The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports on calls for a return to compulsory medical check-ups to reduce dive tests.
The Malta Independent says Mepa is to send enforcement officers to San Blas to investigate development work there.
In-Nazzjon features comments by party deputy leader Mario de Marco that the Opposition is active in parliament in the national interest.
l-orizzont leads with an increase in cruise line visitors.
The overseas press
Ansa reports some 30 migrants have died, probably by asphyxiation, in a boat that was rescued during the night by a ship of the Italian Navy in the Sicilian Channel. There were more than 600 migrants on board. Crammed into a narrow part of the boat, the victims could not be taken on board the warship and the boat is now being towed to Pozzallo.
British Prime Minister David Cameron writes in The Telegraph that he is ready to “move on and keep fighting for Britain’s interests” after failing in his bid to stop the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president. He said the new commission head will accept that Britain cannot be part of any move towards an “ever-closer” political union.
Investigations into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have revealed apparent tampering of systems in the cockpit. ABC quotes a report released by Australian air crash investigators revealing that the missing Boeing 777 suffered a mysterious power outage during the early stages of its flight, which experts believe could be part of an attempt to avoid radar detection.
World Bulletin quotes the Libyan will electoral commission saying it needed around two weeks to count the votes of last week's parliamentary election and publish final results. On Wednesday, the North African state voted for a new assembly in an election marred by a low turnout and violence. Fewer than half of eligible Libyans voted.
Interviewed by Israeli Radio, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for reconsidering the reoccupation by Israel of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave populated by around 1.8 million people, following what he described as a surge in rocket attacks on Israel. Lieberman made the remarks after Israeli warplanes launched strikes against 12 targets inside the blockaded Gaza Strip, including ones belonging to Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing.
Al Ayyam reports the extremist Sunni insurgency that has captured territory in Iraq and Syria has declared itself an Islamic “caliphate” and called on factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance. A statement from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) says the group has changed its name to “Islamic State” with its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as “caliph”. The claim comes as the Iraqi army battles to dislodge insurgents from the northern city of Tikrit in an offensive involving thousands of troops.
Voice of Nigeria says members of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group are suspected of killing at least 100 people in several churches in the northeastern State of Borno. This was the latest of a long series of attacks against a village only fuve kilometres from Chibok, the town where last April 276 girls were kidnapped and of whom 219 are still held captive.
CNN says US President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $2 billion to deal with the endless stream of unaccompanied immigrant children from Central and South America arriving at the US border. The funds are to be used to provide assistance first and then to carry out repatriation operations.
Times of India reports the police have detained five construction company officials as rescuers using gas cutters and shovels searched for dozens of workers believed buried in the rubble of a building that collapsed during monsoon rains. It was one of two weekend building collapses that killed at least 26 people.
The wife of Helmut Kohl, the 84-year-old former German chancellor, has become embroiled in a bitter dispute with Angela Merkel’s ruling party about the public rights to her husbands political writings. Der Spiegel says Maike Kohl-Richter, 50, has been accused of “interfering” in the political legacy of her husband, who ruled Germany from 1982 to 1998 and is seen as the architect of German reunification. Kohl suffered a bad fall and injuries to his head in February 2008, and as a result cannot speak for more than ten minutes at a time and often slurs his words. He married Maike three months after his fall, and three years after presenting her as his “life partner”.
The Independent says scientists and nutritionists have condemned the creation of a pop-up store for Maria Sharapova’s Sugarpova sweet brand near the All England club as “reprehensible”, saying it bears comparison with Martina Navratilova’s decision to wear clothes emblazoned with cigarette advertising in 1982.