The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports that 14 sex assault victims sought help from a specialist team, but only five filed police reports. It also reports how a bed-ridden man escaped an arson attack in Sliema yesterday morning.
l-orizzont reports how a helicopter was unable to land at St Luke’s Hospital because a car was parked on the helipad.
The Malta Independent follows up the case of ‘missing’ German children found in Malta.
In-Nazzjon says the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development will not be discussing the current economic situation
The overseas press
Cairo Radio has confirmed that a new 72-hour ceasfire came into effect late Sunday between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, after a day of intense diplomacy. Egyptian negotiators brokered the deal and if the truce holds, Israel would send its negotiators to Cairo later today for talks aimed at finding a longer-term solution to the conflict.
The political leader of Iraq’s Kurds, Massoud Barzani, has appealed for international military aid to help defeat Islamist militants. His pleas came in interviews with CNN and Al-Arabiya as the US launched a fourth round of air strikes targeting Islamic State (IS) fighters near Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. IS, formerly known as Isis, has seized swathes of territory in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have taken back two towns from the Islamic state militants.
Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, burying some alive and taking hundreds of women as slaves, an Iraqi government minister told Reuters on Sunday.
Gazete Oku leads with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s outright victory in the first round of presidential elections, promising to be a powerful head of state. Erdogan won 51.8 percent of the vote, way ahead of his main opposition rival Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on 38.6 percent.
RIA Novosti quotes Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying Moscow was holding talks with the Ukrainian government on allowing humanitarian aid to be delivered to eastern Ukraine. Kiev insists that any assistance be under international control.
Sydney Morning Herald quotes the Thai surrogate mother of baby Gammy saying his Australian biological parents were “dreaming” if they thought they could return to Thailand and claim the son they were accused of abandoning because he has Down syndrome. “I will take care of my baby until I die ... no-one will take my baby away from me,” declared Pattharamon Janbua after the couple, David Farnell and his wife Wendy, broke their silence on Channel Nine’s 60 minutes on Sunday night, saying the woman demanded she be allowed to keep the boy.
Young people must be courageous and should be actively involved in changing the world, Pope Francis said over a telephone link to the Route 2014 Scout rally in San Rossore. Avvenire quotes him saying the world had no need for youngsters in retirement.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he would be the one to decide reforms – “not the Troika, nor the ECB, nor the European Commission”. Interviewed by the Financial Times, Renzi said that while he agreed with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that Italy needed to pass some reforms, he would deal with them “because Italy doesn’t need to be told what to do”.
A toxic leak from a mine in northwest Mexico has turned a river orange. El Universal says the authorities have imposed restrictions on the water supply to several towns and cities after toxic substances killed fish and livestock and was affecting milk production.
The Daily Mail reports Brazilian women seeking education jobs in Sao Paulo were being forced to undergo a pap smear to prove they free of cancer or to present a doctor's certificate verifying they are not sexually active.