The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says a teenage boy is under guard at Mt Carmel Hospital for sexually harassing older patients.
The Malta Independent says Maltese MEPs are set to vote against a resolution on abortion in the European Parliament.
In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying citizenship should not be for sale.
l-orizzont reports that PBS has debts of €8 million.
The overseas press
ABC reports a state of emergency has been declared in New South Wales as Australian as fire fighters braced themselves for higher temperatures and strong winds in the area's worst bushfires in more than a decade. Some 208 homes have been destroyed, another 122 have been damaged, and there has been at least one death.
Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has said the EU can “no longer watch on without acting” as 1,000 Europeans are killed in gun violence each year. Writing a guest column in today’s Frankfurter Rundschau, she proposed unified, stricter rules for the whole bloc. Die Welt says a European Commission report, which Malmstroem will present to EU interior ministers in Luxembourg today, estimates there to be around 80 million legally-purchased and licensed firearms in the European Union and a further 500,000 that are lost, stolen, or otherwise unaccounted for. Many of these are thought to be circulating on the black market.
Le Quotidien reports the centre-right Christian Democrat party of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has won snap elections but has lost three seats. Juncker's coalition collapsed last July amid claims he had failed to stop illegal security agency activities. Mr Juncker is the longest-serving elected leader in Europe, having headed the government since 1995.
Bloomberg reports Chinese oil companies Cnooc Ltd. and China National Petroleum Corp. are among 11 companies registered to bid in Brazil’s auction today for the giant Libra field requiring an estimated $185 billion investment. Other bidders include Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and France’s Total SA.
CNN says the Mexican government has reacted angrily to new allegations of US spying reported by Der Spiegel, describing them as “unacceptable, illegitimate and against the law”. According to the German news magazine, documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed the National Security Agency “systematically” eavesdropped on the government. It also hacked the public e-mail account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which was also used by Cabinet members. A senior US State Department said the two governments would be discussing it through diplomatic channels.
Enet reports Greek authorities have received more than 8,000 calls from several countries in their search for information about the identity of a young girl found living with an unrelated Roma family. The blonde girl – called Maria and aged about four – was found living in squalid conditions in a Roma settlement in central Greece. She has since been removed from the family and is now being cared for in hospital by the charity Smile of the Child. The couple, with whom Maria was living, has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction and they are expected to appear in court later today.
France 24 says French President François Hollande and his government are in a predicament over the case of Leonarda Dibrani, the deported Roma girl. Leonarda and her family have been attacked by unknown assailants in Mitrovica, the city in northern Kosovo still disputed with Serbia. Leonarda's mother Xhemaili, 41, has been taken to hospital. The children were taken to a police station.
Arab News quotes the head of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, announcing that the long-anticipated conference on Syria would held in Geneva November 23. However, this has not been confirmed by the United Nations. Elaraby made the announcement after a meeting with the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, but Mr Brahimi did not comment on the date, leaving it unclear to what extent it is confirmed.
The Jerusalem Post says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be meeting Pope Francis in Rome next Wednesday due to the lack of time for organising the event. Pope Francis met in the Vatican with Israel's President Shimon Peres in April and with Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein earlier this month. The pontiff also met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Thursday. Both Peres and Abbas have invited the pontiff to visit the Holy Land. The Pope told Peres he wanted to visit Jerusalem but no date has been set.
The New York Post reports that one of the many mysteries regarding the death of JFK may finally have been solved and unveiled in the book “End of days: The assassination of John F. Kennedy” by James Swanson. According to the book, JFK's brother Robert stole the remains of his brother's brain from the national archives, which was not buried with the rest of the body in Arlington National Cemetery. Robert Kennedy apparently did so not to try, as those supporting the conspiracy theory maintained, to hide an inexplicable trajectory of the bullet that killed the President, but to keep hidden evidence of Addison's disease, an illness which JFK was suffering from.