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

Times of Malta says questions on the Paqpaqli carshow safety remain unanswered. It also says a quarter of fifth-formers are quitting.

The Malta Independent quotes an exhibitor saying the barriers used in the Paqpaqli show offered no protection for spectators.

In-Nazzjon gives prominence to comments by the Ombudsman that government-appointed grievances boards lack independence and autonomy.

l-orizzont says one person remains in critical condition after Sunday’s Paqpaqli crash. It also says those who adopt children may be granted maternity leave.

The overseas press

Reuters reports Libya’s elected parliament in Tobruk has voted to extend its mandate, due to expire on October 20. There was no official reaction from the rival parliament in Tripoli. Meanwhile, AFP says Libya’s rival factions have resumed talks in Morocco to try to move forward with a UN-brokered peace deal and agree on a national unity government.

Fox News reports California has joined four other US states that allow terminally-ill patients to legally end their lives under doctors’ supervision. Religious groups had opposed the Bill, arguing assisted suicide was against God’s will. The Catholic Church had urged Governor Brown, a Catholic and former seminarian, to veto it.

Gazete Oku says Turkey has again summoned the Russian ambassador after a second violation of its airspace by a Russian warplane operating in Syria. Russia said Saturday’s violation was for just a few seconds and due to poor weather. It has not officially reacted to Sunday’s incident. NATO has called the Russian violation of Turkish airspace “irresponsible behaviour” and an “extreme danger” and called for an immediate end to Russian airstrikes on the Syrian opposition and civilians.

The German government has denied a Bild claim that it is secretly expecting some 1.5 million asylum seekers this year. The newspaper had said that according to a “secret” government document, as many as 920,000 of these were expected to arrive before the year’s end.

The Daily Telegraph reports British Home Secretary Theresa May is to tell the Conservative Party conference that immigration had forced thousands of Britons out of jobs and was making it “impossible” to build a “cohesive society”. The Times adds that May will point to shortages in housing, classrooms and the NHS as evidence that the country’s migration boom was not in the “national interest”.

AFP quotes the top American commander in Afghanistan, General John Campbell saying Afghan forces called in a US air strike on the Kunduz hospital that killed 22 people. But his remarks prompted Médecins Sans Frontières to blast the “discrepancies” in US accounts of the strike. Campbell’s statement was at odds with previous US military claims that the strike was carried out to protect American special forces on the ground from enemy fire.

USA Today says an American Airlines pilot died mid-air after becoming ill during a flight from Phoenix to Boston, but the co-pilot was able to safely land the plane carrying 152 people. The airline said it could not comment on the pilot’s illness or cause of death.

Mail & Guardian reports Oscar Pistorius’ release from prison, where he is serving time for killing his girlfriend, has been delayed and he has been told he must have psychotherapy.

Il Tempo says two Italian senators were suspended for five days each after making obscene gestures at female colleagues during debate on the government’s hotly contested constitutional reform bill.  

The Inquisitr says Jackson Taylor, an Australian toddler, is recovering post-surgery following a near-fatal car crash that caused his head to detach from his spine. The surgery is being hailed across the world as “a medical miracle”. Surgeons, led by Geoff Askin known as the father of spinal surgery, operated on the 16-month-old infant for six hours. Jackson was traveling in a car with his mother and nine-year-old sister when the car was involved in a frontal collision with another at a speed of 70 mph. According to Channel 7 News Melbourne, Askin said that Jackson’s injury was the worst he had ever seen.

An 11-year-old boy in Jefferson County, Tennesee has been charged with the first-degree murder of his neighbour – an eight-year-old girl – after an argument over puppies.  County Sheriff Bud McCoig told The Washington Post each had a puppy and the “wanted to see the girl’s. She said no, and then he went and retrieved a gun and fired it from the inside of his house. 

According to South China Morning Post, a homeless woman lay dead at a Hong Kong McDonald’s restaurant for seven hours surrounded by diners who failed to notice she was not breathing. The incident sparked concern over the city’s “McRefugees” – the growing number of homeless people who seek shelter in 24-hour restaurants. The woman was thought to have regularly spent nights at McDonald’s in the working class district of Ping Shek.

 

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