The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says there is a seven-year wait for beds in homes for the elderly.
The Malta Independent says that according to the UHM, only two out of 10 can afford third pillar pensions.
In-Nazzjon says an ultimatum was set in a heated meeting between the government and Arriva.
l-orizzont quotes comments by Social Policy Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro saying no sector stood to gain from poverty.
The overseas press
The Washington Post reports President Obama has assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel the United States was not monitoring her communications, but the White House did not deny reports US spies eavesdropped on her cellphone in the past, as reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Wednesday. Earlier, Merkel called Obama to say she “unequivocally disapproves of such practices, should they be confirmed, and regards them as completely unacceptable”.
EU Observer says the European Parliament has approved a resolution that calls for US anti-terrorism investigators to be denied access to the global banking database, SWIFT. The decision followed revelations about American spying activities. Lawmakers in the Brussels voted by 280 to 254 in favour of the resolution to suspend US access to the global database because of concerns that the powers were being abused. There were 30 abstentions.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has told Bloomberg TV the upcoming assessment of banks around the EU would be a positive thing for Europe and would make its credit institutions more transparent. The ECB will begin its assessment next month before taking over supervision of 130 eurozone banks. Draghi said the ECB would not hesitate to “flunk” banks that won't pass the stress test in 2014.
Sydney Morning Herald reports the furious mayor of an area worst hit by Australia's bushfire emergency is demanding answers after the military was blamed for starting a huge blaze, as cooler conditions on Thursday helped fire crews. NSW Rural Fire Service chief Shane Fitzsimmons said an official investigation found the blaze was started by exploding ordnance on a live firing range on Wednesday last week. The Defence department is yet to comment on the findings.
New York Daily News says California police officers fatally shot a teenage boy who was armed with what looked like an assault rifle – but it was a toy gun. Andy Lopez, 13, was struck with several rounds from the sheriff's deputies' handguns and fell onto the replica in southwest Santa Rosa. He was declared dead at the scene. The officers who shot him have been placed on administrative leave, reports.
The Daily Mirror says the Portuguese police are to request that the Madeleine McCann investigation be reopened. The station quotes local media saying the police in Oporto have been reviewing the case and have identified a number of issues they wish to clarify. Police received more than 2,400 phone calls from the public following the broadcast of a reconstruction of events leading up to three-year-old's disappearance in 2007.
Meanwhile, The Irish Examiner says a seven-year-old girl taken from a Roma couple in Dublin on suspicion she was not theirs has been proved to be their daughter. The schoolgirl has now been reunited with her parents, who always maintained the girl was their daughter. DNA tests have now confirmed this.
According to France 24, France’s centre-right opposition UMP party has come under fierce criticism after proposing a law that would revoke automatic citizenship for children born in France of foreign parents illegally residing on French soil. Under current rules, all children born in France to foreign parents get citizenship automatically when they turn 18, provided that they have lived in the country for at least five years from the age of 11.
RIA Novosti reports Russia's Investigative Federal Committee has dropped piracy charges brought against 28 Greenpeace activists, replacing them with far less serious hooliganism charges. The militant environmentalists were arrested on September 19 after attempting to board Gazprom’s oil rig, protesting against drilling in the Arctic.
Fox News announces a US judge has granted a nephew of Robert Kennedy a re-trial in the murder nearly 40 years ago of his teenage neighbour. The dramatic ruling comes after Michael Skakel, 53, appealed unsuccessfully for years against his sentence. He was found guilty in 2002 of beating 15-year-old Marths Moxley to death in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1975 when he was also 15. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
The British national media went to town with reports and pictures of the christening ceremony of Prince George – the third-in-line to the British royal throne. The Times carries a wrap around front page with a picture of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George under the headline “Gorgeous George”. The Daily Telegraph gives its entire front page over to a picture of the Duchess of Cambridge with the prince. And the Daily Mail gives over 15 pages to its coverage.
Ansa says Italy is in shock at reports of a brutal gang slaying of a northern Italian teenager who had gone to England to study and find work. Four Lithuanian nationals have been charged with attacking and killing 19-year-old Joele Leotta in Maidstone, Kent. Initial reports suggested the gang attacked and killed Leotta, after accusing him of stealing jobs.
Il Mattino reports Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to stand trial for the alleged bribery of a senator. The trial is scheduled to start in February. Berlusconi is accused of paying left-wing senator Sergio De Gregorio €3 million to defect to his conservative People of Freedom Party in 2006 and help bring down the centre-left government of Romano Prodi.
Avvenire says Pope Francis will make his first official to Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano on November14. The trip by the Pontiff to Napolitano's official residence in Rome, the Quirinale, follows the Italian head of state's visit to the Vatican last June. There have only been nine pontifical visits to the Quirinale over the past 74 years since Pius XII visited King Victor Emmanuel III there in 1939.