The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports how the US ambassador to Libya, who is based in Malta, called for a ceasefire.
l-orizzont leads with comments by Owen Bonnici that postponing the local council elections would not undermine the councils or democracy.
The Malta Independent quotes the police saying people who were drunk or under the influence of drugs were sent to Mt Carmel Hospital.
In-Nazzjon says questions have been raised abut the mother of the Sannat mayor who has been given a production team position in the Pitt and Jolie film.
The overseas press
Deutsche Welle reports German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an explanation from President Putin amid reports that Russian troops have launched an incursion into south-east Ukraine.
La Republica quotes Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano saying Italy’s Mare Nostrum migrant search-and-rescue operation would be replaced by an expanded version of the EU border control agency Frontex.
ABC says Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison revealed a number of people had been detained at Sydney and Melbourne airports and prevented from leaving the country because of fears they were planning to join the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
The al-Wasat news service reports Libya’s interim ministers of industry, labour, planning, education, water resources and war veterans, belonging to the government of Prime Minister Abdullah al Thani, have resigned because of the deteriorating political situation.
Haaretz announces Israel has reopened the Erez border crossing into the Gaza Strip – the first step to allow humanitarian aid and construction material to go in.
Al Sham says Syrian rebels, including fighters from an al Qaida-linked group Nusra Front and the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, have seized control of a border crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Meanwhile, an independent UN commission has said the Syrian government was likely to have used chlorine gas to attack civilians. The New York Times says the report from the commission, which has been tasked with investigating potential war crimes in the country, marked the first time the UN has assigned blame for the use of the chemical agent.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde announced she had been charged for “negligence” over a multi-million-euro corruption case relating to her time as French finance minister in 2008. In exclusive comments to AFP, she said she had no intention of resigning over the charges.
More than 130 business leaders have urged Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom, arguing in an open letter published in The Scotsman newspaper before next month’s crunch referendum that the case for independence has not been made.
Avvenire quotes Pope Francis warning that sins against unity among Christians were the work of the devil. He told some 12,000 faithful during his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square that these also included local, parochial divisions fed by envy, jealousy, and gossip.
Zero Hora reports the authorities in Brazil announcing they had dismantled a criminal organisation they believed was the “biggest destroyer” of the Amazon rainforest.
Metro says archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old perfectly preserved wooden toilet seat. Dr Andrew Birley, one of the experts at Vindolanda fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, believes it is the only find of its kind.