The following are the top stories in the local and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta reports that Transport Malta chiefs do not wish to see bendy buses return to Malta's roads. It also reports how a psychiatric patient drank disinfectant at Mt Carmel Hospital because he was not properly supervised due to a staff shortage.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says the selection process for AFM lieutenant colonels violated PSC regulations. The Home Affairs Ministry denied the claim.
Malta Today quotes Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi saying the government's aim is to have Enemalta return to profitability in three years. It also says Malta Freeport expects to make a loss of €67 million because of an agreement with a financial company which went wrong.
It-Torca says Lufthansa Technik expects the biggest ever volume of work next year. It also says Enemalta decisions will remain in Maltese hands despite the stake sale to China..
Il-Mument says Gozo Minister Anton Refalo has threatened legal action against the newspaper about its stories on his declaration of assets and use of a villa. It also asks how Enemalta was partly privatised behind everyone's back.
Illum says people in the Health Department stayed silent on reports of contamination at Splash and Fun.
KullHadd says the agreement with China 'saved' Enemalta which was burdened by a mountain of debt. The newspaper also carries a denial by Splash and Fun on contaminated water.
The overseas press
World leaders have welcomed the US-Russian agreement, which would place Syrian chemical weapons under international control, as a step forward. AFP says the countdown has begun on a dangerous, tough mission to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, with the regime given just seven days to lift the veil on its secret stockpile and allow inspectors into the war-torn country.
The Washington Post reports President Obama welcomed the agreement as an “important, concrete step” toward the ultimate goal of eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile but warned that the US remains prepared to act if the attempt at a diplomatic solution fails.
The Sunday Times says British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the agreement, but said that the international community now must work quickly to implement the deal.
Le Monde quotes French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius saying the deal was “an important step forward”. France has been one of the main proponents of launching punitive military strikes against the Syrian regime, for its alleged responsibility for the August 21st chemical weapons attack in Ghouta. The US claims the attack killed more than 1,000 people.
Deutsche Welle says German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who has called for international action but stopped short of advocating military intervention, said that the Geneva agreement could increase the chances of a political solution to the current crisis.
The New York Times reports UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the UN would support the efforts to disarm the Assad regime and expressed hope that the latest diplomatic push could eventually pave the way for a peace deal to end the Syrian civil war. Late on Saturday the United Nations said it has formally accepted Syria's application to join the chemical weapons convention. A UN spokeswoman said Syria had supplied all the necessary documents; and would come under the convention as of October 14.
But the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), the West's main ally among the numerous Syrian rebel groups, rejected the US-Russian agreement outright. CBS News says FSA chief General Selim Idriss told reporters in Istanbul they could not accept this initiative, adding that the Syrian regime had moved in recent days the arsenal of chemical weapons in Lebanon and Iraq. He called for Assad to be dragged to the International Criminal Court.
CIA-funded weapons have begun flowing to Syrian rebels, a US official told CNN. The weapons are not American-made, but are funded and organized by the CIA. The artillery was described as light weapons, some anti-tank weapons and ammunition. However, the Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army deny they have received weapons from the United States.
In other news...
Berline Zeitung says some 9.5 million Bavarians are eligible to vote today in state elections taking place just a week before a national vote in Germany. The state's conservatives could deliver Merkel a big win ahead of the main event.
El Pais reports Spain’s Prime Minister Mariao Rajoy has rejected a request by the leader of Catalonia to approve a referendum that would allow the north-eastern region to decide whether to secede from the rest of the country.
Times of India reports the police are holding two brothers who admitted hanging their sister for eloping with young man, a dalit – an “untouchable”, the lowest of chastes.
ABC News says a Hawaiian woman with a 35-letter surname has persuaded the US state's authorities to change their official ID card format, because her king-sized name will not fit. Janice Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele, whose traditional Hawaiian name comes from her late husband, said she would never consider using a shortened version, and so used local media to press officials to take action.
The state of New York has announced it will allow pet cemeteries to accept the cremated remains of the owners who wish to be buried along with their pets. Daily News says the new rules resolve a two-year-old dispute that began when the state refused to allow the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester to accept the ashes of a former NYPD officer who wanted to spend his afterlife with his three Maltese pups. The cop’s niece, upstate attorney Taylor York, took on her uncle’s cause and battled the state to allow the burial.