The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports how an animal smuggler was sent to prison for two and a half years. It also reports on controversial proposals by the Employers' Association against paid sick leave for self-inflicted conditions such as sun burn.
l-orizzont says the GWU has branded as 'regressive' the proposals made by the Employers' Association.
The Malta Independent says most Libyan patients treated in Malta suffered shrapnel wounds.
In-Nazzjon says a Mepa tender for the procurement of cars was extended a few hours before it was due to close.
The overseas press
Fox News says the United States is considering limited military action in Iraq as Islamist militants strengthen their hold on the north of the country. Reports that American planes had already launched airstrikes against Islamist positions have been officially denied.
CNN reports the UN Security Council has condemned attacks by Iraqi jihadists after some 100,000 of people from minority groups fled from militants. The Islamic State (IS) group has seized Qaraqosh, Iraq's biggest Christian town, prompting residents to flee. Many members of the Yazadi minority have also left their homes, some taking refuge in nearby mountains. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply appalled”.
Liberia’s Information Minister Louis Brown has told the BBC that his country’s health system was reeling from the catastrophic impact of the Ebola outbreak. Many hospitals are closed with health workers too scared to turn up for work because 60 per cent of Ebola deaths in Liberia have been amongst medical staff.
With a 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza due to expire later today, there are signs that arranging an extension of the truce is proving difficult. Al Jazeera reports the military wing of Hamas has called on the Palestinian negotiators to refuse any extension unless Israel ended its blockade of Gaza, adding they were ready to return to fighting. The Israelis have said they were prepared to extend the current ceasefire.
O Globo says a new law in Brazil has come into force where employers would be fined if they fail to register their domestic workers. The law is part of new measures aimed at providing basic protection for the country’s six million maids, nannies, cooks and gardeners.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Argentine government has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to launch proceedings against the United States. Buenos Aires accuses of breaching Argentina’s sovereignty by preventing it from servicing its structured international debts. However, the U.S. would have to accept the International Court of Justice's jurisdiction for a lawsuit to move forward, something that has happened in only 22 cases since the tribunal began working in 1946.
Chosun Ilbo says a UN-backed court in Cambodia has found two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge guilty of crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea, 88, the regime's chief ideologist, and Khieu Samphan, 83, its head of state, were found guilty of extermination and political persecution for planning and implementing the group's policies in the 1970s. Both men have been sentenced to life in prison.
Wine Spectator reports a wine connoisseur has been jailed for 10 years and ordered to pay $20 million (€15 million) in the US for defrauding buyers out of millions of dollars by selling them fake vintages. A jury heard how for eight years, Rudy Kurniawan, 37, blended hundred of bottles of cheaper wines at his home in California.
ABC says an Indonesian girl swept away by the devastating 2004 tsunami has been reunited with her family a decade after she was given up for dead. Raudhatul Jannah and her seven-year-old brother were carried off when huge waves struck their home in West Aceh district on December 26, 2004. The tsunami killed more than 170,000 people in Aceh, and tens of thousands of others in other countries around the Indian Ocean.
According to Metro, police in England have charged five boys with rape. West Yorkshire Police said two boys aged 13 and three aged 14 had all been charged with rape of a child under 13. The charges relate to two alleged incidents involving the same person in July last year. All five have been released on bail and will appear at Calderdale Youth Court on August 20.