The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press. The local press is dominated by yesterday's tragedies.
The Times reports how three men died and another was missing after yesterday's fireworks factory explosion in Gharb. It also reports the traffic accident death of the Zejtun vice parish priest.
The Malta Independent leads with the death of the Zejtun vice parish priest and the fireworks blast. It also asks if Lawrence Gonzi will have two deputies.
In-Nazzjon also leads with yesterday's tragedy.
l-orizzont says yesterday was a Sunday of tragedies.
The overseas press
The New York Times reports that tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by superstorm Sandy are facing a new crisis in New York as temperatures plunge, raising the spectre of people freezing to death. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated that betweenn30,000 and 40,000 homes in the city alone have been left unusable by the storm as the cold intensifies. Sandy pummelled 15 states with fierce winds and a huge tidal surge that killed at least 109 people in the United States and Canada and a damage bill running to tens of billions of dollars. Almost two million homes are still without power and a new storm predicted to hit on Wednesday is bringing more heavy rain and winds.
Meanwhile, NBC News says President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are engaged in a frenzied cross-country blitz of the remaining toss-up states, with both sides predicting victory in a race that remains too close to call. National opinion polls showed a race for the popular vote in the election so close that only a statistically insignificant point or two separated the rivals. But a majority of polls in the battleground states – especially in the Midwestern states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio – showed Obama with a slight advantage, giving him an easier path to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio
Reuters reports rival Libyan militias fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in Tripoli on Sunday and set fire to a former intelligence building in one of the worst breakdowns in security in the capital since Muammar Gaddafi's fall. At least five people were wounded and a stray bullet entered a hospital in the heart of the city, where residents rushed to arm themselves, saying calls to police had gone unheeded. After more than 12 hours, the army moved in.
Meanwhile, Libya Herald says a car bomb has exploded near a police station in Benghazi, wounding three people. The authorities said the blast heavily damaged the front of the Hadayeq police station, charring and blackening its facade with smoke. The entrance to the station was destroyed, with glass strewn on the street and fire-fighters putting out a fire engulfing a police car.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak in 2010 ordered the army to prepare an attack against Iranian nuclear installations, though the order was later rescinded. According to private television Channel 2 TV, the order was not implemented due to opposition from the army chief at the time, General Gabi Ashkenazi, and from then Mossad chief Meir Dagan. Barak told Channel 2 that Ashkenazi had told Netanyahu the Israeli army was not ready and did not have the operational means to bring an attack against Iran.
France 24 says 50 leaders from of Europe and Asian meet in Laos today for the ninth Asia-Europe (ASEM 9) summit which is expected to be dominated by the eurozone debt crisis and growing territorial tensions in the region. The summit comes amid a gloomy outlook for the global economy, which has worsened further with unemployment across the eurozone having risen to a record 11.6 per cent.
Al-Arab reports the Red Cross has reached the two beleaguered districts of Khaldiyeh and Hamidiyeh in the Syrian city of Homs for the first time in months and a team of six ICRC staff members and 28 Syrian-Arab Red Crescent volunteers delivered food, medical and hygiene items for more than 1,200 people, as well as baby milk and nappies. Meanwhile, the Syrian Network for Human Rights released a statement saying 4,532 people died from unrest in Syria during the month of October. This equates to 147 people dying each day and six dying each hour.
Los Angeles Times says United Airlines landed its inaugural flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Sunday, becoming the first US carrier to fly the composite-plastic fuselage air craft. The twin-aisle plane, delayed more than three years by production problems at Boeing, was designed to be about 20 per cent more fuel efficient than similar size planes and less costly to maintain than other big jets. Half the plane is made of strong and lightweight composite materials, including the fuselage and wings, instead of metal. One complaint on the flight was the lack of Wi-Fi on what Boeing called the most technologically advanced commercial jet in the world.