The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says that the Council of Europe is proposing a ban on mobile phones in schools to protect children from potentially harmful signals.
The Malta Independent reports how a Nigerian man was injured when he fell a height of seven storeys on a construction site. It also features comments by the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association that embellishment works at St Paul’s Bay are taking too long.
l-orizzont refers to comments in parliament and asks if presidents in Maltese football are making money from betting. It also says that the Turkish man wanted for questioning in connection with last week’s Qawra murder was in Malta illegally for four years on an expired visa.
In-Nazzjon features comments by the prime minister who urged children to make their proposals to the new Family Committee. It also says that councils are handling 13 environment projects in Gozo with government help.
The overseas press
The New York Times reports that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has claimed Colonel Gaddafi ordered mass rapes and gave sex drugs to troops to encourage them to attack women. Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference in New York that witnesses had confirmed the Libyan government was buying containers of a sex-enhancement drug to allow the policy to be carried out. Moreno-Ocampo has already requested arrest warrants against Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libya's spy chief on charges of crimes against humanity.
Al Jazeera Nato have launched more airstrikes through the night on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after thousands of troops loyal to the Libyan leader advanced on and shelled the rebel-held western city of Misurata. It says at least 12 people died after thousands of Libyan government troops advanced on the city and attacked it from three sides.
Meanwhile, Le Soir reports Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels have asserted that the alliance would stay in Libya for 'as long as necessary' and called on more member countries to contribute to military efforts. Led by France and the UK, only eight of the 28 Nato allies have been conducting airstrikes on Gaddafi’s forces.
New York Globe says Britain and France have presented a revised draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an immediate end to the violence in Syria and demanding the lifting of the siege of several cities. But, in apparent concession to Russia which had threatened to veto the draft, the latest text says the only solution to the crisis was through a Syrian-led process. Meanwhile, fearing an assault by armed troops, some 450 Syrian refugees in the north-western city of Jisr al-Shughour have fled to neighboring Turkey for safety.
The Financial Times leads with the collapse of talks between OPEC members in Vienna after a bid by Saudi Arabia to increase global oil output was rejected. OPEC's four Gulf Arab countries suggested raising output by 1.5 million barrels a day to 30.3 million barrels a day. But Iran, Libya, Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Venezuela and Iraq opted to keep production unchanged. The meeting was followed by a shaky day on the oil markets, with Brent crude rising by $1.42 to $118 a barrel and US light crude up $1.65 at $100.74 a barrel.
The International Business Times reports that the US-based think tank Oakland Institute has said global food prices have been made worse by international investment funds buying up farmland in Africa. It says land which formally produced food for local consumption was now being used to grow export crops used in the bio-fuels sector.
Bloomberg quotes BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy which shows that China has overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest consumer of energy last year with 20.3 per cent of global demand, ahead of the United States at 19 per cent. China was by far the world’s largest consumer of coal, taking 48 per cent. The United States remained the largest consumer of oil with 21 per cent of global demand, double China’s consumption.
El Pais reports that Spanish farmers, devastated by the deadly E.coli outbreak, gave away tons of produce to draw attention to their plight. Farm leaders joined the Spanish government in rejecting as insufficient an EU aid offer of €150 million for farmers across Europe. They called on the EU to help Germany and take on a much bigger role in investigating the still-unknown source of the bacteria that has killed 26 people and sickened over 2,700.
The UK, the Independent says demands have been made for the Metropolitan Police to widen the scope of its phone-hacking investigation amid new claims Kate Middleton and Tony Blair were victims. The Guardian reported Ms Middleton was targeted when she was Prince William's girlfriend. Other possible victims included Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary, Peter Mandelson when he was Trade Secretary and Blair's media adviser Alastair Campbell.
According to the Daily Utah Chronicle, a partial copy of a 500-year-old book considered one of the earliest and most lavishly illustrated works of the 15th century is now on sale for $35,000 at a rare book shop in Utah. The German language edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed by Anton Koberger and published in 1493, is a world history beginning in biblical times.