The following are the top stories on the local and overseas media.
Times of Malta reports how an employer forced his dad's carer to eat salt.
The Malta Independent quotes Mario de Marco insisting that the Henley 'passports for sale' contract should be published.
In-Nazzjon says a German mother whose children were repatriated to Germany from Malta has had no contact with them.
l-orizzont features comments by some Maltese evacuated from Libya. She complained of frequent power cuts.
The overseas press
Israeli officials have confirmed they are prepared to extend the 72-hour ceasefire that was brokered by Egypt after a month of fighting in Gaza. Al Ahram says talks on a longer truce were continuing in Cairo but quotes a Hamas spokesman saying there was no agreement extending the ceasefire.
Haaretz reports that in his first comments since the 72-hour truce began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for all of the civilian casualties, saying it had used civilians as human shields. Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticised Israel for shelling UN compounds, saying UN shelters must be safe zones.
al bawaba says Libyans awoke to a nationwide power failure yesterday. “Technical breakdowns caused a blackout in general throughout the country, and power stations are now out of service,” reported the press office of the Benghazi electricity company on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Xinhua announces that the Chinese authorities have evacuated almost 900 Chinese workers caught up in the fighting in Libya. Hundreds of people have died in an upsurge of violence between rival militia groups in Tripoli and Benghazi over the last month.
RIA Novosty reports President Putin has signed a decree banning or restricting imports of food and agricultural products from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine. The decree is for one year and could be reviewed, the Kremlin press service said.
Liberia Times says President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has declared a state of emergency amid an Ebola outbreak that shows no signs of slowing. Observers say the crisis in Liberia has deepened because many people are choosing to keep their ill relatives at home instead of taking them to isolation centres.
Tages Anzeiger quotes the Swiss justice ministry saying a man suspected of leaking the medical files of injured former Formula One champion Michael Shumacher was found hanged in a Zurich prison cell. The man, who has not been identified, worked for Swiss helicopter rescue firm, which organised the Formula One champion’s transport from a French hospital to a unit in Switzerland last June.
After a 10-year journey across the solar system, the Rosetta spacecraft has become the first ever to orbit a comet, the European Space Agency said. Universe Today says close-up images of the surface wowed the scientific crowd in the ESA control centre in Darmstadt, Germany where experts described the sights as “extraordinary”, “amazing” and “almost unexpected”.
Egyptian Planning Minister Ashraf al-Arabi has told El Masry El Youm the project to build a new Suez Canal would cost $8 billion. The funding would come partly from shares purchasable solely by Egyptian citizens on the Cairo stock market. He said the new channel should be finished within 12 months and not in three years as previously announced.
Ansa reveals the bones of a human hand have been found together with a skull on the Costa Concordia’s Bridge 3, in an area reserved to dish washing. Investigators believe the remains are those of Maria Grazia Trecarichi, the Sicilian woman whose mutilated remains had been found at an earlier date.
Saudi men have been banned from marrying women from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and Chad as the Gulf state toughens the rules restricting marriage with foreigners, Makkah reports. It said the total population of these communities in Saudi Arabia had exceeded 500,000 people, citing unofficial statistics, implying that this might be the reason.
A Californian insurance company has paid a 73-year-old man a settlement owed to him in buckets of change. Andres Carrasco filed a lawsuit against Adriana’s Insurance back in 2012, claiming he had been physically assaulted by one of their employees. KNBC says the company agreed to a settlement last June and they decided to pay him in the form of a cheque – along with buckets and buckets of coins. The nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies add up to more than €15,700. The company had no comment to make but their website has been inundated with negative reviews since the story broke.