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

Times of Malta says the Queen arrived to a 'royal gale' which led to the cancellation of the ceremonial welcome in Palace Square.

The Malta Independent says the Queen arrived in a cold, wet and blustery Malta.

In-Nazzjon carries a large picture of the Queen over the heading Welcome to Malta.

l-orizzont says the curtain has gone up on CHOGM. It also focuses on the start of the Queen's visit to Malta.

The overseas press

French President François Hollande has continued h.is diplomatic offensive to seek partners to attack Islamic State militants following the November 13 attacks in Paris which left 130 dead. France 24 says that at the Élysée, he met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and then in Moscow, he was received by President Putin, the latter promising to work more closely with France to target Isis in Syria.

Meanwhile, Berliner Zeitung reveals German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers have decided to send Tornado fighter aircraft in the war against Isis. Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Berlin “stands in solidarity” with France. On Wednesday, Hollande urged Merkel to up its efforts to battle Isis.

Sputnik quotes President Putting dismissing as “nonsense” any suggestion that Turkey did not know the military aircraft it shot down on Tuesday was Russian. He said the US was told in advance the route to be taken by the plane in line with an agreement to prevent clashes between the aircraft.

Sky Turk says President Erdogan has denied Turkey bought any oil from the Islamic State, insisting that his country’s fight against the jihadist group was “undisputed”. Lashing out at Russian charges after his air force shot down a warplane on the Syrian border, Erdogan said Russia was Turkey’s biggest energy supplier, followed by Iran.

A court in Istanbul has charged two journalists from the pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper with spying after they alleged Turkey’s secret services had sent arms to Islamist rebels in Syria. Editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, the paper’s Ankara bureau chief, are accused of spying and “divulging state secrets”. Both men were placed in pre-trial detention.

Pope Francis has said that the illegal trade in ivory and diamonds fuels conflict and could destroy Africa’s environment. The East African says he linked trafficking to “organised crime and terrorism”. Turing to the environment, the Pontiff warned world leaders not to let special interests prevail over common good in next week’s climate talks.

The BBC reports an international poll suggests that public concern about climate change has declined over the past six years, especially in industrialised countries. Only four nations – Canada, France, Spain and Britain – now have majorities which support their own governments setting ambitious targets at next week’s global conference in Paris.

Canada has given the United Nations $100 million for Syrian refugee relief. Canada Business quotes International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says the contribution is part of the government’s promise to resettle Syrian refugees in Canada over the next few months. The UN refugee agency has only raised 45 per cent of the $4.5 billion it sought for 2015 to assist the 4.3 million refugees who have fled Syria for Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has denied he mocked a reporter with a disability during a campaign speech in South Carolina, despite appearing to imitate mannerisms of the "poor guy" and make fun of him. Award-winning New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, suffers from a congenital condition affecting the movement of his joints.

Worldwide, more than 700 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday, many of them in Africa. CNN says that according to UNICEF, many are ill-treated, and for all of them the likelihood of dying in childbirth is much higher than for adult women. Of these child brides, 17 per cent, or 125 million, live in Africa.

The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Europe hit a record level in 2014. The Medical Press reports the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has said 142,000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV last year – the highest figure since reporting began in the 1980s. Rates of HIV diagnoses have more than doubled in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia.In EU countries, sex between men was the most common mode of HIV transmission.

The Tribune says an Indian court has sentenced a nurse and a medical assistant to a year in prison for embezzling 11 rupees (15 eurocents) in public funds more than 25 years ago. They found guilty of inflating the number of sterilisation procedures they helped to perform in 1989 to boost their earnings. At the time, the government was providing financial incentives for medical workers to persuade men and women to undergo sterilisation to curb population growth. The court held 185 hearings before reaching a verdict.

 

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