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

The Times features comments by the Pope that he would not be intimidated as the Church is attacked over sex scandals. The newspaper's main story is about a further drop in the crime rate. It also says the future of the political party Azzjoni Nazzjonali will be determined at a general meeting this evening. The party may be dissolved.

The Malta Independent quotes the Prime Minister saying that Frontex rules do not make sense for Malta and Malta will not host Frontex operations if they are enforced. It also reports comments by Joseph Muscat who challenged the Prime Minister to call a general election if he was happy with the outcome of Saturday’s elections for administrative committees.

In-Nazzjon says the European socialists had voted against Malta’s interests on illegal immigration. The newspaper also reports the launching of the book Irrid Nghix by cancer patient Annabel Vassallo.

l-orizzont says that 12 years after the fatal shooting of a soldier in Qortin, Gozo, a court has awarded €89,000 as compensation. The payment has to be made by another soldier, Paul Cardona who fired the pistol as a joke, thinking it had no bullets. It was initially claimed that the case was a suicide.

The overseas press

The Washington Times reports President Obama has urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to do more to rein in rampant corruption and improve his government. The US leader was speaking after a brief meeting between the two leaders in Kabul as he made an unannounced visit to the capital for a firsthand look at the eight-year-old war he inherited and dramatically escalated. He invited Karzai to the US in May for talks.

The International Herald Tribune says that addressing soldiers and civilians at Bagram air base near Kabul, President Obama told US forces that they are there to help Afghans to forge a "hard-won peace". He thanked them for their service and said they would prevail against their enemies and "keep America safe and secure".

Avvenire leads with Pope Benedict telling tens of thousands of people, gathered for the Palm Sunday service, that God helped lead "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion". In a veiled reference to criticism at the Catholic Church over past sex abuse scandals, he said man sometimes fell to the "lowest, vulgar levels" and sunk "into the swamp of sin and dishonesty".

The New York Times reports Archbishop Timothy Dolan has defended the Pope against suggestions he aided cover-ups of reports of child abuse. The standing-room-only crowd at St Patrick's Cathedral applauded for 20 seconds after Dolan read a statement calling the Pope the "leader in purification, reform and renewal that the church so very much needs".

In London, The Times says the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols defended the Pope, saying he had introduced rules to protect children and allegations about his involvement to cover up sex abuses were unfounded. Members of the congregation clashed with placard-carrying protesters calling for the Pope to resign. They claimed the Pope was complicit in protecting priests accused of child sex abuse from prosecution.

Athens Post reports a 15-year-old boy has been killed, and his sister and their mother injured, in a bomb explosion outside an institute for training public officials in the Greek capital. Police said the family, all Afghans, were apparently just walking past the building when the bomb, contained in a bag, exploded.

Ansa says the first day of Italian regional elections produced a low turnout which, at 35 per cent, was seven percentage points down from the same time in the last regional elections in 2005. If the trend continues until polling stations close this afternoon, the turnout would be 10 points below that of five years ago, at 62 per cent or maximum 65 per cent. A low turnout could favour opposition parties.

Al Jazeera reports Arab leaders gathered for a summit in Libya have ruled out renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks unless Israel halts all new settlement building. They also agreed on a 500-million-dollar- fund to help bolster the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

South China Morning Post says a dissident Chinese lawyer who was missing for more than a year has suddenly resurfaced. Gao Zhisheng, who was the most dauntless of a new group of civil liberties lawyers, said he was now living in the north and wanted only to spend time with his family away from media attention.

China Daily quotes reports that at least 152 people were trapped after a coal mine flooded in the north. Some 100 miners have escaped, but a rescue operation was continuing. The cause of the flood is still under investigation.

Tribune de Genève says masked robbers armed with machine guns stormed a Swiss casino in Basel yesterday and emptied cash registers of hundreds of thousands in Swiss francs. The suspects fled across the border into France.

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