The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports calls for a tax break given for donations to the Community Chest Fund to be extended to all voluntary organisations.
The Malta Independent says Libyans head the number of new residence permits.
In-Nazzjon gives prominence to a speech by Simon Busuttil yesterday at the congress of the European Popular Party.
l-orizzont says a priest is in trouble because of explicit chats with adolescents. The police were informed by the Church Commission against abuse.
The overseas press
Fox News reports UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told the Security Council he was “not optimistic” following his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge them to defuse tensions.
According to Deutsche Welle, Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed Germany’s inherent responsibility for the Holocaust, after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stirred up controversy by claiming that a Palestinian leader had first given Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews.
The Guardian says China has agreed to invest the equivalent of eight billion euros in a new UK nuclear plant, in return for later help bringing Chinese nuclear technology to the West. The deal is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s four-day state visit to the United Kingdom.
Politico says the White House has criticised Russia for its “red carpet” treatment of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who made a rare visit to Moscow to see President Vladimir Putin. A Kremlin spokesman said during the meeting, the two men discussed their joint military campaign against Islamist militants in Syria.
Le Soir reports European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has called a mini-summit for Sunday to tackle the migrant crisis in the Balkans. The meeting comes as Slovenia took drastic measures along its borders to curb the influx.
The camerawoman who was last month filmed kicking refugees in Hungary, is to launch legal action over the incident. Petra László has told Izvestia she would sue one of the refugees, claiming he changed his story about the incident. In a separate action, she is taking Facebook to court over claims the social media outlet had refused to remove abusive content aimed at her.
Nature quotes US government scientists saying the first nine months of this year were the hottest on record worldwide with the global temperature rising 0.85OC above the 20th century average. Unusually high temperatures were recorded across north-eastern Africa, the Middle East, parts of Southeast Asia, and selected parts of North and South America. Some cool spots were noted at the tip of South America, far western Canada, Alaska, and parts of Central Asia.
The Washington Times reports US Vice President Joe Biden has announced he won’t be a candidate in the 2016 White House campaign, solidifying Hillary Clinton’s status as the Democratic front-runner.
Wikileaks has published six files it claims are documents from the private e-mail of CIA chief John Brennan. They include a roadmap for the US administration to “come to terms” with Iran. All of the material is dated before Brennan joined the White House staff in 2009.
Al Ahram says Egypt’s High Election Commission has confirmed that only 26.56 per cent of eligible voters participated in the first rounds of the Egyptian parliamentary elections. The el-Sissi loyalist For the Love of Egypt party swept up all 60 party list seats in the first phase.
Sole 24 Ore reports the European Union executive said Italian car giant Fiat’s financial unit and US coffee chain Starbucks must each repay up to €30 million in back taxes, ruling that deals they negotiated with two European governments amounted to illegal state aid.
Ecuador El Comercio says 180 years after the landing of Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Island, a team of Ecuadorians naturalists has discovered a new species of giant tortoises, of which there are only a few hundreds left. Quito’s Environment Ministry said DNA analysis had proved that what was thought to be a single species on the island of Santa Cruz, were two.