The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times says Malta is hoping to get €680m from the EU Budget.

The Malta Independent quotes the chairman of Air Malta saying the airline was unprepared for the onslaught of low-cost airlines. It also reports how residents near the Marsascala recycling plant will receive a rebate on their power bills.

In-Nazzjon also leads with the rebate for Marsascala  residents and the outcome of the EU summit.

l-orizzont leads with the joy of a mother who had triplets after IVF and defends the process.

The overseas press

Börzen Zeitung quotes EU President Herman Van Rompuy saying an EU budget deal was possible early next year, despite a two-day Brussels summit failed to reach any agreement. Van Rompuy downplayed division, saying that "constructive discussions" at the summit meant a deal for the 27-nation bloc could be viable in early 2013. The summit was aimed at confronting the economic crisis facing the EU, but tensions remained high between wealthy member states and countries seeking a bigger aid budget.

Egyptians have reacted with fury to President Mohamed Morsi's decree exempting all his decisions from legal challenge. Al Ahram reports protesters in several cities – including Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria and Suez – attacked the offices of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, as rival pro- and anti-government groups demonstrated in Cairo. Opponents began a one-week sit-in protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square as Morsi said he wanted to move Egypt forward as a stable and safe nation and did not want sole control of the country.

Global News reports intense battles between Syrian forces and opposition activists struggling to maintain control of neighborhoods south of Damascus. The fighting comes as Syrian rights activists said more than 40,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March of last year. The death toll includes some 28,000 civilians and rebel fighters, more than 10,000 Syrian soldiers, nearly 1,400 defectors and about 600 unidentified people.

Haaretz says the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains in place despite the fact that Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian and wounding nine others along Gaza's border fence with Israel. Friday's shooting was the first violence since a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold a day before.

As representatives from some 200 countries prepare to meet in Doha next week, VOA quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying climate change poses a "clear and urgent" challenge the international community must address. The first decade of this century was the hottest on record.

Standard Times reports Sierra Leone's incumbent president Ernest Bai Koroma has won a second term with 58.7 per cent of the vote. According to results published by the country's National Electoral Commission, Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio came in second with 37.4 per cent. The election was only the third since the end of Sierra Leone's horrific 11-year civil war, which ended in 2002.

Cycling or walking to school increases a child's ability to concentrate in the classroom – to the equivalent of someone half a year further in their studies. Scandinavia Now quotes the results of a Danish study which shows children who were driven to school, or who took public transport, performed less well in a test measuring concentration levels, than those who had walked or cycled. The results surprised the researchers, who found that having breakfast and lunch had an impact, but not very much compared to having exercised.

Los Angeles Times reports a former model on the US daytime television game show "The Price is Right" has been awarded $7.7m (€6m) in punitive damages by a Los Angeles court after suing the show for not letting her return to work after giving birth. The amount was in addition to $775,000 (€602,000) in compensatory damages awarded to 41-year-old Brandi Cochran, after the jury in the case ruled that the producers of the show had acted with malice by not taking her back after her pregnancy. The producers have filed an appeal.

France 24 says a former tennis coach in France has been sentenced to eight years in prison for raping young students at his academy. The court in Lyon also barred 70-year-old Regis de Camaret from working in tennis for life. The case against Camaret began in 2005 with accusations from former player, Isabelle Demongeot, who wrote a book describing years of abuse. Several other women later came forward with accusations that Camaret raped or sexually abused them when they trained in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

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