The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how Simon Busuttil sparked outrage in Parliament when he said a future PN government may withdraw citizenship given under the new government scheme.
The Malta Independent leads with the court order for the police to hand Norman Vella his gadgets.
In-Nazzjon also reports that the PN has reserved the right to withdraw citizenship granted under the new scheme.
l-orizzont says a Syrian migrants’ boat was shot at because many of the occupants were escaping doctors.
The overseas press
Two Italian newspapers, La Stampa and Corriere della Sera claim Russia spied on foreign powers at last month’s G20 summit by giving delegations USB pen drives capable of downloading sensitive information from laptops. The devices were given to foreign delegates, including heads of state, at the summit near St Petersburg. According to the reports, delegations also received mobile phone recharging devices which were also reportedly capable of secretly tapping into e-mails, text messages and telephone calls. The Voice of Russia quotes Dmitry Peskov, President Putin's spokesman, flatly denying the allegations and describing the Italian stories as “a poorly disguised effort” to divert attention from reports of US intelligence services spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European allies.
USA Today reports the United Nations saying it had received assurances from the US authorities that the American intelligence agencies were not spying on the world organisations’ internal communications and would not do so in the future.
Meanwhile, the NSA has denied that it had monitored Catholic cardinals before the March conclave including the future Pope Francis as reported in today’s issue of Panorama.
Britain and the US are jointly hacking Yahoo and Google data around the world, according to the latest leak from former security worker Edward Snowden. The Washington Post reports that America’s National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fibre-optic cables that carry information between the data centres of the Silicon Valley giants.
According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, President Obama’s approval rating has declined to an all-time low as public frustration with Washington and pessimism about the nation’s direction continue to grow. Just 42 percent approve of the president’s job performance, which is down five points from earlier this month. By comparison, 51 percent disapprove of his job in office.
Rescue workers in northern Niger have found 87 bodies, believed to be migrant workers, who died of thirst when their vehicles broke down in the Sahara desert. Most of the victims were women and children. A rescue worker told the BBC that some of the corpses were in an advance state of decomposition.
Global Post says 300 undocumented immigrants travelling on board four boats were rescued by Italian patrol craft as they were sailing in the Strait of Sicily over the past 24 hours. In the wake of recent tragedies that killed more than 400 migrants earlier this month, the Italian government has begun undertaking enhanced naval and air monitoring of the Strait of Sicily.
The New York Times reports that New York City council voted 35 votes to 10 to ban the sale of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and tobacco to anyone under the age of 21, raising the previous threshold of 18. New York is the first large city to raise the age limit so high, a resolution that follows years of increasingly stringent laws on tobacco. New York was the pioneer of a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and public places – initially criticised but since adopted in cities across the world. Cigarette taxes are also the highest in the US.
Florida Post says an American who won a multimillion-dollar jackpot playing the Florida Lotto has done it again: 67-year-old James Bozeman has claimed a three million dollar jackpot from the draw held on August 31. Last year, Bozeman claimed a 10 million dollar jackpot... and says he is looking forward to picking a third lucky set for the next draw. He has chosen to receive his latest winning in annual payments of US $100,000 for the next 30 years.