The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that a flight which was meant to bring a further 15 wounded Libyans for medical treatment in Malta was cancelled at the last minute yesterday. It also says that there are five minors in adult wards at Mt Carmel Hospital.
The Malta Independent says hopes have risen as leaders vow to tackle the international financial crisis.
l-orizzont reports that the Speaker was not kept abreast of developments on the black dust issue, despite chairing a committee on the subject.
In-Nazzjon focuses on the start of the new scholastic year. It also reports that a Maltese was killed in a traffic accident in Valencia.
The overseas press
A global employment crisis could see 40 million jobs wiped out in the world’s leading economies by next year. London’s Metro quotes a joint OECD/ILO study revealing 20million jobs have already disappeared across the G20 countries since the financial downturn began in 2008. But the leading economists warned the figure would double by the end of 2012 if the current “anaemic” employment growth of 0.8 per cent continued. They say vulnerable groups such as the young and long-term unemployed would be hardest hit.
Greece was caught in turmoil yesterday as different categories of workers took part in more strikes and protests against new austerity measures needed to appease the country's creditors. Kathimerini reports Athens commuters were hit as metro, tram and suburban rail workers went on a 24-hour strike, while buses stopped for several hours in the middle of the day. Airline passengers also faced delays as controllers refused to work overtime. Greek police held their own protest, hanging a giant black banner from the top of Lycabettus Hill in the capital reading "Pay day, day of mourning". Greeks have been outraged by the recently-announced new austerity measures on top of previous ones which failed to sufficiently reduce the country's budget deficit.
El Pais says Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has dissolved parliament ahead of November's early general elections. The opposition Popular Party is seeking to maintain a large lead, while the Socialists are hoping to galvanize disillusioned voters. The country has been battered in recent months by the kind of market speculation that led to Greece, Ireland and Portugal requesting bailouts from the European Union. The lack of growth, a high deficit and Europe's highest jobless rate, at over 20 percent, have contributed to a rollercoaster ride for Spanish bond prices.
Corriere della Sera reports that Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, has hit out at Italy's political class, saying the country needed to "purify the air" of sex and corruption scandals. Without mentioning Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Cardinal Bagnasco told fellow bishops it was "mortifying" to witness "sad and hollow" behaviour that damaged the country's image abroad. He added that politicians had a responsibility to live a moral life and set a good example because their behaviour had "undeniable effects on culture and education" and influenced the young and impressionable.
Al Jazeera says anti-Gaddafi fighters have breached the former Libya leader's hometown of Sirte from the east for the first time, as their three-day long assault continues. Soldiers traded rocket fire with Gaddafi loyalists as they edged from the eastern suburbs into the city. The advance comes two days after the soldiers, loyal to the National Transitional Council, attacked from the west before retreating again.
AFP reports Italy's ENI and France's Total have resumed oil production in Libya – more than six months after oil and gas output in the country ground to a halt due to the popular uprising. The companies said more wells would be reactivated over the coming days.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the Libyan interim government has rejected a Scottish Crown Office request for assistance in the inquiry into the Lockerbie airliner bombing, in which 270 people were killed over Scotland in 1998. Libya’s interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi told reporters that the case was closed.
Pravda announces the resignation of Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin folowing a public row with President Dmitry Medvedev. Kudrin said he would not serve in a new government next year if, as expected, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Medvedev switch roles. Medvedev gave him a sharp rebuke and ordered him to resign if he continued to disagree over economic policy.
The East African reports the death in Nairobi of Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai while undergoing cancer treatment. She was 71. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government – the first African woman to get the award. Ms Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted some 30 million trees in Africa.
The New York Post says Dominique Strauss-Kahn has asked a New York court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the hotel maid who says he sexually assaulted her. Attorneys for the former International Monetary Fund leader filed the motion in a Bronx court, arguing judges there do not have the ability to try the case, because Strauss-Kahn's time as head of the fund gives him immunity from the litigation.
The Jerusalem Post says 2,000 years after they were written and decades after they were found in desert caves, some of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls went online for the first time on Monday in a project launched by Israel's national museum and the web giant Google. The appearance of five of the most important Dead Sea scrolls on the Internet was part of a broader attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts to make them available to anyone with a computer.
Fatherhood may be a kick in the old testosterone, but it may also help keep a man alive. The Associated Press quotes new research which suggested that dads were a little less likely to die of heart-related problems than childless men were. The study – by the health insurance AARP, the US government and several universities – was the largest ever on male fertility and mortality, involving nearly 138,000 men.
Gulf News reports that a Saudi woman was to face trial for defying the country’s ban on female drivers. Najalaa Harrir was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor general in Jeddah on the same day that Saudi King Abdullah introduced reforms giving women the right to vote and run in local elections four years from now. Harrir is one of dozens of Saudi female activists behind a campaign called “My Right, My Dignity” that is aimed at ending discrimination against women, including the driving ban. She recently appeared in a TV show while driving her car in Jeddah.