The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times says Labour has promised to keep the best of the PN Budget. It also says that half of Malta’s taxis are still without equipment.
The Malta Independent quotes Mgr Charles Scicluna telling AP that the Church fight against sexual abuse is to remain strong. It also says that Gonzi lauded Tonio Borg ahead of his crucial vote.
l-orizzont says plans for a new blood bank near Mt Carmel Hospital have been abandoned despite the money already spent.
In-Nazzjon says that former conjoined twins have been brought to Malta with their Maltese father and British mother. It also quotes Lawrence Gonzi saying PL promises would mean higher taxes.
The overseas press
Hostilities between Islamist militants and Israel entered a sixth day on Monday as diplomatic efforts were set to intensify to try to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli air strikes on Gaza. AFP says three people were killed early this morning in new Israeli air strikes on Gaza, pushing the death toll in six days of violence to 80 Palestinians, 29 of them children and several women. The deaths came after multiple raids on Sunday that killed 31, in the bloodiest day of Israel's bombing campaign. The number of injuries rose over 700, officials said. At least 10 children, five of them babies and toddlers, and six women were among those killed on Sunday. On their part, fighters in Gaza continued to fire rockets into Israel. Two of them, aimed at the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, were shot down by Israel's anti-missile system.
Maariv says the Israeli attack came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said his country was ready to "significantly expand" its operation against Palestinian fighters in the territory. Thousands of Israeli troops backed by armour massed along the Gaza border, fuelling fears that Israel was poised to expand its aerial and naval bombing campaign into a ground operation.
Meanwhile, international pressure for a ceasefire continued to mount. The New York Times says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Israel and Hamas to work with Egypt to reach a ceasefire in their mounting conflict. Ban said in a statement he was heading for the region to support ceasefire efforts. The BBC reports that an Israeli government envoy has been to Cairo as efforts to negotiate a ceasefire stepped up. A member of Hamas said negotiations were focused on guarantees for the terms of the ceasefire. President Barack Obama and Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague have warned about the risks of Israel expanding its air assault on the Gaza Strip into a ground war, while vigorously defending the Jewish state's right to protect itself against rocket attacks.
France 24 says there is confusion in France over the election of a new leader for the opposition Conservative UMP Party. The two contenders – Jean-François Copé and former Prime Minister François Fillon – both proclaimed victory with only a few hundred votes’ difference between them. As the neck-and-neck result emerged, supporters of both UMP candidates made accusations of vote fraud.
The Financial Times says EU officials have begun work on a plan to create a long-term budget without the UK in a move that reflects mounting frustration that Britain’s demand for a spending freeze cannot be reconciled with the rest of the bloc. Both EU officials and national diplomats have been studying the legal and technical feasibility of devising such a budget, ahead of a two-day summit beginning on Thursday in Brussels, where the EU’s 27 heads of government will try to reach an agreement on the long-term budget.
The Standard reports at least six people have been killed and dozens injured in the Kenyan capital Nairobi by an explosion on a crowded minibus. Police said a grenade was thrown into the bus in an east key suburb which has a large Somali population.
The UN says the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is worsening as tens of thousands of people flee a rebel advance. Panapress says M23 rebels are within a few kilometres of the provincial capital Goma. The rebels say they no plans to take the city but residents fear it could fall at any moment.
China Daily says five street children in the city of Bijie in the southwestern Guizhou province, have died after climbing into a large rubbish bin and apparently lighting a fire to try to keep warm. The authorities said the boys, aged about 10, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.
The World Bank has warned that global temperatures could rise by four degrees Celsius by the end of this century unless more action was taken on climate change. A report commissioned by the bank says the world faces rising sea levels and food shortages with poor countries worst affected.
The Daily Mail says the scale of sexual offences committed by primary school children was revealed in what it calls “disturbing figures” from police forces across the country. The figures were uncovered in a survey of all 52 police forces across Britain. Of the 39 that responded, 31 forces had arrested children between the ages of 10 and 13 on suspicion of rape in the past year. Seven said the youngest child arrested for rape was aged just 10 while six said the youngest was 11, and 11 forces said the youngest suspect was 12. NSPCC spokesman Jon Brown said there was ‘undoubtedly’ a link between children carrying out sexual assaults and easy access to online pornography, which gives them a ‘distorted picture of what sexual relationships should be about’.
Los Angeles Times reports that Charlie Chaplin's iconic bowler hat and cane, trademark of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, have fetched $62,500 in an auction in Los Angeles. The 32-inch (81-centimetre) bamboo cane is inscribed "CCLT 36" in black ink, a reference to the Little Tramp, Chaplin's signature character. Other items sold on Sunday include a handwritten letter by Beatle John Lennon with a nude drawing of himself and his wife Yoko Ono, sent to an avant-garde magazine publisher in connection with the controversial 1968 "Two Virgins" nude album cover. The letter went for $25,000. Also auctioned were a collection of original photographs of Marilyn Monroe that went for $21,250, and three signed, abstract original oil paintings by crooner Frank Sinatra, the most valuable auctioned for $10,625.