The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta, MaltaToday, l-orizzont and the Malta Independent report how 10 hunters were arraigned yesterday and denied bail.
In-Nazzjon quotes Nationalist MP Ryan Callus saying the Commissioner of Land resigned because of political interference.
The overseas press
CNN reports UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said “never before had so many leaders come together to commit to action on climate change”. Summing up the day-long event at the UN, Ban called on leaders to expand their promises as the UN pushes for a binding global agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by the end of next year.
According to Fox News, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said more than 50 countries – including several Arab countries – have joined the international coalition to fight the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria.
Sky News quotes British Prime Minister David Cameron saying Britain could be days from military involvement in the Middle East. He warned the fight against Islamic State was one the UK “could not opt out of”.
And Ansa reports Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti saying Italy had pledged a refuelling aircraft and military instructors for the US-led campaign IS. “If there are other needs in future, we will evaluate the response to make,” Pinotti said.
Avvenire says the Vatican has put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest on suspicion of child abuse. It said Josef Wesolowski, whose arrest was ordered by the Pope personally, had already been defrocked in June.
L’Osservatore Romano reports Pope Francis has urged the Catholic Church to combat hostility to migrants, even within its own ranks. In his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which will be commemorated on January 18, the pontiff said migration movements were on such a scale that only “a systematic and active cooperation between States and international organisations” could effectively manage them.
The cases of Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone could reach 1.4 million by January if measures were not taken to stem the ongoing epidemic. Forbes says new data by the US Centre for Disease Control suggests that the outbreak was worse than expected – and it could become endemic and would “inevitably arrive in the United States.
Israel has shot down a Syrian fighter jet over the Golan Heights, in the first such incident in almost 30 years. Al Bawaba says Syria has described the shooting as an act of aggression.
Meanwhile, Al Ahram reports the Palestinian delegation walked out of the Cairo peace talks before the new round even began, after Israelis killed the two members of Hamas suspected of killing the three Israeli teenagers on the West Bank on June 12.
Reuters reports President Putin has warned Moscow would curtail Ukraine’s access to vital Russian markets if Kiev implemented any part of a trade agreement with the European Union.
El Pais says Spain’s Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon has resigned following the repeal of the country’s anti-abortion law and leaving politics. Ruiz-Gallardon was a strong supporter of the law. Last December, the Spanish cabinet approved restrictions to abortions, limiting them to cases of rape or if there was a danger to the mother’s health.
Accra Daily Mail reports 35-year-old Kwabena Aflao was arrested after he beheaded a 65-year-old woman who refused to have sexual relations with him. The man, who was arrested at the victim’s farm, confessed to the crime.
The lives of more than 750 patients have been saved at two hospitals after nurses started using iPods instead of paper charts to record patients’ vital signs. Research published in the British Medical Journal found the number of deaths at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth fell by 397 and by 372 at University Hospital Coventry. The special software automatically calculates if a patient is deteriorating and sends out alerts.
Sky News microphones have accidentally picked up British Prime Minister David Cameron telling former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg how Queen Elizabeth “purred down the line” after he phoned her to say Scotland had voted no to independence. Cameron’s remarks suggesting the Queen was pleased with the result are a rare, albeit accidental, breach of the convention that the prime minister never speaks about his conversations with the monarch.