The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and all the other Maltese media lead with the resignation of former minister Joe Cassar from Parliament. Times of Malta says the former minister quit after what he described as a 'ferocious attack' on him.
The Malta Independent after the story on Dr Cassar's resignation also quotes the Ombudsman saying the government's decision to appeal a court sentence on his right to hear AFM cases was 'unwise'.
MaltaToday says pressure is growing on Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon following Joe Cassar's resignation for receiving gifts from Joe Gaffarena.
In-Nazzjon also leads with Joe Cassar's resignation from the House. In another story it also quotes former Maltese hostage Noel Sciberras saying he feared for his life while held in Libya.
l-orizzont gives prominence to Labour's reaction to Joe Cassar's resignation.
The overseas press
Xinhua reports China has confirmed President Xi Jinping will meet next Saturday with his Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou – the first meeting between leaders of the two rivals since they split in 1949 after a long civil conflict.
According to TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Kremlin was pursuing a policy of cooperation with all forces in countering terrorism, regardless of their religious denominations.
The combined resources of UN agencies, the Red Cross and humanitarian organisations are no longer enough to protect the 60 million people displaced by war and persecution around the world. The New York Times quotes UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres telling the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee that governments, private citizens, corporations and foundations had provided the office of the with a record $3.3 billion (€3 billion) last year. Yet the sum was not enough “to cover the bare minimum”.
Deutsche Welle reports an internal Volkswagen probe has revealed an additional 800,000 vehicles were irregularly emitting carbon dioxide. Until now, the ever-widening scandal had centred on nitrogen oxide emissions.
The Wall Street Journal says the US auto safety regulators have fined Japan’s Takata Corp. $70 million (€64 million) for concealing evidence for years that its air bags were prone to explode with grisly consequences – a defect linked to eight deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide.
The Pentagon is certain the Russian airliner that exploded over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday was not shot down, a US defence official with access to the latest intelligence report of the crash told Fox News. He confirmed that an explosion took place, which was picked up by US intelligence satellites which detect heat signatures and explosions around the world. Even though the Pentagon does not think the Russian flight was shot down, the US intelligence community cannot rule out terrorism.
Antenna 1 says more than 20,000 protesters marched through the Romanian capital, demanding that the government and local authorities resign in the wake of nightclub fire in which 32 people died.
Ansa reports a new scandal over leaked confidential Vatican documents deepened as extracts of two books pointed to waste and mismanagement holding up Pope Francis’s economic reforms. Extracts of “Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis’ Church”, by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, said that officials in the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy spent hundreds of thousands of euros on business class flights, clothes made to measure, and expensive furniture.
Sole 24 Ore quotes Italy’s Civil Service Minister Marianna Madia saying civil servants who falsely register that they are at work “must be fired”. She made the comments after 35 people were arrested after a long-running investigation into alleged absenteeism at San Remo city hall.
A 19-year-old woman was stoned to death in Afghanistan for eloping after she was forced into an arranged marriage, local TV channel Tolo reported on its website. In clips of the stoning circulating on social media, the woman could be heard screaming as she is struck by rocks hurled at her by scores of men in the northwest province of Ghor.