The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says a lawyer is the third person to be named in the John Dalli probe - Gayle Kimberly. It also says that a number of players have been banned on match-fixing claims.
The Malta Independent says PN candidates are gradually announcing their second district choices.
MaltaToday reports how former MP Sandro Schembri Adami yesterday admitted a second fraud charge and asked a court to jail him as he cannot pay the fine.
l-orizzont leads with a GWU statement that adequate pensions need to be provided for all the people, not just the judges. It also reports comments by the Auditor General that some estimates made in calls for tenders were exaggerated.
In-Nazzjon says there will be further change for the better for the self-employed including the removal of many licence requirements as from tomorrow.
The overseas press
VOA reports the northeast coast of the United States has began a massive clean-up after the biggest storm to hit the area for decades caused death and widespread damage. According to reports, the death toll has reached more than 40 across the US and Canada with the storm already costing over 65 lives in the Caribbean. Eighteen people died in New York City alone. The major of New York has warned it may take days to restore power and public transport.
Meanwhile, The Washington Times announces President Obama, who has urged officials to cut “red tape” in the aid effort, will visit the storm-battered state of New Jersey on Wednesday afternoon to view damage and thank emergency workers struggling to cope with the disaster. The visit comes as a vast army of rescue and utility workers confront the wreckage from Hurricane Sandy which caused massive flooding, raging fires and power outages that crippled the New York metropolitan area. Earlier the president declared New York and New Jersey as major disaster areas, freeing up federal funds aimed at off-setting billions of dollars in East Coast property damage.
Geo News says a Pakistani militant leader with a $10 million US bounty on his head has offered humanitarian aid to Americans affected by Sandy. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is the founder of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group and now the head of the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa. He said his organisation is ready to send volunteers, doctors, food, medicines and other relief items if the US government allowed it.
Haiti and the United Nations are planning an appeal for emergency aid after Hurricane Sandy killed 54 people and devastated crops before going on to hit the United States. Fox News says that with hundreds of thousands of people still living in tents after the earthquake in 2010, Sandy has worsened the threats posed by cholera and food shortages.
Deutsche Welle reports the heads of five key economic institutions – the IMF, the OECD, the ILO, the World Bank and the WTO – have issued a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for further reform within the eurozone. In a joint statement, the institutional heads warned that risks remained "great" for the world and further efforts were needed to create jobs for Europe's millions of unemployed young people and to make necessary structural reform to social welfare systems.
Libya Herald says dozens of protesters stormed Libya’s national assembly on Tuesday, disrupting a vote on a proposed government, saying they were unhappy with some of the nominated ministers. The protesters, including civilians and former rebel fighters, charged into the hall as the General National Congress voted on new Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s proposed cabinet line-up, which he had named earlier on Tuesday. Members of the congress negotiated with the protesters to leave the chamber and the resumed before being disrupted a second time, leading congress leader Mohammed Magarief to announce the session was over. The debate is expected to continue this morning.
Al Ahram announces that President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt has ordered an investigation into a spate of sex assaults during the Muslim holiday. He acted after his government reported 735 police complaints about sexual harassment over the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, which ended on Monday.
Le Figaro reports French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault delighted business and angered labour leaders on Tuesday by suggesting the 35-hour work week was not sacrosanct, although he stressed the Socialist government had no plans to change it. The comment came ahead of a government-commissioned report to be unveiled next Monday on proposals to boost the flagging industrial competitiveness of Europe’s second largest economy. Many employers say it bloated labour costs and blunted their ability to compete in world markets.
The Times says two Gurkhas have been killed in Afghanistan by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform, in what appears to be the latest "green-on-blue" attack on British troops. Their deaths bring the number of British servicemen killed by Afghan soldiers or police to 11 this year.
Syrian forces have killed at least 23 people in a suburb of the capital Damascus. Al-Arabiya quotes the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying 18 civilians were killed in an airstrike on the city of Duma, north east of Damascus. Five other rebel fighters were killed in clashes with regime forces nearby. Meanwhile, Syrian state television announced that one of the country's air force generals has been assassinated.
The Chicago Tribune reports Disney is paying (€3.12 billion) to buy Lucasfilm Ltd, the production company behind Star Wars. It also announced it was making a seventh film in the Star Wars series, scheduled for release in 2015.