The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times reports that a court is to hear how Muammar Gaddafi and sons raped women.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says the clerical abuse victims are to initiate civil proceedings.
MaltaToday says UK oil firm drilling off Malta was among Libya back room dealing.
It-Torca reports that a company in difficulties is in a consortium shortlisted for a €20m health information tender.
KullHadd follows up the smell of gas noticed in several parts of Malta two years ago and says it was the result of a dangerous decision.
Illum says Lija Mayor Ian Castaldi Paris stepped down from his post as president of the PN College of Councillors because some people within the party did not let him work as he wished.
Il-Mument leads with the address by Lawrence Gonzi to the UN General Assembly.
The overseas press
European officials have consulted with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank over the weekend in a bid to calm market fears that the sovereign debt crisis could lead to a series of defaults within the eurozone. Bloomberg says the 17 eurozone member states, under pressure from global financial officials, pledged to do "whatever is necessary" in order to prevent a spread of the debt crisis that could throw the world economy into a renewed recession. The 187-member International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy had "entered a dangerous phase”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected a peacemaking blueprint forwarded by the Middle East Quartet of international mediators Al-Ayyam quotes Abbas saying that the proposal by four – the UN, EU, US and Russia – was unacceptable because it did not demand a halt to Israeli settlement construction or negotiations based on pre-1967 borders before Israel captured land the Palestinians claim for their state. He was speaking to reporters on the plane carrying him back from the United Nations, where he submitted a statehood bid on Friday.
Al Jazeera reports that anti-Gaddafi forces have made major progress in their attack on Sirte. After days of fierce resistance by pro-Gaddafi supporters, they swiftly advanced into the city from two sides – at one stage reaching within a kilometer of the centre. Meanwhile, in his first formal address to the General Assembly, Libyan’s transitional Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has appealed to the UN for the urgent release of all frozen Libyan government assets to his administration. He was making his.
As many as 40 people have been killed in clashes in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as protests continue against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Demonstrators camped out on Change Square, the focus of protests, have been caught in fighting between the army and dissident soldiers, a journalist in the city told the BBC. The violence followed Saleh's return from three months in Saudi Arabia.
Deutsche Welle reports that Pope Benedict was greeted by a crowd of tens of thousands in Freiburg on the third day of his first state visit to Germany. The pontiff reiterated his support for traditional values and spoke out against gay marriage. He remained unshaken by a minor security scare in Erfurt where a man was said to have fired four shots at a security guard about a kilometer away from the city’s Cathedral Square.
A defunct NASA satellite, whose doomed descent gained worldwide notoriety, fell back to Earth early Saturday — but exactly when or where the fiery plunge took place could forever be a mystery. Scientists may never know just where or when it fell. Los Angeles Times quotes NASA's chief orbital debris scientist saying it probably plunged into the Pacific Ocean, perhaps somewhere between Hawaii and the western coast of North America. There have been no reports of discovered pieces or injuries, further suggesting the debris didn't make it to land, he said.
CBS News quotes the White House saying the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Russia would continue if Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the reset had always been about national interests and not individual personalities. He was commenting after Putin publicly signalled that he would return to the presidency next year. Ekaterina Shtukina says President Dmitry Medvedev announced yesterday at a party convention in Moscow that he would step aside for Putin. Medvedev would become Putin's prime minister after the March election.
Corriere della Sera reports that Italian prosecutors have asked an appeals court to uphold the conviction of 24-year-old American Amanda Knox for the murder of her British roommate and increase her sentence to life in prison. Prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola sought the same sentence for Knox's co-defendant, former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, capping two days of closing arguments by the prosecutors.
Seven membes of the same family have been killed or injured in a house fire in northwest London. Sky News says five were killed – a 41-year-old woman, two teenage girls aged 13 and 24 and three children, a nine-year-old girl and two boys of five and two. The two injured persons – and man aged 51 and a girl of 16, were taken to west London hospitals. The girl is understood to be in a critical condition and the man’s condition is described as stable.
Merkur reports Bayern Munich's Brazilian defender Breno has been arrested on suspicion of burning down his own luxury villa. The 21-year-old player from Sao Paolo was taken into custody on suspicion of "grave arson." No one was injured in the blaze but the fire caused damages estimated at €1.5 million.
El Mundo says some of Spain’s top matadors are taking part in a final weekend of bullfighting at the La Monumental arena in Barcelona before the blood sport is banned in the north-east Catalonia region. The ban on the sport takes effect on January 1, but this is the last event of the 2011 season in the Catalan capital.