The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says the Prime Minister said that he excludes nothing as more migrants were saved yesterday. It also reports that 12 AFM officers have sought redress after being passed over for promotion.
The Malta Independent says Budget Day could by November 25.
In-Nazzjon says there have been no reductions in medicinal prices in the past seven months, in contrast to the final months of the PN government.
l-orizzont quotes Syrian migrants saying they want to leave Malta.
The overseas press
After a 16-day US government shutdown, the Senate and House of Representatives have overwhelmingly approved a Bill that would re-open the government and extend the debt limit. ABC News reports 81 senators voted in favour of the measure and 18, all Republicans, voted against it. The House followed suit shortly afterward, voting 285 to 144 to approve the bill.
AFP reports France has agreed to accept 500 “particularly vulnerable” Syrian refugees at the request of the United Nations following talks in Paris between French President François Hollande and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. The UN agency has urged EU nations to offer asylum to some 10,000 Syrians this year and another 30,000 in 2014. Germany has already offered to take 5,000 refugees. Some 50,000 Syrians have so far applied for asylum in the EU, mostly in Sweden and Germany.
A new report into the extent of slavery in the world estimates that some 30 million people worldwide are living in modern-day bondage. Business Insider says the Global Slavery Index, compiled by the Walk Free Foundation, said that while India by far had the largest number of enslaved people, the problem was most prevalent in the west African nation of Mauritania, where four percent of the population was deemed to be held in slavery.
Avvenire reports Pope Francis has condemned the continuing problem of hunger and malnutrition around the globe, including the shocking amount of waste and indifference. In a message to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Pope said that about one-third of the world's food production is wasted, and called for changes in lifestyles including our eating habits. Some 842 million people, or one in eight, suffered from chronic hunger in 2011-13, not getting enough food to lead active and healthy lives.
In its annual report on EU candidates, the European Commission has signalled its readiness to resume talks with Turkey. However, according to BNR, the report criticises the excessive use of force by Turkish police in tackling the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in early summer. It calls on Turkey to amend its laws in order to protect fundamental freedoms and establish a real democracy. The EU is currently evaluating eight nations for their suitability as potential member states.
The publication of leaked intelligence documents by the Guardian newspaper in recent months had damaged Britain's national security, Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons yesterday. Glenn Greenwald, the Brazil-based Guardian reporter who broke many of the Snowden stories, mainly about secret US surveillance programmes, said yesterday that he was leaving the newspaper for an unspecified “dream” project. The Guardian defended the Snowden leaks, saying they had opened a debate about secrecy and freedom of speech.
El Universal says the Mexican Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a man with the autistic condition Asperges who has been fighting a legal battle for the right to make key decisions about his life without parental consent. The ruling is expected to have implications on the rights of people with autism throughout Latin America
Ansa reports a Turkish tourist was forced to clean nail polish off Florence's Ponte Vecchio after she was spotted by municipal police writing names on the historic bridge. The woman, 27, was fined €160 for vandalism. The incident came two weeks after a German tourist was forced to clean an area of the Ponte Vecchio where his daughter drew stars on the bridge with an orange felt-tip pen. The German tourist was also fined €160.