The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

Times of Malta reports that a change of rules has led to a decline in the success rate of IVF.

The Malta Independent says conspiracies have targeted economist Joseph FX Zahra at the Vatican, with claims, denied by Zahra, that a Maltese group wants to control the Vatican Bank.

In-Nazzjon reports that the scheme Sebbah u Haddar in Gozo will only last twenty weeks.

l-orizzont focuses on the White Paper on the decriminalistation of drugs, due to be issued today.

The overseas press

Haaretz reports Israel has arrested six Jewish suspects in the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager whose death sparked violent protests in Jerusalem and Israeli Arab towns. Tensions were also high along the Gaza border where Israel killed five Palestinian militants in air strikes in response to rocket fire at southern Israeli towns.

Meanwhile, Israel’s online daily Ynet says that one of the six Jewish extremists suspected of having kidnapped and killed Mohammad Khdeir, has confessed he took part in the murder and implicated his friends. The gang, according to investigators, had tried to kidnap a nine year-old boy in the Beit Hanina, district of Jerusalem, the day before.

Avvenire reports Pope Francis made a powerful appeal for solidarity with the poor and migrants. In his homily during the Angelus prayer, the pontiff said that not only in the poorest of countries, but also in the suburbs of richer countries, many people were tired and exhausted under the “unbearable weight of abandonment and indifference”. On the margins of society, he said, there were so many men and women tested by poverty, but also by the disappointments of life and by frustration.

Reuters quotes Ukraine’s government saying it would quickly seize more territory from pro-Russian separatists after re-taking their stronghold of Slaviansk in what President Petro Poroshenko called a turning point in the fight for control of the country’s east. “My order is now in effect - tighten the ring around the terrorists,” Poroshenko tweeted.

Meanwhile, RIA Novosty says defiant pro-Russia separatists vowed to keep fighting the government in Kiev from the largest city in eastern Ukraine, where they regrouped after being driven out of a key stronghold. At a rally in a central Donetsk square, the rebels were cheered on by thousands of supporters waving flags from Russia and the self-proclaimed independent Donetsk People’s Republic. Many urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to quickly come to their aid .

Sydney Morning Herald announces Australia has handed 41 asylum seekers to Sri Lankan authorities at sea, yet another step that has galvanized opposition to the government’s hardline policy against illegal arrivals and raised fears of rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Australian border patrol personnel intercepted the vessel carrying the Sri Lankan asylum seekers west of the remote Cocos Islands last week after they were suspected of entering Australian waters illegally.

Angela Merkel is the greatest leader in Europe, Hillary Clinton said during her trip in Germany to promote her book “Hard Choices”. Berliner Zeitung says the former U.S. Secretary of State, who many believe will run for the presidency in 2016, said it is also time for the U.S. to have a female leader. "I think we are ready for a woman to break through the glass ceiling", she said. . .

East African Standard says gunmen have killed at least 29 people in two coastal areas of Kenya. The deputy president indicated the carnage was the work of political rivals, despite Somali Islamists al Shabaab claiming responsibility. The Interior Ministry said one of the Saturday night attacks killed nine in the trading town of Hindi in Lamu County, close to where 65 people were killed by gunmen last month in Mpeketoni.

Montreal Gazette says thousands of people gathered in the small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec to remember the victims of a fiery crude oil train crash that killed 47 people and destroyed dozens of buildings in the lakeside village. In the early morning hours, survivors and family marched in silence along a newly-built boardwalk, past construction rubble and across the train tracks, where exactly a year earlier the runaway train derailed and exploded into a wall of fire.

Dawn reports a Pakistan court has indicted five relatives accused of stoning a pregnant woman to death for marrying against the family’s wishes. Investigator Mian Zulfiqar said the woman’s father, two brothers, a cousin and ex-husband have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture. Farzana Parveen, 25, was killed last month before a crowd of onlookers near a courthouse in the eastern city of Lahore.

AFP says Germany will have to contend with black magic as well Brazil’s Selecao in tomorrow’s World Cup semi-final as a voodoo priest plans to curse die Mannschaft. Brazil will be without injured superstar Neymar in Belo Horizonte, but black magic enthusiast Helio Sillman from Rio de Janeiro says his curse will hinder Joachim Loew’s team in the semi-final.