The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times leads with the tragedy in Qawra yesterday where a 69-year-old Briton was dragged out to sea. It also reports that Health Minister Joe Cassar has questioned the MUMN’s motives at Mater Dei.
The Malta Independent leads with yesterday's low turnout and also reports on the storm damage.
MaltaToday says Joseph Muscat has scored the highest ever trust rating according to its survey, and the PL now has a 14% lead over the PN. It also says that more PN voters find Franco Debono untrustworthy. Should a new PN leader be chosen, Simon Busuttil leads, with Mario de Marco second.
It-Torca leads with the damage done by the storm early yesterday. It also reports how turnout for the council elections slipped below 60%.
Il-Mument also highlights the low turnout in yesterday's vote.
Illum says the low outcome yesterday shows a vote in a political storm.
The overseas press:
Associated Press reports that the United Nations, the European Union and the United States have all expressed concern over renewed deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians across the Gaza border and urged both sides to restore calm. The call came as Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 15 Palestinians, including a top commander, as militants fired 100 rockets into the Jewish state. It was the deadliest violence between Israel and the Palestinians across the Gaza border in more than three years.
AFP says investigators probing violations during the Libyan conflict have handed the UN’s top human rights body a list of people it thinks should face justice. The experts also called for further probes into NATO air strikes on Libya. NATO warplanes flew 18,000 sorties during the 7-month campaign, which ended in October.
Al Jazeera reports that after two hours of talks, President Bashar al-Assad has told the UN-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, that no political solution was possible in Syria while "terrorist" groups were destabilising the country. There was no immediate comment from Annan after the meeting, aimed at halting bloodshed that has cost thousands of lives since a popular uprising erupted a year ago. While they discussed the crisis, Syrian troops were assaulting the northwestern city of Idlib, an opposition bastion. Annan also planned to meet Syrian dissidents before leaving Damascus later today. He has called for a political solution, but the opposition says the time for dialogue is long gone.
According to Al Ahram, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met Annan in Cairo earlier in the day, told the Arab League his country was "not protecting any regime", but did not believe the Syrian crisis could be blamed on one side alone. He called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid access, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia sharply criticised Moscow's stand. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Lavrov in New York tomorrow when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Arab revolts, with Syria likely to be in focus.
Slovakia Globe says exit polls from the Slovak elections show that the Social Democrats of former Prime Minister Robert Fico have emerged as the biggest party with 39.6 per cent of the votes but did not garner enough support to win a majority of the 150 seats in parliament. The Christian Democratic Movement was second with 9.9 per cent and third was the Union of Christian Democrats of outgoing Prime Minister Iveta Radicova with 8.1 per cent of the vote.
Magyar Nemzet reports thousands of people have demonstrated in front of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest to denounce the authoritarian politics of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government. Peter Konya, leader of the Solidarity Movement who led the protest, accused the government of undermining the democratic foundations of the country and the weakening the economy. He said the people had had enough of Orban and would not accept new taxes and austerity measures.
Ria Novosti says Russian police have arrested dozens of protestors, including leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov, as several thousand gathered in central Moscow for a rally seen as a test of the opposition's ability to mount a sustained challenge to president-elect Vladimir Putin. Demonstrators carried white balloons and wore white ribbons, the symbols of protests that began over a disputed parliamentary poll on December 4 and are intended now to highlight allegations of fraud in the presidential election Putin won on March 4.
After plans to legalise same-sex marriages were attacked by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain, The Sunday Telegraph reveals that the British government is to argue in a landmark court case that Christians do not have a right to wear a cross or crucifix openly at work and employers can sack workers who insist on doing so. Two British women have taken the government to the European Court of Human Rights seeking to establish their right to display the cross. The government’s position received an angry response from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
CNN reports Rick Santorum has picked up a solid win in the caucus in conservative Kansas, a step forward as he rushes to block Mitt Romney's Republican presidential nomination march. In the latest contest of the rollercoaster Republican presidential race, Christian conservative Mr Santorum won Kansas after Mr Romney took sweeping wins thousands of miles away in Pacific US territories Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Jerusalem Post says at least 14 youths had been stoned to death in Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appeared to be a campaign by Shi'ite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo" clothes and haircuts – a form of punk music developed in the United States. Fans are known for their distinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts. Iraq's interior ministry labelled the "emo" subculture as "Satanism" and ordered a community police force to stamp it out.
ABC quotes the Australian Medical Association saying taxpayers were footing the bill for "hospital tourists" who visit Australia for medical treatment and leave without paying. Figures reported for New South Wales show several million dollars in hospital expenses have been left unpaid by foreign visitors. AMA president Brian Owler says while medical attention ought to be given in emergencies, people should not just fly in for elective surgery and fly out when it is time to pay.
The North County Times reports that a woman in California has given birth to a baby boy weighing 13 lbs and 14 oz (seven kilos). Jayden Sigler was delivered by caesarean section on Thursday. Dr Jerald White says was the biggest baby he had delivered since his career began in 1961.