The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times leads with the arrival of 347 migrants late yesterday. It also reports how a 67-year-old man was accused of making porn films with two boys.
The Malta Independent said the anti-divorce movement has insisted that his movement is not part of the church. It also says that a mother reported the horror story of her daughter, who was allegedly stabbed by her husband.
l-orizzont says Joseph Muscat in a letter has urged supporters to vote in the divorce referendum while explaining his personal position in favour of divorce. It also says that workers in three Farsons subsidiaries have joined the GWU.
In-Nazzjon gives prominence to the extension of a pharma factory in Hal Far.
The overseas press
CNN reports there was a mixed reaction to President Obama's address on the Middle East. The American leader restated the US desire for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His call for an agreement based on Israel's pre-1967 borders drew criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called those frontiers "indefensible". Netanyahu's office stated that Washington should stand by previous US commitments relating "to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines”.
President Obama also poured cold water on Palestinian efforts to seek a unilateral declaration of statehood at the United Nations. Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Hamas called Obama's remarks "empty of concrete significance" and promised not to recognise "the Israeli occupation". Nabil Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, called the speech a "half-full glass".
Mr Obama defended US and Nato intervention in Libya, arguing the move was necessary to prevent an imminent massacre. The Benghazi newspaper Feb 17 reports Libyan rebels called the speech "good enough". Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council, said that "overall, the speech was positive for Libya".
The Washington Post says Obama pledged US support for reform efforts across the Middle East and North Africa, warning leaders facing popular upheavals that "strategies of oppression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore". He condemned the use of force against Arab Spring protesters by longtime allies and adversaries alike, telling President Assad of Syria he now had a choice: “He can lead that transition or get out of the way." In recent months, Washington has often appeared to struggle to keep up with the pace of events not only in Tunisia, but also in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere.
The Wall Street Journal leads with the ranting of bail by a New York court to former IMF chief Domenique Srauss-Khan, in jail a New York jail on charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid. He had been indicted by a grand jury on seven charges of sexual assault and attempted rape. A New York state supreme court judge set the bond at $1 million and ordered Strauss-Khan to be kept under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
France 24 says the Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has described the comments that got him banned from the Cannes film festival as “thoughtless and stupid”. On Wednesday, he said he understood and sympathized a little with Hitler. He later said he had been joking and apologized. Festival organizers said Thursday they were disturbed by von Trier's statements, which they described as unacceptable and intolerable.
Japan Times reports March’s mega-quake shifted the ocean floor sideways by more than 20 metres and an upward movement of three metres was also recorded. This direct measurement by Japan Coast Guard’s underwater geodetic equipment exceeds the displacement suggested by some models built only from data gathered on land. The equipment is placed along the fault responsible for the giant tremor.
Ansa reports that weddings in Italy fell by six per cent in the two years from 2009 to 2010 – a marked increase on the 1.2 per cent average drop seen over the last 20 years. Istat noted that Lazio, the region around Rome, saw a 9.4 per cent fall while Lombardy, the region around Milan, had an eight per cent decrease. The statistics agency said more young adults were living together without getting married and more of them were finding it hard to get jobs and homes.
Sporting Life Football quotes the English Football Association saying it would abstain in the vote next month for the next president of FIFA because of "a range of issues which make it difficult to support either candidate". Sepp Blatter, the current head of football's world governing body, is being challenged by Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, the president of the Asian Football Confederation. The FA has chosen not to vote after allegations of corruption against Fifa in recent months.
Deutsche Welle announces that Ante Sapina, the German-Croatian frontman of a match-fixing operation that manipulated dozens of soccer matches, has been convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years and six months in prison by a district court in Bochum, Germany. Sapina was behind Europe's largest-ever betting scandal and reportedly fixed matches in the German Oberliga, the Champions League and even qualifying matches of the World Cup. Some of the matches directly involved an entire team who participated in the manipulation.