The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and In-Nazzjon report how a Maltese man was hurt in bombing near his home in Tripoli.
The Malta Independent carries comments by kidnapped Maltese oil worker Martin Galea. He said that when he was released he thought they were about to execute him. He said he had suffered physical injuries and his captors had accused him of having killed Libyans when he was a member of the AFM.
l-orizzont leads with how a Spanish company has been selected as the preferred bidder for the bus service contract.
The overseas press
According to Libyan news agency Lana, the new Libyan parliament is to hold an emergency session next Saturday instead of Monday, in view of the deteriorating security situation. It will move its seat from Benghazi, chosen before the June 25 elections, to Tobruk, 400 km east of Cyrenaica's capital. Meanwhile, the Red Cross reports that 75 people were killed in fighting at a military base in Benghazi between Ansar al Sharia Islamists and al Saiqa forces, who are loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar.
AFP says more than 100 Palestinians were killed yesterday in the Gaza Strip, among them victims of Israeli fire on a crowded market and a UN school. The United States and United Nations condemned the school shelling.
VOA News reports a sharply divided US House of Representatives has approved a Republican plan to file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, accusing him of exceeding the bounds of his constitutional authority. The vote was 225 to 201. Obama and other Democrats derided the effort as a stunt aimed at tossing political red meat to conservative voters.
Le Soir says the EU is readying itself for any spread of Ebola from West Africa to Europe, after a suspected case in Spain turned out to be a false alarm. Brussels on Wednesday allocated an extra €2 million to fight the spreading outbreak, which has already killed 670 people in West Africa.
The New York Times reports Al-Qaeda is increasingly funding terror operations thanks to at least $125 million in ransom paid since 2008 largely by European governments, to free western hostages. The payments, which reached $66 million in 2013 alone, were sometimes hidden as development aid.
Bloomberg says Standard & Poor’s declared Argentina in default on its foreign-currency obligations after the government missed a deadline for paying interest on $13 billion of restructured bonds. Talks in New York aimed at averting Argentina’s second default in 13 years ended with bitter recriminations as Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicill said they could not accept a deal with US hedge fund creditors he dismissed as “vultures”.
AGI reports the board of Italian State lender CDP has approved the sale of a 35 per cent stake in Italian energy-grid holding company CDP Reti to China's State Grid Corp. The Chinese corporation will pay a sum of not less than €2.101 billion for the stake.
According to The Hindustan Times, 200 people have been buried alive and 40 homes razed to the ground when a landslide hit a village near Pune in central India. Rescue efforts have been hampered by road closures due to bad weather.
Ansa reports Pope Francis again surprised workers yesterday morning as he strolled through the streets of Vatican City on his way to a dental appointment. Passing by the Vatican pharmacy, the pope stopped to chat with the director of the dispensary. Last Friday, Francis surprised maintenance staff inside the Vatican by queuing up in their cafeteria for lunch and joining workers at a common table.
The Star says a woman stripped naked in Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg and caressed a huge statue of the liberation hero as astonished bystanders looked on. A waitress at a nearby restaurant told newspaper that the woman's actions had caused a frenzy: Male waiters got their orders wrong and a male customer was hit on the head by his wife for getting up to take a closer look.