The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how a diver yesterday found the lifeless body of a missing French swimmer in Gozo. It also features comments from a man who last week was mistakenly arraigned and held without remand.
The Malta Independent quotes Transport Minister Joe Mizzi complaining how repeat paving works at Melita Street, Valletta, cost the government an extra €100,000.
In-Nazzjon reports that PBS is to sign an agreement with Chinese state TV for the exchange of news and footage.
l-orizzont says Paradise Bay has been completely taken over by a private lido operator who has filled the beach with his sunbeds.
The overseas press
The Independent reports President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has declared his Zanu Party would not yield its victory in disputed elections, saying that his political rivals “can commit suicide if they so wish”. In his first public speech since the July 31 elections, Mugabe called on his main challenger, outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to accept defeat, then dismissed him and his followers in scathing language. He described Tsvangirai as the “enemy” in his party’s midst during the shaky coalition after the 2008 elections.
RIA Novosti reports a group of European Commission experts will visit the Spanish border with British-held territory of Gibraltar to examine the complex situation which was created there after Spanish authorities introduced additional border checks. The news came after the British government said it was considering taking action over the checks which the Spanish authorities refused to stop saying they were "legal and proportionate". The threat from London came after Spain said it was considering taking the row over the disputed territory to global bodies such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Vatican Radio announced Pope Francis has reiterated the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion, saying human life must be preserved from the moment of conception. The pontiff's remarks came in a message to mark Brasil's National Family week. Last week, Brasil approved a new law allowing its public healthcare system to administer the “morning-after pill” to rape victims.
Voice of Nigeria reports suspected Islamist extremists have stormed a mosque and shot dead 44 worshippers as well as 12 other people in a nearby village in Nigeria's restive northeast. The attacks at the weekend were believed to be in revenge over citizen vigilante groups forming to help the military battle Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency since 2009..
The Washington Times says US Attorney General Eric Holder has announced a major shift in federal sentencing policies, targeting long mandatory terms that he said have flooded the nation's prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be far better spent. If Holder's policies are implemented aggressively, they could mark one of the most significant changes in the way the federal criminal justice system handles drug cases since the government declared a war on drugs in the 1980s
Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta has announced his office would sell three of its 10 aircraft and downsize its fleet of official cars by one fourth, saving €50 million of public funds. Il Tempo says the money saved would go towards helping fight forest fires. Letta said official flights would be more than halved. The official planes that will be sold are two Falcon 900s and an Airbus.
San José Mercury News reports a Tennessee judge's decision to change a baby's first name from Messiah to Martin has drawn strong reactions from people who believed the judge overstepped her powers and those who think parents' creativity should have some limits. Thousands of people have commented online about the judge's order since WBIR-TV published its story over the weekend. Many of them said Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew went too far. The boy's mother had sought an order to establish paternity. It included a request for the judge to determine the child's last name. When Ballew heard Messiah's first name, she decided it should be changed, too, saying the “word messiah is a title, and it's a title has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ”.
ABC reports Australia’s opposition leader Tony Abbott told a gathering of Conservative Party faithful that no one was “the suppository of all wisdom”. Abbott appeared unperturbed by tittering among journalists and Liberal Party supporters and continued to speak earnestly in a speech in Melbourne. He apparently meant to say “repository” – a storage place – rather than a medication inserted in the rectum. In the run-up to the general election he was attacking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s reputation for making decisions without consulting colleagues.