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

Times of Malta says some 200 road works are clogging up the roads. It also says November 17 has been earmarked as Budget Day.

The Malta Independent says the EU letter seeking details on Malta's Budget is 'nothing much'

In-Nazzjon reports how the European Popular Party will hold its convention in Malta. It also quotes the PN saying a 58c cost of living increase is insufficient.

l-orizzont says initial works have started on the demolition of Marsa power station.

The overseas press

EU leaders have met in Brussels to hammer out a deal to cut emissions and save the world from the fatal effects of global warming. Le Soir expects the negotiations would be tough. The bloc sees itself under pressure to deliver a benchmark for international climate talks in Paris in 2015.

The Times reports British Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to reform Britain’s relationship with Europe were dealt a devastating blow last night as Brussels demanded an extra £1.7 billion towards the EU budget. The top-up, which Britain must pay within weeks, is a result of changes to how EU members’ economic growth over the past 18 years has been calculated. It means big rebates for France and Germany but extra contributions from Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and the UK – “by far the biggest loser”. 

The European Union has put up €24.4 million in a “race against time” to find Ebola vaccines and treatments as deaths from the disease mount in the worst affected countries, AFP reports. The latest figures show nearly 4,900 dead and 10,000 cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. So far the 28 EU member states have offered €180 million in humanitarian and other aid to help deal with a health crisis.

L’Essor says Mali’s health ministry has said the country had its first confirmed case of Ebola after a two-year-old girl, who had recently been in Guinea, tested positive for the virus. The girl, who was diagnosed after she arrived at a hospital in the western town of Kayes, has been put in isolation.

AGI reports Italian President Giorgio Napolitano sent a message to the speaker of Libya’s House of Representatives, Aghila Salah Issa, telling him Italy would always stand by Libya to consolidate democracy and to guarantee human rights, starting with the fight against human trafficking.

The Islamic State has amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace, according to David Cohen, US treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Bloomberg quotes him telling the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, IS earns about €790,000 a day, selling up to 50,000 barrels produced in captured refineries. 

Israel has pledged a harsh response to attacks in Jerusalem. Haaretz says police have flooded Arab neighbourhoods a day after a man killed a baby and injured eight other people in an alleged car assault.  Police clashed with youths in East Jerusalem on Thursday as protests continued after officers shot a man who rammed his car into a railway station. #

Daily Star reports US-led air strikes in Syria have killed more than 500 jihadists in a month, as Kurdish fighters readied to reinforce the embattled border town of Kobane. The battle for the town has become crucial for both the Islamic State group and its opponents, with a senior US official saying the Kurds there were inflicting heavy losses on the jihadists.

The Washington Post says a Russian captured fighting with insurgents in Afghanistan and held for years at a detention facility near Bagram air base would be flown to the United States to be prosecuted in the federal court. The detainee, known by the nom de guerre Irek Hamidullan, is suspected of leading several insurgent attacks in 2009 in which US troops were wounded or killed. He was captured that year after being wounded in a fight.

According to Voice of Nigeria, suspected Boko Haram militants have kidnapped at least 25 girls after an attack on a remote town in north-eastern Nigerian, according to parents whose daughters were taken. The apparent kidnapping took place despite a reported truce and talks aimed at freeing more than 200 other girls taken hostage by militants in April.

Metro says a police officer who guards Britain’s royal family has been arrested after ammunition was found in lockers in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Scotland Yard said the unnamed policeman was being questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The Washington Times reports a man arrested after jumping the White House fence on Wednesday night was charged in court with two federal offences, including harming a dog the Secret Service used to stop him from entering the presidential mansion. Federal Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson ordered a mental screening for the man, Dominic Adesanya, 23, of Bel Air, Maryland.

Avvenire says Pope Francis has branded life-long prison terms “a hidden death sentence” in an attack on “penal populism” that included severe criticism of countries that facilitate torture. 

   

 

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