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

Times of Malta, the Malta Independent, MaltaToday and l-orizzont lead with the arraignment of a Gozitan priest accused of sex abuse on three minors.

In other stories, Times of Malta gives prominence to an opinion piece by Prof Victor Asiak, who says Archbishop Cremona is being 'crucified' by those who want the Church closer to the PN.

In-Nazzjon says the energy minister has confirmed that businesses will get no compensation for last week's blackout. 

The overseas press

The Washington Post reports the White House was working to authenticate a video which purports to show the beheading by Islamic State militants of an American journalist James Foley in revenge for US air strikes against its fighters in Iraq. Foley went missing in Syria nearly two years ago. The video was posted on social media sites.

Al Jazeera reports Israel and Palestinian militants have resumed hostilities, hours before a ceasefire was due to expire. The Palestinians said Israel launched 35 air attacks, one of them hitting a house in Gaza City and killing two women and two-year-old girl, while a further 21 people were injured in a separate strike.  

Corriere della Sera quotes Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano declaring the EU “must not pass the buck on irregular immigrants, an emergency which Italy has, so far, coped with largely on its own”. The minister made his comments following an earlier European Commission statement that EU border agency Frontex was “a small agency, and needs more funds”.  

NewsNow says Northern Ireland police have arrested a man on suspicion of smuggling 35 Afghan immigrants into England in a container shipment, during which one man died. Police said the 34-year-old man was being interrogated on suspicion of manslaughter and aiding the illegal entry of the Afghans into the UK.

Iceland yesterday began evacuating areas close to its largest volcano after warnings of a possible eruption, four years after millions of air travellers were grounded by a huge ash cloud from another peak. Frettabladid reports scientists believe the ash from an eruption could disrupt transatlantic and northern European air traffic.

Fox News says police in the US state of Missouri have shot dead a young Afro-American, 10 days after the shooting of another black teenager in Ferguson triggered violent unrest. The police said the man threatened them with a knife.

Dawn reports thousands of protesters have marched on parliament in Pakistan, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Armed with wire cutters and backed by cranes, they broke through barricades of shipping containers to enter the high-security red zone on the capital Islamabad. The army has called on both sides to start talking.

Panamericana TV says the Peruvian government has began auctioning gold watches and other jewellery seized from the former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who is serving a 25-year jail sentence for corruption and human rights abuses. The authorities expect to raise at least $1m (€751,000), which would go to sight organized crime in the country.

Vatican Radio says Pope Francis was “profoundly saddened” by the deaths of three of his relatives in a car crash on a provincial highway in Argentina. The small car, carrying a nephew of the Pope along with the man’s wife and two young children, slammed into the back of a truck.  

Metro says a New Fathers 4 Justice protester scaled the home of the British justice minister and set up camp on the roof to demand greater rights for fathers. Photos showed a tent on top of a house and a protester hanging a banner reading “No rights? Go MAD”. Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph says a proposed new domestic abuse law could mean prison sentences for men who bully, psychologically harm or deny money to their partners.

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