The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says a Gozo ferry was last night ordered to return to Cirkewwa to pick up Gozo Minister Anton Refalo.
The Malta Independent says the prime minister used his visit to the UN general assembly to focus on relations with non-EU countries.
In-Nazzjon reports how Simon Busuttil yesterday accused Joseph Muscat of the lowest standards of governance in view of the employment of a minister’s wife with the rank of ambassador, the pressure for the AFM commander to resign, and the political decision for John Dalli not to be prosecuted.
l-orizzont says the government will try to achieve stability in gas prices after what it did for other fuels.
The overseas press
Voice of Nigeria confirms more than some 50 students have been killed in an attack by the Islamist Boko Haram group at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state in north-eastern Nigeria. The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory.
Austria’s outgoing coalition government appears set to return to power following the country’s general election. However, smaller parties have managed to reduce the majority they can form in parliament. ORF says preliminary final results showed that Chancellor Werner Faymann's Social Democrats had finished first in Sunday's election, taking 27.1 percent of the vote, more than two percent less than in the 2008 election.
President Bashar al-Assad has said Damascus “will comply” with a UN Security Council resolution ordering the destruction of the country's chemical arsenal. He told Italian channel Rai News 24 Assad said most European states “are unable” to play a role in the proposed peace process for Syria. He also referred to the US-Iranian rapprochement, saying that “as long as the United States is honest,” it would have a “positive” impact on Syria and the Middle East.
In the latest violence in Syria, an air strike on a high school in a rebel-held city of northern Syria killed 12 people, most of them students under 18. Al Bawaba quotes the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying the air strike came after rebels launched an overnight attack on army positions in Nasseriya al-Qalamun, north of Damascus, killing at least 19 soldiers and wounding 60.
Haaretz reports four young Jews between 17 and 26 years old, have been arrested after they smashed gravestones at a Christian cemetery near the Tomb of King David in Jerusalem. It said the four, all students at a Jewish religious school “yeshiva”, were caught in the act by a police patrol.
Gazete Oku says Turkish police fired tear gas at Istanbul airport to disperse some 200 protesters who demonstrated in support of striking employees of the Turkish airlines. The police prevented the protesters, who had responded to the call of a collective trade union, to march to the headquarters of the airline which is located in the airport complex. The employees of the Turkish airlines are on strike since May 15.
Heavy prison terms have been imposed by a court in Bahrain to 50 Shiite opponents, accusing them of “recourse to terrorism” and of conspiring, in collusion with Iran, against the Sunni monarchy of the Al-Khalifa. Al Jazeera says 16 were sentenced to 15 years, four to 10 years and the other 30 to five years’ imprisonment.
In London, The Times reports hundreds of primary-school age children were admitted to hospital emergency departments for alcohol-related problems last year. The 293 admissions, up by a third on 2011, came after a year in which more than 6,500 under-18s were taken to hospital as a consequence of drinking.
A Saudi cleric sparked a wave of mockery online when he warned women that driving would affect their ovaries and bring “clinical disorders” upon their children. Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaydan issued the warning to women in remarks to local news website Sabq.org, ahead of an October 26 initiative to defy a longstanding driving ban on women in the ultra-conservative kingdom. His comments prompted criticism on Twitter, which has become a rare platform for Saudis to voice their opinions in the absolute monarchy.
The dream of all the women – and men – who want to fight off crow's feet might become a reality. An article in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science says a pill containing several natural substances is being developed in Germany and has proven to be very effective in reducing wrinkles by 10 percent. It is also effective in preventing them because it stimulates, for the first time ever, the formation of collagen.
Super Sport reports the Olympic flame has been lit in Ancient Olympia in Greece ahead of its long journey to the opening ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.