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

Times of Malta focuses on the tight timeframe for the building of the Delimara power station.

The Malta Independent reports how ‘elite’ pickpockets target bus commuters.

In-Nazzjon leads with the PN’s call for the prime minister to publish Sai Mizzi’s contract.

l-orizzont says the government has abandoned plans for a park in Maghtab because it is not feasible.

The overseas press

Libya Herald reports at least seven people have been killed and 30 injured in clashes between rival militias at Libya’s airport near Tripoli. Rebels from the Zintan region who control the international airport were attacked by a rival group trying to take over the area. Flights were suspended amid reports of heavy shelling and gunfire.

According to AFP, Israel kept up air strikes and artillery fire on the Gaza Strip on Monday despite diplomatic efforts to halt the bloodshed, as its offensive entered the seventh day. Israel also moved against Hamas in the occupied West Bank, arresting five of the movement’s lawmakers. Despite increasing calls for a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was hitting Hamas “with growing force”, warning there was no end in sight.

Focus news agency quotes UN chief Ban Ki-moon saying “too many” Palestinian civilians have been killed, as the Palestinian death toll from the punishing Israeli campaign hit 172 with another 1,230 people wounded. About 17,000 people have taken shelter in installations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. No Israelis have been killed by the many rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas.

Al Ahram says at least seven civilians and a soldier were killed late on Sunday when three rockets slammed into the restive Sinai Peninsula. In a separate incident, three civilians were killed and more than 20 others injured in an explosion in a security compound in the Sinai region near the border with Israel. Egyptian security forces are struggling to quell an Islamist insurgency..

Huffington Post reports Britain and the United States have renewed their call on Russia to de-escalate the worsening situation in eastern Ukraine. In a telephone conversation, British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama warned Moscow of further sanctions if it failed to act.

Meanwhile, Metro says Germany and Russia have urged direct talks between Kiev and the rebels following fighting outside the rebel-held east Ukrainian city of Luhansk, in which at least 15 civilians were killed. The rebels said government forces tried to storm the city with tanks.

Pope Francis has been quoted as saying that reliable data indicates that “about two per cent” of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles. The Pope said that abuse of children was like “leprosy” infecting the Church, according to La Repubblica. He vowed to “confront it with the severity it demands”. But a Vatican spokesman said the quotes in the newspaper did not correspond to Pope Francis’s exact words.

The Times says a tribunal is to hear a legal challenge by civil liberty groups against the legality of alleged “interception, collection and use of communications” by government agencies. It follows revelations by the former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden about UK and US surveillance practices. The British government says interception is subject to strict controls.

The BBC says a committee of British MPs has said that President Hassan Rouhani of Iran should be trusted as someone committed on reaching a deal on his country’s nuclear programme. But, they said he should be judged by his actions not words. Iran and six world powers are holding talks in Vienna aiming for a comprehensive deal before next weekend’s deadline.

Ansa reports the operation to lift the capsized wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship could start later today. In one of the biggest salvage operations in maritime history, the liner will be slowly raised from the seabed off the Italian island of Giglio before being scrapped.

The New York Times announces the death of Lorin Maazel, widely seen as one of the greatest modern conductors of classical music. He was 84. According to a 2011 profile in The Guardian, he had a powerful memory and became known for performing without a score. Admired for the precision and rigour of his conducting, Maazel occupied top positions at the Vienna State Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

 

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