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

The Times says Nationalist MP Franco Debono has softened his stand against Transport Minister Austin Gatt following a long meeting of the PN executive yesterday. It also reports how a driver who hit young twins in Attard had his driving ban reduced from 10 years to six months because he was not accused of negligent driving.

The Malta Independent gives prominence to comments made two days ago by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who told British Prime Minister David Cameron that he is fed up of his interference on the eurozone.

l-orizzont says there was no breakthrough in the Franco Debono case after yesterday’s meeting of the PN executive. It also says that the editor of Illum received two threatening phone calls from a prisoner held at Mt Carmel Hospital Forensics Unit, but the calls were not recorded.

In-Nazzjon says the moderate Islamists have taken a lead in elections in Tunisia.  

The overseas press

A senior European Commission official says a deal to address the Greek debt crisis was relatively close. The Irish Enquirer quotes a spokesperson for the EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn saying that the proposal centred on writing off around half of Greece's €350- billion-debt. A source close to the negotiations said that the EU had asked banks to agree a 60 per cent write-down, but that the institutions were so far sticking to their offer of a 40-per-cent-cut. Following talks over the weekend, which failed to finalise a deal, EU leaders are to meet in Brussels tomorrow for discussions on the debt crisis.

Der Spiegel says German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told German lawmakers that the financial strength of the euro rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, is to be leveraged to €1 trillion, and that a Greek debt cut of up to 60 percent was planned. It emerged earlier on Monday that the controversial measure to increase the firepower of the €440 billion rescue fund would be put to a full vote in the German parliament on Wednesday, rather than just a vote by the budget committee as initially planned.

Sky News reports that the British government has won a vote against holding a referendum on Britain's future in the EU – but 81 Tory MPs defied Prime Minister David Cameron which insisted now was not the right time for a referendum. In the end, the Government comfortably won the vote with a majority of 372. Downing Street insisted the vote had clearly shown opposition to the motion but Labour leader Ed Miliband said it was "humiliating".

Reuters quotes an official with the Libyan National Transitional Council saying that ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Muatassim and a former aide would be buried later today in a secret location in the Libyan desert. He said four sheikhs, sworn to secrecy on the Koran never to reveal the location of the grave, would be attending the burial. The decomposition of the body had reached the point where the corpse could not last any longer. Local military spokesman Ibrahim Beitalmal has told Associated Press that the three would be interred in unmarked graves in a secret location “to avoid vandalism”.  

Meanwhile, Reuters also reported that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the fugitive son of the deposed Libyan leader, was near Libya's borders with Niger and Algeria and planning to flee the country using a forged passport. Saif, a fluent English speaker who studied at the London School of Economics, is the only one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons still unaccounted for. Two fled to Algeria, one is in Niger, two were killed earlier in the Libyan conflict and one, Muatassim, was killed after being captured with his father last week near the city of Sirte.

USA Today quotes Human Rights Watch saying 57 corpses, apparently of Gaddafi loyalists, some of whom may have been executed by revolutionary forces, have been discovered in the Libyan town of Sirte. It said the discovery seemed “part of a trend of killings, looting and other abuses committed by anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law”. The group urged Libyan authorities to rein in armed groups.

Amnesty International says the Syrian government has turned hospitals into “instruments of repression” as it attempts to suppress the continuing antigovernment protests. Metro says a 39-page report http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/mde240592011eng.pdfdocuments how wounded patients in at least four government-run hospitals had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. Amnesty said it had eyewitness accounts of wounded people being removed from government hospitals.

Akhbar Tounes reports that Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, has claimed victory in the country’s first democratic elections and pledged to create a multi-party secular democracy. Early indications showed that Ennahda has won most votes in a poll for an assembly that would draft a new constitution. Official results are due later today.

The New York Daily News says the defence has begun its case in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor after the last prosecution witness finished giving evidence. Defence lawyers are set to call 15 witnesses as they fight the involuntary manslaughter charge against Conrad Murray, who faces up to four years in jail if convicted over the singer's death in June 2009. Coroner officials said the 50-year-old pop star died from an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol.

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