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

Times of Malta says Archbishop Paul Cremona will officially resign his post today. Bishop Charles Scicluna will serve as administrator.

The Malta Independent reports that Mater Dei Hospital is prepared for Ebola management.

In-Nazzjon says the government has not kept promises on transport. It also reports how the owner of a bathrooms shop in Gozo has forgiven thieves.

l-orizzont says the government has made its choice of companies which will replace Malta Shipbuilding.

The overseas press

Libya Herald reports four people were killed after a suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpoint manned by armed youths fighting alongside government forces against Islamist groups. The attack targeted came as fierce clashes raged in Benghazi on the third day of an offensive by pro-government forces to recapture Libya’s second city from Islamist militias.

AFP says EU states are deadlocked on a package of climate change targets for 2030 that they had hoped to agree at a summit next week. Negotiators are arguing over “who pays and how much” to meet the benchmarks, with poorer fossil-fuel dependent states at odds with richer northern nations.  

Kathimerini quotes Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras saying Greece did not need a new bailout plan, despite markets lashing the country over the government’s intention to exit its IMF aid programme early.

Avvenire says Pope Francis has demanded international leaders engineer a fundamental shift in aid and trade policies to combat hunger. In his World Food Day message, the pope said FAO’s estimate that 805 million people in the world, or one in nine, still suffered from food insecurity was “disturbing”.

South China Morning Post reports Hong Kong riot police battled with thousands of pro-democracy protesters for control of the city’s streets this morning, using pepper spray and batons to hold back defiant activists who returned to a protest zone that officers had partially cleared. Several protesters were seen knocked to the ground, and dozens were carried or taken away by police.

AP says an internal WHO report shows the UN agency bungled efforts to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama named a trusted political adviser to take control of America response to the epidemic as the death toll has risen to 4,546 out of 9,191 known cases.

Reuters quotes the general in charge of US forces in the Middle East saying the US-led air strikes on Islamic State militants are having an impact on the group, but the campaign would take time. Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured MiG fighter jets, a group monitoring the war has warned, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

Asia Times reports 16 people watching an outdoor pop concert in South Korea fell 20 metres to their deaths when a ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed. Photos of the scene in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, showed a deep concrete shaft under the broken grate.

Sole 24 Ore says Russia and Ukraine have agreed the outlines of a contract to resolve their dispute over gas supplies. The announcement was made by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after a meeting with President Putin and the leaders of France and Germany in Milan.   

Deutsche Welle reports observers were urging caution over an apparent deal to end hostilities between the Nigerian government and militant group Boko Haram. Plans to release more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have also not yet been confirmed.   

Il Tempo says the Vatican will rent out the Sistine Chapel for a private concert for the first time in history, with the proceeds going to charity. The choral performance this weekend will be attended by 40 tourists who signed up for a five-day, €5,000-per-person tour of Italy, hosted by Porsche.  

 

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