The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Malta emerged from its football clash with Italy with its head high. It also says that Malta and Italy will work together on migrants.
The Malta Independent quotes Evarist Bartolo saying that the repeater class has been introduced by stealth.
MaltaToday says asbestos concerns are being glossed over by health authorities.
l-orizzont features a Libyan father’s plea to be allowed to see his son in Malta.
In-Nazzjon gives prominence to the granting of sports scholarships yesterday.
The overseas press
A film attacking Prophet Muhammad has sparked violent protests against US interests in Libya and Egypt. Al Jazeera reports an American consulate employee was shot dead and another wounded in the hand during the attack at the US consulate in Benghazi, when an armed mob attacked and set fire to the building. Rocket-propelled grenades were also fired. Just hours earlier, thousands of Egyptian demonstrators protested in Cairo. A dozen men scaled the US embassy walls, tore down at the Stars and Stripes and replaced it with a black Islamic flag. The video depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way.
The family of a young Pakistani Christian girl who faces blasphemy charges says their Muslim neighbours threatened to burn them alive inside their home. Speaking to the BBC from a secret location outside Islamabad, the girl’s father said he feared for their lives. He insisted his daughter was innocent of allegedly burning pages of the Koran. A cleric who had accused her was arrested last week for allegedly planting evidence against her, and himself desecrating the Koran.
Americans marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in ceremonies in Washington and New York. CNN says President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Pentagon outside Washington DC, saying the US emerged "even stronger" from that day's death and horror. In New York, relatives read aloud the names of the 3,000 killed. For the first time, politicians did not address the ceremony in New York. In the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, the US launched a campaign to destroy the al-Qaeda network headed by Osama Bin Laden. A team of elite US troops killed the al-Qaeda chief in a raid on his Pakistani compound last year.
For the first time since taking office, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will visit the United States without meeting President Obama. The Jerusalem Post quotes an Israeli official saying a request from Netanyahu’s office to meet with Obama in Washington as part of the prime minister’s trip to the UN in New York later this month was rejected for scheduling reasons. The announcement followed Netanyahu’s declaration that those who did not place "red lines" on Iran, had no right to give Israel a "red light". The refusal for the meeting comes in the midst of roiling tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme.
La Vanguardia reports 1.5 million people have taken part in Catalonia's annual independence rally in Barcelona, waving the region's independence flag and brandishing the colours red and yellow. This year's march aimed to be the biggest ever – and a protest against the Spanish government's tax laws. Catalonia wants Madrid to review its tax agreement and provide a bailout. The size of the turnout for the rally, which is held annually on September 11 to mark the Siege of Barcelona 300 years ago, forced organisers to change its route.
The Irish Independent quotes Prime Minister Enda Kenny ruling out implementing recommendations from the International Monetary Fund’s review of the Irish economy. He played down the importance of the agency’s staff report, which advised a new property tax set at 0.5 per cent of the value of a home. Kenny said the medium and long-term review – an IMF standard for all its 188 member states – was “not binding”.
The Daily Telegraph says British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been embroiled in a row over gay marriage after issuing a statement denouncing opponents of the coalition's plans for same-sex unions as "bigots". He later withdrew the remark following an angry response at Westminster. The coalition’s pledge to introduce same-sex civil marriage by 2015 has been criticised by religious groups and provoked deep unease in Conservative ranks – with some ministers suggesting they may not support it in Parliament. David Cameron has signalled that MPs will be given a free vote, but stressed his personal commitment to the change.
The US tax agency has awarded a former Swiss banker $104 million for providing information about overseas tax cheats – the largest amount ever awarded by the Internal Revenue Service. San Francisco Chronicle says Bradley Birkenfeld is credited with exposing widespread tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS AG. He himself served 30 months in prison for a fraud conspiracy conviction related to the case, which resulted in a $780 million fine against the bank and an unprecedented agreement requiring UBS to turn over thousands of names of suspected American tax dodgers to the IRS. Federal prosecutors had said Birkenfeld withheld information about his own dealings with a former UBS client who pleaded guilty in 2007 to tax charges.
Times Picayune reports a 53-year-old woman in New Orleans has shot dead her 57-year-old husband after mistaking him for an intruder. No charges have been filed. Police say the case will be turned over to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office for review.