The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta quotes Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca saying he will stop carrying out eye operations in October.
l-orizzont unveils what it describes as a racket in the granting of urgent visas by the Maltese consulate in Libya with massive overcharging for the service. It also focuses on yesterday’s traffic fatality in Birkirkara.
In-Nazzjon says the PN has a new team which is looking ahead. It also says that the case of private work by Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca is a case of political hypocrisy.
The Malta Independent quotes the prime minister saying that party-funding legislation will be moved by year’s end. It also quotes PN leader Simon Busuttil saying the PN is ready for a new chapter.
The overseas press
The Libyan army chief of staff, Youssef al-Mangoush, has resigned after 30 people died in clashes between protesters and a militia in Benghazi. Libya Herald says the General National Congress accepted his resignation in a session on Sunday. The clashes erupted when protesters gathered outside the premises of the Libya Shield Brigade demanding it disband. The government has struggled to tackle the presence of armed militias since Col Gaddafi's death in 2011.
According to The Times, Britain has given a back-door bailout worth around £10 billion (€11.8 million) to Ireland in an arrangement that was never explicitly approved by Parliament. The money has been pumped into Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland which was rescued by a public cash injection of £45 billion five years ago. The losses in Ireland were not predicted at the time of the bailout and emerged only after the country’s property market collapsed in 2010. After this, some quarterly reports for Ulster — Ireland’s third biggest lender — saw losses exceed those in the rest of the RBS group combined. The banking giant remains 81 per cent owned by British taxpayers.
Deutsche Welle reports that a dam has broken on the flood-swollen River Elbe in eastern Germany, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes around the city of Magdeburg. Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44 metres on Sunday, nearly four times higher than the normal two metres. In Hungary, water levels on the Danube in the capital Budapest are believed to have peaked and officials say defences should prevent flooding in most areas. At least 15 people have died in the floods in Central Europe. Analysts say the damage will cost billions of euros to clean up.
France 24 says French President François Hollande has told an audience in Japan the crisis in the eurozone was over, despite crippling unemployment and ongoing economic hardship across the continent. Hollande’s comments came just a week after thousands of people took to the streets of European cities to vent their anger at the “troika” of international powers whose insistence on austerity is blamed for worsening their economic hardship.
Police in Ankara have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of demonstrators on the tenth day of nationwide protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government. AFP reports at least two people were injured in the clashes in downtown Kizilay square. Erdogan meanwhile was addressing supporters elsewhere in the city, after warning his patience with the demonstrators “has a limit”. He urged supporters to “teach protesters a lesson” in local elections next year.
Mail & Guardian South quotes South African and world leaders sayig their thoughts and prayers were with Nelson Mandela as the anti-apartheid hero spent a second day at a Pretoria hospital, where he is said to be in a “serious but stable” condition. Mandela, who turns 95 next month, was whisked to a Pretoria hospital in the early hours of Saturday for his fourth hospital stay in seven months.
The South Korean Yonhap news agency says officials from North and South Korea have agreed to hold the first high-level meeting since 2007. The talks, due to take place in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday, follow hours of preliminary talks in the truce village of Panmunjom aimed at rebuilding trust between the two Koreas.
A former CIA technical worker has been identified by the UK's Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes. Edward Snowden, 29, is described by the paper as an ex-CIA technical assistant, currently employed by defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The Guardian said his identity was being revealed at his own request.