The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times reports that teen erotic dancers at parties have raised eyebrows. It also says that Air Malta may have a longer wait for the conclusion of the EU process on the restructuring plan.
The Malta Independent says Greece has enough cash to last into November. The EU has delayed a fresh bailout payment.
MaltaToday follows up suggestions of Constitution amendments leading to a second republic and says Eddie Fenech Adami is cautious about a second republic.
l-orizzont leads with the GWU wreath laying at the Workers’ Monument in Msida to mark Union Foundation Day. Secretary General Tony Zarb said the union was a social force in Malta.
In-Nazzjon leads with the investment being made by the University in investment and research.
The overseas press
The New York Times reports that a late frenzy on Wall Street has led stocks to a sharp increase, even as fears over a major banking crisis in Europe mounted along with expectations that Greece could soon default on its debt. US markets opened sharply lower, but ended the day up thanks to a strong rally in the last hour of trading after a report said European officials were discussing plans to recapitalize the Continent’s banks. The Dow Jones was 1.4 per cent higher at the close. French shares fell 2.6 per cent, German stocks 3 per cent, and the UK's FTSE 100 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Le Soir says that the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, the bank the market judges most vulnerable to Greece, saw its shares tumble another 22 per cent, to just over one euro. Dexia is holding an emergency board meeting amid serious concerns, while the governments of France and Belgium, which are joint shareholders in Dexia, moved to guarantee its debts.
Ansa reports Italy’s credit rating has again been downgraded amid continuing concern that Italy and some other members of the eurozone would be unable to repay their debts. Correspondents say the downgrading by Moody’s would make it harder and more expensive for the Italian government and banks to borrow.
CNN says that Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria because of its violent suppression of anti-violent protests. The resolution, drafted by European countries, had been watered down to try to avoid the vetoes, dropping any direct reference to sanctions. US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice expressed outrage at the vote, saying the Security Council had utterly failed to address and urgent moral challenge.
Al Jazeera reports forces of the transitional government in Libya have used tanks to pound the centre of Sirte, hometown of the fugitive Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. His supporters have been putting up stiff resistance for weeks. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the Nato mission in Libya should continue as long there is fighting in the country. Panetta spoke in Cairo as he headed to a Nato defence ministers' meeting in Brussels where the subject of Libya is on the agenda. Nato has committed to keep the operation going for another three months.
MSNBC says that Amanda Knox arrived home in Seattle and, in a halting voice, nearly choked with emotion told the people who supported her fight to overturn her Italian murder conviction: "Thank you for being there for me." The BA jet carrying Knox landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport a day after an Italian court cleared the 24-year-old college student of murdering her British flatmate. Knox and her former Italian boyfriend had spent four years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher, who was found semi-naked with her throat slit.
According to El Universal, security forces in Mexico have arrested 18 police officers they accuse of collaborating with the Zetas drug cartel. Marines arrested the police in the eastern state of Vera Cruz along with nine fugitives who escaped from a jail from the same region two weeks ago.
Panapress reports Al-Qaeda-linked militants launched their deadliest single bombing in Somalia on Tuesday, killing 70 people and injuring scores of others. A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education, where students and their parents were registering for scholarships offered by the Turkish government. Rebels of the al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
London’s Evening News reports that a pub landlady has won the latest stage of her fight to air Premier League games using a foreign TV decoder. Karen Murphy had to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening. But she took her case to the European Court of Justice which decrees that national laws which prohibit the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards are contrary to the freedom to provide services.
British Home Secretary Theresa May has triggered a row on alleged abuses of the Human Rights Act by claiming an illegal immigrant could not be deported because he owned a cat. Under the headlines “Catflap”, “Catfight” and “Catastriphic”, newspaper reports say that May was trying to make the case for rewriting Britain’s immigration laws during a speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. She said aspects of the European human rights act were being abused to prevent foreign criminals being deported. She drew gasps from delegates when she reeled off an example of an illegal immigrant who could not be deported because he had a pet cat. But a spokesperson for the Judicial Office later said the decision not to deport the man had "nothing to do" with his cat. The courts involved in the case said the man, A Bolivian student, had escaped being deported not because of his pet cat but because of his relationship with a British girlfriend.