The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times says Austin Gatt has decided not to contest the next general election. It also says that importers are part-funding the car scrappage scheme.
The Malta Independent says that doctors are disobeying orders and sending patients to hospital needlessly. It also reports that an EU assessment has slammed Malta’s approach to financial crime.
MaltaToday says that Renzo Piano is being paid €6.6 million in professional fees. It also says that freebie tickets to MPs cost Air Malta €1m.
It-Torca says that former Air Malta chairman Joe N. Tabone has denied responsibility for the airline’s current problems, pointing out that he was chairman 20 years ago.
Il-Mument says that Godfrey Grima has advised Joseph Mucat that education and health services should not be completely free. It also reports on strong demand in the rental market.
Illum says that the biggest obstacle for the new MEPs, including Joseph Cuschieri, to take their seats in socialist leader Martin Schulz.
KullHadd reports that ministers are costing €1 million in salaries and allowances. It says that Joseph Muscat as prime minister would reduce ministerial salaries. The newspaper also reports that Mario Mizzi has stepped down as CEO of Mimcol.
The overseas press
Irradwaddy says several world leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and US President Barack Obama have welcomed the release by the Myanmar junta of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She appeared at the gate of her house waving and smiling after being officially released from house arrest, a detention that lasted 15 of the past 21 years. The democracy ison was preparing to address her followers later today and meet foreign diplomats.
The BBC quotes diplomatic sources saying the Israeli cabinet is today due to vote on a US package of incentives in exchange for a settlement construction freeze in the West Bank. Under the reported plan, Israel would stop construction for 90 days in the West Bank but not in East Jerusalem. The settlement row threatens to derail direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed in the US in September after a break of almost 20 months.
The head of Britain's Armed Forces has warned that the West would never defeat al Qaeda. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, General Sir David Richards said the national security of Britain was still at stake, but the threat could be contained to allow Britons to lead secure lives. He said the sacrifice being made by British troops in Afghanistan, where 343 soldiers have been killed since 2001, "has been worth it".
Deutsche Welle reports that some 100,000 of demonstrators have marched in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Erfurt to voice their disapproval with the Merkel government and social inequality. The protests were timed to coincide with the CDU's annual party congress, at which it's expected Merkel will be reelected to the leadership.
Le Journal du Dimanche says French President Nicolas Sarkozy has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his Cabinet. The move paves the way for long-awaited changes to the country's ministry posts. Fillon is expected to be quickly reappointed as prime minister, and the new Cabinet is likely to be made up of politicians from Sarkozy's center-right UMP party.
Asia Times reports President Barack Obama has said no nation should rely on exports to the United States for growth. Speaking in Yokohama on the sidelines of the Apec summit, Mr Obama said countries with a large surplus must take steps to boost domestic demand – an apparent reference to China and Japan. The Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (Apec) follows a G20 summit in Seoul, which highlighted disagreements among members over trade imbalances.
Il Mattino announces that the European Commission is set to investigate Italy over the use of hundreds of thousands of euros in EU funds, meant for growth-enhancing projects, to stage an Elton John concert in Naples. Investigators are looking into a possible misuse of European Union funds after Italian officials spent €720,000 in development aid for a concert last year featuring Elton John. The show was part of the Piedigrotta festival costing over €2.2 million, half of which came from EU regional funds.
Former Australia politician Pauline Hanson has abandoned plans to move to Britain, after discovering it's not the racially pure utopia she was hoping for. The former One Nation leader has told The Sun-Herald she was back in Australia for good and considering yet another return to politics. She said the French and English were losing their way of life because they're controlled by foreigners in the European Union.
The New York Times says imprisoned Wall Street conman Bernard Madoff's luxury watches, piano and other ill-gotten gains sold for high prices at auction yesterday, along with his more mundane possessions including socks. A Steinway grand piano went for $42,000 and his watch for $67,500. Three hours into the New York auction of goods, seized by the US marshalls after Madoff's life imprisonment last year, an oil painting by the late American artist Frederick Carl Frieseke that sold for $47,500. Proceeds will go toward compensating victims of the decades-long pyramid, or Ponzi fraud.
The Roman Catholic Church in the US has become so short of priests who know how to perform an exorcism that it has held an emergency two-day meeting to teach clerics how to properly cast out demons. The New York Post reported that a group of 56 bishops and 66 priests have gathered in Baltimore for the Conference on the Liturgical and Pastoral Practice of Exorcism.
The Dominion Post reports a New Zealand man was jailed for posting a naked photograph of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook after the breakup of the couple's five-month relationship. The judge jailed 20-year-old Joshua Simon Ashby for four months after he pleaded guilty to a charge of distributing indecent matter and six others of threatening to kill, wilful damage, theft of the woman's clothes, and assault.
Sky News says David Haye has delivered on his promise to "destroy" bitter rival Audley Harrison with a devastating third-round stoppage to retain his WBA heavyweight title. The sell-out crowd at Manchester’s MEN Area saw two uneventful rounds with barely a punch thrown before Haye exploded into life and won it in the third.