly all of the borders where they are and keep control of Jerusalem.
Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim has told Syrian-based Arrai TV that 17 "mercenaries" had been captured in Bani Walid. He said most of them were French, one of them was from an Asian country that has not been identified, two English and one Qatar. Reuters later reported that the French foreign ministry said it had no information regarding the report. NATO, French and British officials had on Saturday denied a report by Arrai TV that some NATO troops had been captured by Gaddafi loyalists.
CNN quotes a Yemeni medic saying that at least 26 protesters were killed and more than 550 were injured when security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at a massive demonstration in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday. The death toll was expected to rise because at least 96 of those injured were in critical condition. Yemeni anti-government protesters outside Sana'a University called for a boycott of university studies until President Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down.
Hindustan Times says at least 16 persons were killed and 50 others injured when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Sikkim-Nepal border area late on Sunday evening, sending shockwaves across north and east India and Bangladesh. Indian authorities said this was the strongest earthquake to have rocked the country in 77 years: in 1934, an 8.4-magnitude quake had killed 7,000. Meanwhile, News International says the United Nations on Sunday launched an appeal to raise $356 million which will be spent initially on 91 projects in the Pakistani flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
A senior Conservative MP has called on Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mark Pritchard, secretary of the committee of Tory backbenchers, said EU membership was a "burdensome yolk, disfiguring Britain's independence". He wrote Conservative backbenchers could no longer be taken for granted to “write blank cheques for workers in Lisbon while people in London and Leicester were joining the dole queue.”
Swiss tabloid Blick reports UBS has raised its estimated losses due to alleged unauthorised trading to $2.3 billion from an initial $2 billion. The bank also said the alleged activity by trader Kweku Adoboli was uncovered after UBS began making inquiries. The trader was charged with fraud and false accounting at a London court on Friday.
The Times says Sudanese twins born with the tops of their heads joined together have been separated in a rare and risky series of operations at a London Ormond Street children's hospital. Facing the World, a charity which helps disfigured children, helped fund the four-stage operation on 11-month-olds Rital and Ritag Gaboura. Twins born joined at the head occur in about one in 2.5 million births.
Variety announces that "The Good Wife" star Julianna Margulies has won the Emmy Award for best actress in a drama series, while Kyle Chandler won the male lead actor award. Margulies, who navigates politics, law and family in the show, received the award at Sunday's Emmy ceremony. As a member of the "ER" medical drama cast, she won a best supporting actress trophy in 1995.