The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that judges are set to receive uncapped pensions similar to the system for MPs. It also says national team player Kevin Sammut was in tears as he sets off to clear his name after the Malta-Norway match fixing scandal.
The Malta Independent quotes the chairman of the Anti-Doping Commission as saying that the current doping rate was considered very high.
In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying the PN will continue to work for better living standards, jobs, health and education.
l-orizzont says a Bosnian worker who died in an accident in Hamrun five years ago has been recognized as being the father of a boy. He did not know about the pregnancy.
The overseas press
Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, was given a suspended death sentence early today after confessing to killing British businessman Neil Heywood by poisoning him with cyanide in a case that has shaken the Communist Party's transition to a new leadership. Associated Press says a suspended sentence is usually commuted to life in prison. The BBC says Gu may serve only 14 years. Sentenced along with Gu Kailai was a family aide who was given nine years' imprisonment for his involvement in the murder. The sentencing closes a chapter of China's biggest political crisis in two decades, but also leaves open questions over the fate of Gu's husband, Bo Xilai, who was dismissed in March as the powerful Communist Party chief of the major city of Chongqing.
Libyan authorities have arrested 32 Gaddafi supporters connection with bombings that killed two people in the capital on Sunday. Libya Herald quotes an official from the country's Supreme Security Committee saying the 32 were part of an organised network, which has now been dismantled. The paper says Gaddafi loyalists have been recorded discussing Sunday morning’s car bomb attacks in Tripoli, using the public chat-room service Paltalk, both before and after the explosions took place, suggesting clear prior knowledge of the events. After the attacks took place, the men in the Paltalk room are overheard celebrating the blasts.
Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been holed up for two months, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has urged the United States to renounce its "witch-hunt" against his whistle blowing website. The Guardian reports he said Washington must promise not to prosecute him for leaking confidential documents. A Virginia grand jury is studying evidence that might link Assange to Private Bradley Manning, the US soldier who has been charged with aiding the enemy by passing the secret files to WikiLeaks and is awaiting trial. No action against Assange has yet been taken by the US. Assange also urged the US to release Manning. In his statement, the Australian did not refer to the Swedish allegations of sexual assault against him. Assange claims the sex was consensual and the allegations are politically motivated.
Asia Times says thousands of people took to the streets across China in anti-Japanese protests after Japanese nationalists raised their country's flag on disputed islands, demanding that Japan leave the islands in the East China Sea. China claims the islands have been a part of its territory since ancient times, but Japan says it took control of the archipelago in the late 1890s after making sure they were uninhabited. The disputed islands - which lie on a vital shipping lane and are surrounded by deposits of gas - are also claimed by Taiwan.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria visited a Damascus mosque for prayers in the annual Islamic Eid al Fitr holiday, marking the end of Ramadan. It was his first public appearance – and his third on TV – since the July bombing that killed four of his top security chiefs. Al Arabiya TV reported that sniffer dogs were used to check the area in and around the mosque for explosives. Meanwhile, Syrian rights activists said thousands of people in Damascus and other parts of the country joined anti-Assad protests after Sunday’s Eid al Fitr prayers. They also reported more Syrian government bombardments of rebel-held areas.
Mail & Guardian says President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has declared a period of mourning following the deadly shooting by police of 34 miners who were taking part in a strike over better wages. The miners have been told to return to work or face dismissal. Many said that to end the dispute now would be an insult to their dead colleagues.
Dawn reports the arrest in of an 11-year-old Christian girl accused of burning pages of the Koran. She was detained under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws after an angry mob demanded her arrest. Christian groups said the girl has Down’s syndrome.