The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta follows up the shooting involving the driver of the Minister of Home Affairs and says bullet casings were removed from the scene. The newspaper also reports that a woman convicted of abortion actually had no foetus.
MaltaToday says extracts of the arrest report of Scotsman Stephen Smith were deleted. The Scotsman was driving the car which was shot at by the Home Affairs Minister’s driver. The newspaper says an internal investigation had been launched after officers discovered that the deleted extracts had confirmed that Smith was driving under the influence.
The Malta Independent says the records of a car which blocked the hospital helipad have disappeared, in what could be another cover-up.
It-Torca quotes the general secretary of the GWU, Tony Zarb, blaming the former Nationalist government for letting precarious work take root. It also focuses on concerns by teachers that they get no support when faced with abuse allegations.
Il-Mument says the Office of the Prime Minister was involved in a cover-up following the shooting by the driver of the Home Affairs Minister.
Illum and KullHadd say former Nationalist ministers retained almost a €1 million of their honoraria raise, with each taking some €100,000.
The overseas press
al bawaba says the Arab League has backed a plan to seek international approval for a Palestinian state at the UN Security Council.
Hurriyet reports that on the second day of his three-day visit to Turkey, Pope Francis has had a private meeting in Istanbul with the Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church – the spiritual leader of almost 300 million Orthodox Christians. Earlier, in a message of inter-faith dialogue, the Pope met the Grand Mufti of Istanbul for a moment of silent reflection.
Clamps on inter-EU migration sought by British Prime Minister David Cameron have been condemned by the European Parliament’s foreign affairs chairman. Elmar Brok told German Deutschlandfunk (DLF) public radio other nations won’t submit to “extortion politics”, adding Cameron was “digging himself into a pit” in seeking to emulate Britain’s anti-EU opposition.
Le Journal du Dimanche says Nicolas Sarkozy has won the leadership of the centre-right UMP party – a victory widely seen as a first step to return to the French presidency in 2017.
Meanwhile, Metro reports the honorary president and founder of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, opened the fifteenth party congress in Lyon. The 86-year-old told delegates the only way” to avoid “the end of France” was by electing his daughter Marine to the Elysée Palace in 2017.
CNN reports the white police officer who killed Michael Brown has resigned from the Ferguson Police Department, nearly four months after the fatal confrontation with the black 18-year-old Michael Brown that fuelled protests in the St Louis suburb and across the nation. Darren Wilson, 28, has been on administrative leave since the shooting on August 9.
Cairo Radio reports a person has been killed in clashes between Egyptian police and protesters in central Cairo after a court dropped a murder case against ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Metro says there could be between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of slavery in the UK. An analysis by the Home Office suggests modern slavery victims include women forced into prostitution, “imprisoned” domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and on fishing boats.
The St Louis Post-Despatch says police found a 13-year-old boy hidden behind a false wall inside a house in Atlanta and arrested the boy’s father and four other people. The father had refused to return boy to his mother after visiting in 2010. The boy called his mother while officers were at the house.
The BBC says an American scientist, who was shunned by the scientific community after he made controversial remarks linking intelligence to race, has become the first living recipient of a Nobel Prize to sell the award. James Watson, a biologist, was given the prize in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA. He said he had lost income ever since he told a newspaper seven years ago that Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans.
Further allegations have been made by The Sunday Times in London about corruption during the bidding process for football’s World Cup in 2018 and 2022, won by Russia and Qatar. The paper claims President Putin was heavily involved in his country’s bid. Russia and Qatar have always denied any wrongdoing.