The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the search for a missing fisherman. It also quotes the prime minister telling supporters that the PN is the change which the people want.
The Malta Independent quotes the prime minister saying the government will stay in place for as long as it has confidence of the House. It also quotes the Education Minister claiming an employee was dismissed from a home for girls because she restrained residents with handcuffs.
In-Nazzjon also quotes the prime minister saying the PN is the party of change which suits the people.
l-orizzont gives prominence to Joseph Muscat’s reiteration that power tariffs will be reduced. It also highlights the Arriva collective agreement.
The overseas press
The Obama administration has called last week’s assault on the US consulate in Libya a terrorist attack rather than a part of protests against a video that many Muslims consider offensive because it ridicules Prophet Muhammad. VOA quotes White House Press Secretary Jay Carney telling reporters it was “self-evident” that the September 11 attack on the US facility in Benghazi was a “terrorist attack”. A short time later, President Barack Obama said that protests were used as a pretext for a planned strike against Americans. National Counterterrorism Centre Director Matthew Olsen had told a Senate committee on Wednesday that the incident was “an opportunistic attack” that “evolved and escalated over several hours”. US Ambassador to Libya Chris Davies and three other Americans were killed in the attack. A tenet of Islam bans the portrayal of its founder.
The Financial Times says the US government has bought television advertising slots in Pakistan to reach some 90 million Muslims to counter tensions over the anti-Islamic film. The adverts feature President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton underscoring US respect for religion and declaring the government had nothing to do with the movie. The crudely made film has triggered protests in at least 20 and more than 30 people have been killed in violence linked to the film.
Meanwhile, according to the South Asian News Agency, the Pakistani Army was called in Islamabad to control violent protest against anti-Islam movie. More than 60 protesters were injured in clashes close to the city’s diplomatic enclave home to most Western embassies, including the US, British and French missions.
ABC quotes Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr saying he supported a decision by the French government to ban illegal demonstrations linked to an anti-Islam film. The French government had announced it would not tolerate illegal protests this weekend and security has been tightened at French embassies and schools in 20 countries. Carr, currently in France, said it is not up to Western governments to censor freedom of expression
Bellenews says Syrian Freedom Association has filed a legal complaint against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The complaint by the little-known organization, accuses the magazine of inciting hatred.
New York Daily News reports that the actress who says she was duped into appearing in the anti-Islamic video, Cindy Lee Garcia has lost her pleas to have the clips removed from You Tube. A judge in California said the man behind the film had not been served with a copy of the lawsuit and that You Tube and its film company Google were not liable.
France 24 says a French teenager who was arrested for wearing a full Islamic veil has been jailed for two months after biting a policewoman. The court heard the 18-year-old Louise-Marie Suisse refused to cooperate with the police when asked to produce identity papers. She admitted biting one of the officers during an altercation. France has outraged many Muslims with its law that bans covering a person's face in public.
The New York Times reports that the United States, Britain and France have told the UN Security Council that Iran’s supply of weapons to the Assad regime in Syria was unacceptable and must stop. At a meeting on the implementation of sanctions against Iran, the ambassadors for the three powers also criticised the Islamic Republic for failing to stop enriching uranium and not seriously engaging with them and others in talks on its suspect nuclear programme.
Syrian opposition activists have told the AFP at least 50 people have been killed in an airstrike on a petrol station in northern Syria, an area of heavy fighting between government and rebel forces. They said a Syrian air force jet circled over the town of al-Raqqa, then bombed a petrol station – the one still operating in the area – leaving dozens of bodies on the ground and more than 80 wounded. Meanwhile, security forces surrounded and raided a rebellious southern district of Damascus, arresting more than 100 people, and activists said several others were executed.
The Guardian reports that a High Court judge had ordered an inquest early next year into the death of a former Russian FSB security services officer who was poisoned in Britain in 2006. The family of Alexander Litvinenko wants the hearing to investigate what it believes was the "criminal role" of the Russian state. Litvinenko was a former Russian agent who later became a critic of the Kremlin. He went to Britain in 2000 and claimed asylum. After he died in 2006, a post-mortem examination linked his death to poisoning by the radioactive substance polonium-210.
According to Radio Imedi, Georgian Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia has become the second minister to resign after a wave of protests sparked by videos showing prison officers abusing inmates. A number of prison guards have been arrested in connection with the abuses. The Interior Ministry has blamed the president's opponents for organising and filming the abuses ahead of parliamentary elections.
Ohio Post says 16 members of a breakaway Amish group have been convicted of hate crimes after a series of attacks on fellow Amish whose beards and hair were cut off. The 16 face 10 years or more in jail over the incidents, prompted by a dispute over religious differences. Prosecutors said the victims' hair was cut because it has spiritual significance in the Amish faith.
Mark Pieth, the man appointed by Fifa to curb corruption within football’s world governing body, has told the BBC powerful officials in the organisation had been blocking his reforms. The 59-year-old Swiss professor has warned football was in danger of becoming like boxing with multiple governing bodies "where you have four world champions in the end".