The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
All newspapers in Malta report about the arrival of the survivors of Friday's shipwreck of Lampedusa.
Survivors tell The Sunday Times of Malta they came under fire as they left the Libyan coast. In another story, the newspaper reports that a Gozitan farmer involved in a legal battle to save his 435 sheep from being culled has been fined almost €1.7 million for failing to register them.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says investors can acquire citizenship without setting foot in Malta and the Government was promising the most rigorous due diligence process in the world.
It-Torca which says that the company Henley & Parntners guaranteed that applications for Maltese citizenship would be scrutinised.
Maltatoday says that the names of those who buy citizenship will not be published.
Illum says that Malta’s former EU representative in Brussels Richard Cachia Caruana continued to be paid following a vote of no confidence in him in Parliament.
Il-Mument says that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s cabinet would cost the people some €100 million, 74 per cent more than that of the previous Government had cost.
International press
Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta has announced an Italian military humanitarian mission to limit the loss of lives of immigrants trying to reach Europe over the Mediterranean Sea. In an interview with La Repubblica editor Ezio Mauro, Letta said, “The goal of the mission is to make the Mediterranean Sea safer in those areas that have become a cemetery. We'll spend a lot of money to triple the number of ships and planes we are using now.”
Following the latest shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has called on the EU's member states to act urgently to strengthen Frontex, the EU's border patrol agency. AGI says Malmstrom renewed her appeal to all member states to make available the necessary funding to enable Frontex to finalise the details of a search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean, Cyprus and Spain, in order to identify and better assist boats in need.
All India Radio announces that a powerful cyclone whose spinning arms engulfed much of the Bay of Bengal weakened this morning as it crashed into India’s eastern coast, flooding homes and roads throughout the region and disrupting electricity and communications.
The Wall Street Journal reports global finance chiefs have stepped up calls for the US Federal Reserve to take care in moving to cut its stimulus, as emerging countries wrestle with financial turbulence.
The Irish Examiner quotes Prime Minister Enda Kenny declaring Ireland is on track to exit its strict international bail-out programme in December. However, he warned the country still had a way to go to recover from the global economic crisis and admitted the next national budget due to be presented on Tuesday would be “tough”, with another €2.5 billion in tax rises and spending cuts.
Gulf News reports anti-riot police in Bahrain used buckshot, sound grenades and tear gas to disperse hundreds of Shiite protesters trying to reach Pearl Square, after the funeral of a Shiite detainee who died in hospital in the capital on Friday.
Afghan Post says President Hamid Karzai announced that an agreement on bilateral security was not reached with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been in Afghanistan for two days.
Some 50 people were killed when a truck careened off a cliff in the southeastern Peru province of La Convencion. Local mayor Fedia Castro told local television ATV the victims include 12 children.
The New York Times reports police arrested a man who confessed to sexually abusing and murdering a little girl found stuffed in a picnic cooler 22 years ago. They identified the suspect, Conrado Juarez of the Bronx, as a cousin of the four-year-old victim, who was named for the first time as Anjelica Castillo.
Hollywood Reporter says Charlie Hunnam is dropping out of the highly-anticipated big-screen version of “Fifty Shades Of Grey” just weeks after being cast as the lead. Universal called it a mutual decision because Hunnam’s preparation time was limited by his television schedule.