The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the finance minister has expressed doubts that Malta will achieve a deficit of 2.3% as projected in the Budget, but said the deficit will still be under 3%. It also says that an exploratory oil well will be dug next year.
The Malta Independent says Franco Debono does not remember telling the health minister that he would not move a no-confidence motion against him.
l-orizzont quotes the commissioner for voluntary organisations saying that that overseas development aid and the good causes fund lack transparency. It also says an investigation is under way into tax evasion by a supermarkets franchise.
In-Nazzjon reports on an agreement for Maltese patients to receive specialised medical care in Italian hospitals.
The overseas press
EU Observer reports that Greece's international lenders – the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – have suggested measures that include increasing the working week to six days. A leaked document seen by UK media outlets was also reported to include proposals to increase flexibility of work schedules and set a single rate statutory minimum wage. Inspectors from Greece's creditors are due back in Greece this week to discuss whether the country has made enough progress in its financial reforms to justify getting its next instalment of bailout funds.
Mauritania's state news agency, Agence Mauritanienne d'Information, says Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, has been handed over to Libya, where he was expected to stand trial. Al-Senussi was arrested in March after entering Mauritania using a disguise and a fake passport. Since then, Libyan authorities have called for his extradition. Al-Senussi is the brother-in-law of ex-Libyan leader, who was forced from power by a revolt that in October 2011 led to his death and the arrest of several of his key allies. He was also wanted by the International Criminal Court and France.
Al Ahram says President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt has told a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad must learn from "recent history" and step down before it was too late. He said that a resolution to the crisis was an Arab responsibility, reiterating his call for the Syrian government to resign. Morsi said the time has come in Syria for "change and not wasting time speaking of reform".
Meanwhile, Ulusal Kanal reports Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced further frustration at the lack of international consensus over the chaos in Syria. He told a meeting of his ruling AK party that Turkey did not "have the luxury to remain indifferent" to what was happening in Syria – which he described as a "terrorist state" that carried out massacres against its own people.
In another development, The New York Times says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sharply criticised the Security Council for what he called its "paralysis" on Syria. He told the General Assembly that a lack of decisive action harmed the Syrian people and damaged the credibility of the council. Efforts to pressure Syria had been hampered partly by Russia and China. The two countries have vetoed three Security Council resolutions on Syria.
Montreal’s RDI TV reports a gunman has shot and killed at least one person inside a Canadian theatre where Quebec's separatist leader was giving a speech in the wake of a narrow election win. Bodyguards rushed Parti Quebecois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois from the stage in the wake of the shooting, before she later returned to finish her speech. The police said 50-year-old man had been arrested after shooting two people. One person later died while the other was badly wounded. The suspect also set fire to the back of the building.
Russia’s news agency RIA Novosty says regional leaders are meeting in Vladivostok. for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, in a bid to boost trade and investment. Ministers from the Asia-Pacific region are focusing on issues including food security, having already noted the impact of the United States drought on food prices. Russia's Economic Development Minister Andrey Belousov was “very optimistic” about the Chinese economy.
Kabul Times quotes Afghan government officials saying hundreds of soldiers have been sacked or detained for having links with the Taliban, as international concern grows over the rising number of insider attacks on NATO troops. Afghan servicemen have killed at least 45 NATO-force troops this year, compared with 35 for all of last year. Last week three Australian soldiers were killed by an Afghan army sergeant in Uruzgun Province, prompting a deadly raid to find the soldier and a war of words between Canberra and Kabul.
Mercury says a Tasmanian judge has treated a teenage rapist as an adult, sentencing him to four years behind bars because the crime was so appalling. The boy, who was 14 at the time, admitted dragging a woman off the Cornelian Bay walking track at knifepoint and raping her multiple times. Justice Shan Tennant said it was an appalling crime which had changed the woman's life forever.
Der Spiegel reports that a 74-year-old Bavarian farmer who wanted to grow sunflowers on a spare patch of land ended up with a thriving crop of 1,000 cannabis plants that earned him a visit from drug enforcement officials. He explained to the astonished officers he had planted the field with old bird food, not realizing that it contained hemp seeds. He promptly ploughed up the field with the tractor under the watchful eyes of the police. The type of cannabis was so weak that no one could have gotten high off it anyway, police said.
Lanka Times says a Chinese visitor to Sri Lanka's biggest gem and jewellery exhibition has been arrested for attempted theft after swallowing a diamond worth nearly $14,000. The 32-year-old man had asked the stall owner for a close inspection of the diamond on the opening day of Facets Sri Lanka, an annual exhibition in the capital Colombo. He took the diamond out of a display cabinet and appeared to be appraising it when suddenly he put it in his mouth. The man was arrested and taken to Colombo National Hospital where he was to be given laxatives.