The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that Eurozone ministers yesterday approved another payout of €8 billion to Greece. It also says that Libyan leaders are being pressed to declare liberation and move on in the process of democratisation.
The Malta Independent reports that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici has expressed a deep sense of repugnance over the way Gaddafi was killed after being caught, and dragged through the streets.
l-orizzont highlights the granting of the first divorce decree by the Maltese courts yesterday. It also highlights how Malta’s debt has risen to €4.5 billion, with the deficit having risen by €107 million between April and June.
In-Nazzon says that according to Jason Micallef , head of the PL station, Peppi Azzopardi will be sidelined at PBS under a Labour government. It also says Joseph Muscat is avoiding questions on his attempts to embed journalists in the independent media.
The overseas press
Le Soir reports that Nato has made a preliminary decision to end its Libya mission at the end of October. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance would make a final decision next week after consulting the Libyan Transitional Council and the UN. Nato planes have flown about 26,000 sorties, including over 9,600 strike missions. They destroyed Libya’s air defences and over 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gaddafi’s command and control networks.
Al Arab says the corpses of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his son Muatassim remain in refrigerated containers at a shopping mall in Misrata where they were viewed by large crowds on Friday. The coroner there said he would conduct an autopsy later today. Al Jazeera reports that Libya's National Transitional Council has delayed the burial in order to arrange a secret location and allow for an investigation into his death.
NTC officials have said Gaddafi later died of wounds in the ambulance, but the ambulance driver, Ali Jaghdoun, told Reuters that Gaddafi was already dead when he picked up the body. "I didn't try to revive him because he was already dead," Jaghdoun said, in testimony that adds greater weight to the widespread assumption that Gaddafi was lynched. The UN human rights arm said an investigation was needed to into whether he was summarily executed.
Meanwhile, the ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Moatassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte. In a statement on the Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, Ar-Rai TV, they called on the UN, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the Transitional Council to hand over the bodies to their tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules.
The New York Times says the UN Security Council has called on the Yemeni government in opposition to reach a deal granting President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution, enabling him to step down after month of anti-government protests. The resolution, criticised by Yemeni activists and human rights groups, condemned excessive force against protesters, hundreds of whom have died since unrest began in January. The council said those responsible for violence should be held accountable.
The Financial Times reports that there is fresh alarm over the Greek economy because it has deteriorated so severely in the last three months. Eurozone finance ministers, while agreeing to Greece receiving its next installment of about €8 billion in aid next month, said they were working on a second rescue package for the debt-ridden country, which would include new aid money and contributions from the private sector. They did not give details about the new package.
Spain has ruled out talks with the Basque separatist group Eta even as it welcomed an end to four decades of bombings and shootings following the group’s announcement it was laying down arms. Defence Minister Carme Chacon told Radio Television Espanola there was “nothing to negotiate with Eta”, adding that Eta had not achieved any of its aims and that the decades “of pain and crime have not served them at all”.It was the first clear signal from the government that there would be no deals made.
The Washington Times reports US President Barack Obama has declared an end to the Iraq war and said all US troops would be withdrawn from the country by the end of this year. The statement ended months of wrangling over whether the US would maintain a force in Iraq beyond 2011. The US military presence in Iraq stands at about 40,000. More than 4,400 American military personnel have been killed since the US-led invasion began in March 2003.
USA Today says Pakistan, Morocco, Guatemala and Togo have won seats on the UN Security Council for the next two years. The Eastern European seat is still being contested. The elections replace five of the 10 temporary members of the council every year.
Associated News reports that an FBI cadaver dog reacted to the scent of a dead person inside the Kansas City home where a baby girl disappeared nearly three weeks ago, and investigators discovered soil in the backyard that had been "recently disturbed or overturned". The police said in a court document released on Friday, also stated that the girl's mother, Deborah Bradley, did not initially look for her baby behind the house because she “was afraid of what she might find”. Investigations are continuing.