The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how a man was killed by a bolt of lightning. It also reports on the arraignment of the mother of a baby who drowned in a bath last week.
l-orizzont quotes the mother as saying in court that she is not mad. The newspaper also reports how a hunter was killed by lightning.
The Malta Independent also leads with the arraignment of the mother. It also reports how the PN confirmed its decisions against Franco Debono.
In-Nazzjon says the Executive kept the same position over Dr Debono.
The overseas press
The leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has told the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV that Iran could strike US bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities. Nasrallah admitted Hezbollah had no chemical weapons but it could still cause great damage to Israel if there was a war. “There are targets in Israel that (if hit) can achieve the same results,” he said in an apparent reference to Israel's nuclear reactors. The Hezbollah are believed to have upgraded their arsenal since the inconclusive month-long war with Israel in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.
Meanwhile, the White House has said Israel and the United States were committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But White House spokesman Jay Carney told VOA President Obama believed there was still time for diplomacy while pressuring Iran though sanctions. Carney's comments come after Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Washington had sent Teheran an indirect message through two unidentified European nations that it would not be dragged into a war if Israel attacked Iran over its nuclear programme, “as long as Tehran refrains from attacking American interests in the Persian Gulf”.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has expressed confidence that Germany’s highest court would not rule against the country’s participation in the European Stability Mechanism and the European fiscal pact. Deutsche Welle quotes Schäuble telling a conference in Strasbourg the German Constitutional Court would carefully examine the treaties to see whether or not they conformed to German law. However, he said that in the end, he was sure they would be approved. The Constitutional Court is to hand down its ruling on the largely Germany-financed ESM, worth up to €500 billion, and the fiscal pact next Tuesday. The Bundestag approved both measures in a parliamentary session two months ago, but President Joachim Gauck delayed signing the legislation into law after a number of legal challenges were filed against it.
Expresso reports that the Portuguese authorities have asked other European countries to send help as the country’s fire-fighters struggle to contain forest blazes being fuelled by high temperatures and strong winds. A man died on Monday as he tried to douse flames around his farm and two people were reported hurt when a fire-fighting helicopter crashed in the same area. Some 1,700 fire-fighters, 500 vehicles and 13 aircraft fought blazes mostly in the north of the country.
According to Mail & Guardian, illegal strikes have spread to gold mines in South Africa, weeks after platinum miners launched an illegal strike that ended in a deadly shooting by police. On Monday, 12,000 gold miners held an illegal strike at one mine as police shot rubber bullets and tear gas at strikers at another mine. Five of South Africa’s top ministers gathered Monday in Johannesburg to assure the public and investors that the government had the situation under control. Their insistence follows weeks of criticism and political backlash over the government’s handling of the August 16 clash at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, where police shot and killed 34 striking workers.
ABC TV reports a new study has found adults who were exposed to asbestos as children in the West Australian town of Wittenoom were dying of aggressive cancers at excessively high rates. Asbestos mining was stopped in 1966, and the town later closed, after it was discovered asbestos fibres were causing serious diseases. WA's Institute for Medical Research estimates more than 2,000 children under the age of 15 were exposed to asbestos in Wittenoom.
The official North Korean Central News Agency says Typhoon Bolaven, which hit the peninsula last week, killed 48 people, left more than 50 people injured or missing and left 21,000 homeless. It also damaged 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) of farmland and destroyed or inundated 6,700 houses. The typhoon also killed 15 people in South Korea.
Metro reports a Dutch court has convicted a 15-year-old boy of murdering a teenage girl after she argued with another girl on Facebook. The youth was sentenced to one year in prison, the maximum punishment for a minor. Judges also ordered him to undergo psychiatric treatment at a juvenile detention centre for three years.
The Irish Independent says the Dublin City Council has thrown its weight behind the campaign for same-sex marriage after it voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion calling for full marriage equality in Ireland. The move has been welcomed by gay rights activists and equality organisations. Cork City Council and Belfast City Council passed similar motions in June.
The Egyptian Gazette reports a heavy metal concert at a well-known cultural centre in Cairo has prompted a police investigation after an Islamist lawyer claimed it was attended by Satanists. Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Ismail el-Washahi filed a suit accusing the El-Sawy Culture Wheel of hosting people wearing black T-shirts, carrying Satanists’ drawings and accessories while dancing at the concert. The centre denied the claims.
The Los Angeles Times announces the death in a Los Angeles hospital of Green Mile actor Michael Clarke Duncan. Oscar nominated Duncan, 54, had been in hospital for almost two months following a massive heart attack last July. The massively built actor had a handful of minor roles before The Green Mile brought him the an People's Choice Award in 2001 and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. In the 1999 prison drama, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, the actor played John Coffey, played a gentle giant with supernatural powers sentenced to death for the murder of two young white girls.