The following are the top stories in the Maltese press and abroad today:

THE SUNDAY TIMES

Sea patrols are to be held over the entire immigration ‘season'

Foreign Minister Michael Frendo was beaten to the post of Commonwealth Secretary General but remained positive.

Foreigners owe Lm70,000 for medical treatment.

THE MALTA INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Malta ninth in EU27 for 2006 HIV infections.

Foreign Minister Michael Frendo suffered a big in the Commonwealth election on Saturday.

MALTATODAY

Mass resignation threat by the Mental Health Commission.

IL-MUMENT

Tourism growth  continues through October and November.

Commonwaelth leaders express admiration for Malta.

The MLP tries to control the media.

ILLUM

Controversy over the time an ambulance  took to reach a patient during hospital migration.

Non-taxed overtime can be quantified as a percentage of wage - Michael Falzon

IT-TORCA

No ministerial inquiry into deaths during migration to Mater Dei Hospital.

"I slashed my wrists and my father did not even notice" - a true-life experience.

KULLHADD

MLP launches 100 projects in plan for the harbour area.

The Press in Britain...

The Sunday Times quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury as saying that the US wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday. In an interview with Emel, a British Muslim lifestyle magazine, Dr Rowan Williams accused America of moving on from Iraq and leaving others to "put it back together". Dr Williams makes only mild criticism of the Islamic world, saying its "political solutions are not the most impressive". The head of the Church of England also attacked modern society, saying parts of Western culture "eat away at the soul".

The Sunday Telegraph says former Prime Minister Tony Blair has claimed people who speak about their religious faith are viewed by society as nutters.

The Observer quotes leading headteachers as saying that some schools are near breaking point because they do not have the resources to cope with the rising numbers of foreign pupils.

The Sunday Express reports that the hunt for computer discs containing the records of 25m child benefit recipients has widened to a Royal Mail office in N Ireland and to buildings belonging to courier firm TNT. The news comes amid further revelations that HM Revenue and Customs is looking for another lost package containing six discs which went missing in the post after being sent from a tax credit office in Preston to its Whitehall HQ in London on October 10.

The Sunday Herald says Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing the growing possibility of a party revolt as it emerged more data from government agencies has gone missing.

Scotland on Sunday, meanwhile, reveals that personal information relating to hundreds of Scottish NHS workers has been lost in transit by bungling government officials.

The Mail on Sunday reports that a builder who says he "can't stand" Labour has been named as one of Gordon Brown's biggest donors, prompting fresh questions about the party's finances.

The News of the World leads with a sensational story: a top England player had sex with a girl at a drunken party at a lapdancing club during the build-up to the defeat against Croatia and the team's Euro 2008 exit.

The People fears petrol in Britain could soon cost £1.50 a litre as fuel prices go out of control.

The Star on Sunday says police in Portugal, hunting for Madeleine McCann, have narrowed their search to 10 known paedophiles.

... and elsewhere

Australian newspapers lead with John Howard’s coalition humiliating defeat in the general election. The Sydney Morning Herald says the former Prime Minister was even poised to lose the seat he had held for 33 years as Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th Prime Minister when the electorate called a definitive end to Mr Howard's 11-year reign. The swing to Labor of 6.3per cent was the second-largest since World War II, bettered only by Gough Whitlam in 1975. Labour looked certain to secure 86 of the 150 House of Representative seats and hoped for 90 - a gain of at least 30 seats. 

The Age says Labour Party's win is set to signify major changes to policies on global warming and the Iraq war. New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat, has promised to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases and pull troops out of Iraq. In a speech to supporters, Mr Rudd, 50, said voters had decided "to write a new page in our nation's history".

In Uganda The Daily Monitor leads with the agreement by the Leaders of Commonwealth states to draw up an action plan to tackle climate change that falls short of any binding agreement. The text, released after the second day of their summit in Kampala, is designed as a strong statement ahead of next month's UN climate talks. But the 53-member group could not reach a consensus on binding emission cuts. 

Italian newspapers lead with the tragic death of an Italian soldier on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday at the hand of a suicide bomber who also killed nine civilians, four of them children. Corriere della Sera says the bomber, who targeted Italian troops at a bridge construction project, also wounded three other Italian soldiers and a dozen civilians, mostly children, who had gathered around to the Italians working on a bridge. Italy has nearly 2,400 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the UN peace force, most of them in the west of the country. But Italy also has troops in Kabul involved in reconstruction and development projects meant to win Afghan 'hearts and minds'.

Globo of Brazil says a 15-year-old Brazilian girl accused of robbery was put in a jail cell with more than 20 men, and for one month was raped relentlessly and forced to have sex for food. The newspaper quotes a Children and Adolescent Defence Centre (Cedeca) spokeswoman saying the girl "was raped from day one” adding the number of men in the cell varied from 20 to 34 while the girl was there. Media reports of the case have sparked outrage across Brazil, especially since it closely followed an earlier incident of a 23-year-old woman who was also jailed in Para state for one month together with 70 men.

In Bangkok the mass-circulation Daily News says millions of drivers in Thailand will have to stop in their cars when the minute-long national anthem is played twice a day, if a new law is passed. But it is feared that such a move would cause chaos on the roads.