The following are the top headlines in the Maltese and a section of the overseas press.
The Times of Malta says that one in 10 migrants has been treated at Mt Carmel Hospital.
The Malta Independent says Russian gays may apply for protection in Malta because they face persecution in their country.
In-Nazzjon highlights comments by Simon Busuttil saying he was correct in his calculations on Budget cuts to various programmes,
l-orizzont reports that there is a fault every two days in the BWSC plant in Delimara.
The overseas press
Protests at Libya’s ports and oil fields have cost the country more than €6.4 billion since the summer. Libya Herald quotes Economy Minister Mustafa Abu Fanas saying if these blockages continue it would have a big negative impact on the econmy.
Manila Times reports progress in efforts to deliver aid to the victims of a devastating typhoon that hit parts of the Philippines almost a week ago. The first mass burial of victims of Typhoon Haiyan has also been held when some 300 of the victims were laid to rest in a mass grave. Rescue teams also continued to search through the destruction for more bodies, but this process was not going as quickly as officials would like. The latest UN figures put the official death toll at 4,460. About 900,000 people who were displaced by the typhoon.
Toronto Star leads with the news that the police in Canada have arrested 348 people and rescued nearly 400 children during a three-year investigation into child pornography. Doctors, school teachers, foster carers and priests were among those detained, she said.
Lebanese TV network Al-Mayadeen has announced that a Syrian government delegation will hold talks in Moscow next month on a planned peace conference in Geneva. The government delegation will contain Syria’s influential deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad and President Bashar al-Assad’s advisor Buthaina Shaaban, the pro-Assad TV channel said, citing Syrian and Russian sources
President Obama has warned against imposing further sanctions on Iran, saying a deal would set back Tehran’s quest for nuclear weapons capability and prevent the “unintended consequences” of war. The Washington Times says Obama pressed Congress as the UN nuclear watchdog said that Iran has not expanded its nuclear facilities in the past three months in a possible confidence-building measure by the new reform-minded .
Avvenire reports Pope Francis yesterday declined an official escort for his visit to Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano, opting instead to travel to Rome’s Quirinale Palace in his own Ford Focus. Francis’ arrived for his first state visit to Napolitano in a small motorcade without the blaring of sirens from the presidential guard that typically accompanies the largely ceremonial visit of a new Pope. During the visit, which came after Napolitano met Francis at the Vatican on 8 June, the two men talked in private for 30 minutes before exchanging gifts.
Ansa quotes Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino sayng he is in favour of same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples. Rome will soon register civil partnerships, the mayor added. “I am not afraid of the word ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex,” Marino said during a television forum on Repubblica TV.
AFP reports an iceberg the size of Manhattan has broken off a glacier in Antarctica and could survive long enough to drift into international shipping lanes. A team led by British scientists has been monitoring the 87 square kilometre iceberg since it broke off the Pine Island Glacier in July in a bid to predict its path and environmental impact.
The Boston Globe says Boston mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, plus five years for 11 killings and a string of other charges including extortion and money laundering. The 84-year-old called his trial this summer a sham and declined to testify there or at his sentencing hearing.
According to Corriere della Sera, an elderly grandmother, who allegedly took over her daughter’s drug-dealing business after the younger woman was jailed, has been arrested and faces drug charges. The grandmother, who is over 80, has a disability and allegedly arranged for customers to come to her home to conduct their deals through a window.