The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says there has been a drastic drop in enforcement action by the Lands Department over abuse.
The Malta Independent says parents should teach their children about sex, according to a psychologist.
In-Nazzjon says consortia are considering an appeal against the government's decision on the bus service contract.
l-orizzont reports how a man was injured when he rescued his mother in a burning house in Qormi.
The overseas press
Kurdish forces, aided by an expanded US air campaign, have advanced to within kilometres of Iraq’s largest dam, less than two weeks after it was captured by the Islamic State group. General Tawfik Desty, a Kurdish commander, has told AP that his Peshmerga forces were in control of the eastern part of Mosul dam, and that fighting was still under way.
Al bawaba says up to 3,000 women and girls have been kidnapped by Islamic State jihadis in the north of the country in just a fortnight – and hundreds of men who refuse to convert have been shot dead.
Al Ahram reports Israel and the Palestinians have resumed peace talks as five-day ceasefire in Gaza expires later today. As the negotiating teams gathered for indirect talks in Cairo, Haartez quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel would make no concessions on security. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is demanding an end to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the territory.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry has told Al Ayyam the number of Palestinian deaths from Israel’s offensive in Gaza had risen to 2,016 deaths, including 541 children, and 250 women. The wounded numbered 10,193.
RIA Novosty says pro-Russia rebels claim to have shot down two Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter planes in the separatist region of Lugansk. A Ukrainian MIG-29 was brought down in the same area yesterday morning. The news came as the first 16 trucks belonging to the 280-strong Russian humanitarian aid convoy arrived at the Ukrainian border after being inspected.
Liberia’ Inquirer reports health officials fear Ebola could spread through capital city Monrovia’s largest slum after residents raided a quarantine centre for suspected patients and took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses.
KBS says Pope Francis has blessed and consoled a group of women who were used as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II. The Pontiff greeted each of the seven women, most in wheelchairs, at the front of Seoul’s main cathedral Monday at the start of his final Mass for peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.
VOA News reports US Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on a black Missouri teenager whose fatal shooting by a white police officer has spurred a week of violent protests in suburban S. Louis. The “extraordinary circumstances” surrounding the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown and a request by Brown’s family members prompted the order, Department of Justice spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement.
Reuters reports Libyan factions traded gunfire in various parts of Tripoli yesterday, ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire to end more than a month of fighting. Militias from the city of Misrata and fighters allied to the western town of Zintan have wrestled for control of the capital in the worst clashes since the NATO-backed uprising.
Ansa says the death has been announced in New York of operatic legend Licia Albanese. She was 101. A naturalised American, she was famous for her performances in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and La Traviata at the time of Arturo Toscanini.