The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports that a man who resisted robbers in a hold-up near the airport on Thursday morning had been robbed before. It also says that the government has found funds to pay Gozo court experts. Failure to pay the experts had caused a backlog of cases.
l-orizzont says a reform of the local wardens system is on the way, with the focus not being just on the fines. It also asks what will happen to Dom Mintoff’s old house in Cospicua.
The Malta Independent reports how a Labour local councillor apologised over comments he made about EU Home Affairs Commissioner Malmstrom.
In-Nazzjon reports that a man has been arrested for removing rocks at San Blas beach in Gozo.
The overseas press
Russia says there is growing evidence Syrian rebels were behind an alleged chemical attack near the capital, Damascus, and has urged the Syrian government to cooperate with a UN investigation. RIA Novosti quotes the Russian foreign ministry saying it and the United States had agreed an independent investigation was needed.
Meanwhile, President Obama yesterday played down the prospect of speedy US intervention in Syria, stressing the difficulty of ordering military action against the Assad government without a strong international coalition and a legal mandate from the United Nations. The Associated Press reports that Obama spoke as cautiously as ever about getting involved in a war that has killed more than 100,000 people and now includes Hezbollah and al-Qaida.
The UN says a million Syrian children have now been registered as refugees as the deadly three-year conflict in their country grinds on. The News York Times quotes the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the children's fund UNICEF saying that children make up half of all refugees from the Syria conflict. Almost three-quarters (740,000) are under the age of 11. Most have arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, but increasing numbers of Syrians are fleeing to North Africa and Europe. Inside Syria, some 7,000 children have been killed during the conflict.
Börzen Zeitung reported that the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has urged central banks in Europe, United States and Japan to continue monetary-easing policies designed to stimulate economic growth. She said the measures were still needed in all the places they were being employed.
As the federal election campaign in Australia enters its final fortnight, two new opinion polls show Labour is heading for defeat. According to the Nielsen poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, an overwhelming 70 per cent of voters now believe the Coalition will win on September 7. The latest Newspoll in The Australian also bodes badly for the Government, showing the coalition firming its grip in eight marginal seats in the key state of Queensland.
The Washington Post reports a former US Army psychiatrist, who has admitted shooting dead 13 people and injuring more than 30 others at a military base in Texas in 2009, has been found guilty on all charges. Major Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, could face the death penalty.
The New Yorker reports the UN Security Council has strongly condemned two bomb attacks near mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli which killed at least 45 people. The attacks raise fears of growing sectarian violence inked to the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has announced he is stepping down in the next 12 months. Wall Street Journal says the software giant has not yet named a successor. The company’s shares rose by about nine per cent on the news.
According to Metro, a judge in Britain has refused to allow a woman to enter a plea in court because she was wearing a full Muslim veil showing only her eyes. He said he would not allow the defendant to stand trial unless she revealed her face because her identity could not be confirmed.
San Francisco Chronicle reports the mayor of San Diego, who has been battling sexual harassment allegations by 18 women and a related lawsuit, has finally bowed to calls for him to quit. Democrat Bob Filner stood aside with an apology to the women concerned, but denied sexually harassing anyone.
Times of India says a 22-year-old photojournalist has been gang-raped by five men in the Indian city of Mumbai, police say. The woman, who was on assignment on Thursday evening in the Lower Parel area when she was attacked, is in hospital with multiple injuries. She was accompanied by a male colleague who was beaten by her attackers. Police have arrested one of the suspects.
Huffington Post reports doctors in the US say they are stunned after a man they thought was dead came back to life. Medics say Ohio mechanic Tony Yahle's heart stopped for 45 minutes. But he started to show signs of life after they stopped trying to revive him. The father of two is said to have fully recovered after having a defibrillator fitted in his chest. He is due to return to work on Monday.
Fox News says a giant panda has given birth to a cub at the US National Zoo in Washington, raising hopes for a rare success after a series of false pregnancies. “We have a cub!!” the zoo announced on Twitter after female giant panda Mei Xiang's unnamed baby was born at 10.32 p.m. (Malta time). "Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately and began cradling and caring for it," the zoo said later in a statement, adding that the cub could be heard squealing. In September, Mei Xiang gave birth to a female cub, but it died six days later from liver damage due to underdeveloped lungs. She had five consecutive false pregnancies from 2007 to 2012.
The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, has criticised the Russian 31-year-old world pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva for comments she made in support of the country’s new anti-gay laws. Rogge told the BBC he was disappointed with the double Olympic gold medallist. Meanwhile, President Putin has signed a decree banning demonstrations and rallies in Sochi for two and a half months around the Winter Olympics, which will be held in Sochi on between February 7 and 23 and the Paralympics bedtween March 7 and 16.