Following are the top stories in the local and international press today:
The Sunday Times says that the EU may not accept Malta’s request to assist Air Malta to the tune of €100 million. In another story, it quotes sexual abuse victims insisting that the guilty priests should be sent to prison.
The Malta Independent on Sunday also reports on the sexual abuse victims saying it was not enough for them for their aggressors to appear before the Vatican’s board. They also had to be taken to court and sent to prison.
Malta Today says that the developers who allegedly carried out work at Finance Minister’s Tonio Fenech’s house were asked to pay €42 million as well as €1 million in interest in relation to a loan they took from a foreign bank.
It-Torca says that ARMS Ltd wants postmen to start reading electricity metres.
Il-Mument reports the Prime Minister addressing the PN’s general council yesterday saying that the budget presented last Monday had expressed a balance between economic measures and man. It says that Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s consultant Godfrey Grima was selling stories about the BWSC to foreign newspapers.
Illum says that the Labour Party club in Qala was closed following allegations of abuse. It also reports that Manuel Micallef has left Favourite Channel.
Kullhadd says that a person close to PN was arrested by the police following claims of corruption. The newspaper also reports major differences in the salaries of MITA employees in the same grade.
The foreign press
Al-Ayyam reports that Yemeni officials have arrested a woman on suspicion of sending the two mail bombs, found on Friday in cargo hubs at East Midlands Airport and in Dubai, sparking an international terror alert. The packages originated in Yemen and are believed to have contained the powerful explosive PETN. Officials in Yemen have also seized a further 24 packages as part of their investigation.
Jeune Afrique quotes the Moroccan Interior Ministry saying two terrorist cells with links to al-Qaida have been dismantled and their members detained. The cells were made up of nine people, including a Yemeni national sought by Morocco and two people already convicted on terror charges.
Meanwhile, Aftonbladet says police in Sweden have made several arrests over a suspected bomb plot in Gothenburg, the country’s second largest city. The motive for the plot was not yet clear and a police spokesman would not say whether it was related to criminal groups or international terrorists.
Jakarta Post says 135 people thought to have been missing following a tsunami in Indonesia have been found alive. They managed to reach safety on higher ground. It means 163 people are now unaccounted for, instead of the original 298.
News 24 reports that victims of clergy sex abuse from a dozen countries meet in Rome today to launch a petition demanding the United Nations designate child sex abuse as a crime against humanity. The gathering marks the first time that abuse survivors from around the world gather for a day of healing and to demand greater action from the Vatican.
The Sunday Express publishes the results of research by think tank Open Europe which shows that at £406,037, the combined pay, pensions and perks of MEPs are almost double those of Britain’s MPs who receive £225,580. MEPs have an annual salary of £81,403 and a retirement nest egg at a rate of £14,246 a year. Accommodation and travel costs in Brussels are worth another £78,914 annually. Brussels office allowances are £43,814 and the staff budget comes in at £201,906 a year. Stephen Booth, of Open Europe, said: “... and yet they have the gall to demand a huge increase to the EU budget”.
Brazilians go to the polls later today to choose a new president to succeed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. O Globo reports that opinion polls suggest the governing Workers Party candidate Dilma Rousseff has a clear lead over Jose Serra of the opposition Social Democratic Party. If she wins she will become Brazil's first woman president.
Ivorians will also vote today in their first presidential election in more than a decade. Ivoire Press says the race is likely to be close, with no outright winner, and Ivorians are preparing for violence should the result be challenged, as happened in the last two presidential polls. Leaders have called for calm.
CNN reports President Obama was heckled while speaking on the campaign trail in the US. He was forced to halt his speech at a Connecticut rally after loud boos from Aids campaigners. Mr Obama is on the campaign trail in four states to try and limit the expected losses, fuelled by poll data indicating voters are unhappy with the state of the economy and unemployment. Elections will take place across the US this week.
China Today says Alexandria Mills, an 18-year-old from the US state of Kentucky, became Miss World 2010 at the end of the beauty competition hosted by the Chinese resort town of Sanya. Botswana's Emma Wareus was second, and Venezuela's Adriana Vasini placed third in the pageant, which was first held in 1951.
London’s Mail says airline passengers and civil liberty groups have hit out at a new pat-down security technique used in the US, saying it was “horribly invasive”. Trialled at Logan International Airport in Boston, the search involves security staff sliding their hand over passengers, if they object to going through full-body imaging scanners. The new security search is due to be rolled out to 450 airports across the country.
The New York Post says a judge has ruled that a girl was old enough to be sued over a bicycle accident that happened when she was three months shy of five. Juliet Breitman, her mother and others are being sued by the estate of a woman who said she was severely hurt when hit by bicycles that Juliet and a boy were racing down a footpath in April 2009. The woman, Claire Menagh, died later that year. The judge said there was no evidence a child of that age couldn't appreciate "the danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman".
Qantas officials are investigating a "mile-high" sex romp involving a female airline employee and a male passenger. Sources told the Herald Sun they was sitting side by side in business class on a Melbourne-Los Angeles flight when passion got the better of them. The fondling began when the cabin lighting was turned down during the 11-hour trip. Other passengers complained and the pair were ordered to desist by the senior flight attendant, then ordered to sit in different sections of the plane.
Meanwhile, two British lovers ended a night at a Pizza Express restaurant in Manchester by having sex while passersby were watching from outside the closed restaurant. The Sun reports the passionate couple were so overcome by lust that they forgot they could be seen through the window of the brightly-lit eatery. Laughing crowds gathered outside – with many grabbing their camera phones to take photographs.
Daily Star Sunday reports a mob of Manchester United die-hard fans, fuming over the way Wayne Rooney landed a £250,000-a-week contract, waited in the arrivals lounge to vent their fury but the world’s highest-paid player was whisked off to the couple’s £4.5million Cheshire home. They had just landed from Dubia where they had been on holiday. But he failed to escape fan fury when he turned up at Old Trafford for United’s clash with Spurs. And, the paper says, he is set for another fright tonight when he is guest of honour at his own fancy dress Halloween party.