The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with an analysis of the results of the local councils election. The PN result was described as 'meltdown'. It also reports the concern of parents of children with mental problems over a drop in government funding to social sector organisations, including Inspire.
The Malta Independent leads with the financial 'headache' faced by Enemalta.
In-Nazzjon leads with a visit to Transport Malta yesterday by the prime minister. He viewed a simulator used by harbour pilots and said the maritime sector is creating new jobs for Malta.
l-orizzont says another Transport Malta official has opted not to give evidence in the roads contracts bribery case in court in order not to incriminate himself.
The overseas press
EU Times reports eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels have backed Greece's second bailout of €130 billion pending a contribution from the International Monetary Fund. The meeting followed Greece swapping most of its privately-held bonds with new ones worth less than half their original value. Greece's debt-to gross domestic product ratio is also expected to fall to 117 per cent. The finance ministers also agreed to allow Spain a bigger 2012 public deficit to 5.3 per cent of GDP, higher than the original target but below the 5.8 per cent Spain originally wanted.
Al Ayyam says an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire has been agreed between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza after four days of deadly clashes which saw some 25 Palestinians, including civilians, dead in Israeli air strikes since Friday. Israel says 35 people were injured in Palestinian rocket attacks. The cross-border violence – the worst in three years – was triggered by an Israeli air strike on Friday that killed a senior leader of the militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), who Israel said had been planning an attack. Militants in Gaza responded quickly by unleashing a barrage of rockets towards southern Israel, triggering further air strikes.
AFP reports an imam has been killed and another person injured in a fire following a petrol bomb attack on a Shia mosque in the Brussels suburb of Anderlecht. The imam, 47, died of smoke inhalation. The police say a suspect was taken into custody at the scene,
Al Jazeera reports that the government and opposition in Syria say dozens of civilians in Homs have been killed in cold blood, each side disputing responsibility. State media in Damascus confirmed killings but blamed "armed terrorists". The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 16 people were killed Sunday night in Homs, while the Local Co-ordination Committees said 45 were killed. Both groups said children were among the dead.
The New York Times quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to swiftly end his regime’s bloody crackdown and appealed to the divided UN Security Council to unite and help the country “pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe”. During a debate in the council on challenges from the Arab Spring, Ban said the year-long conflict in Syria had led the entire region into uncertainty and subjected citizens in several cities to disproportionate violence. On the sidelines of the council debate, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are scheduled to hold bilateral talks.
US President Barack Obama has told local CBS station KDKA that international forces would not "rush for the exits" in Afghanistan, after an American soldier was accused of murdering 16 civilians. Describing the shooting as "absolutely heartbreaking and tragic", Obama said foreign troops must be withdrawn in a responsible way and international forces had to make sure the Afghans could secure their borders and stop al-Qaeda from getting back into the country.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quotes North Korea's chief nuclear envoy saying UN atomic inspectors would return soon to Pyongyang as part of a food aid deal with the United States. Wrapping up a rare visit to the United States to attend an academic forum, Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho told journalists in New York that “concrete measures” were being taken to fulfill the February agreement. North Korea last month agreed to suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests and to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor a moratorium on uranium enrichment.
Metro reports a British man who is so paralysed he can only communicate by blinking his eyes will have his right-to-die case heard by the country's High Court. Tony Nicklinson suffers from locked-in syndrome and wants a doctor to be able to lawfully end a life he says is intolerable. The 58-year-old was an engineer and active father of two before suffering a massive stroke on a business trip to Greece seven years ago. Now he has to use a computer to translate his blinking eyes into words.
Iran has cancelled a ceremony in honour of the country’s Oscar-winning director even though the government had hailed his victory as a triumph over a competitor from Israel. The event for Asghar Farhadi, whose movie, “A Separation,” won the Oscar for best foreign film last month, was abruptly scrapped after authorities denied permission, according to the semi-official Ilna news agency. There were no details as to why a permit was denied but some Iranian conservatives were upset with the film’s themes: domestic turmoil, gender inequality and the desire by many to leave the country.
La Nazione says a massive fresco painted by Leonardo da Vinci may have been discovered in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio around 500 years after another Renaissance painting took its place on the walls of one of Italy's most important palaces. Researchers said paint samples drawn from a wall behind Giorgio Vasari’s “The Battle of Marciano” may have the same chemical makeup as pigment used in da Vinci's Mona Lisa and belong to the Renaissance master's "The Battle of Anghiari" – a representation of a 1440 battle between Milan and a coalition of Italian city states led by Florence. Art historians largely believed "The Battle of Anghiari" was destroyed by Vasari. But the researchers believe the da Vinci admirer, may have saved the work by enclosing it between walls. The researchers confirmed the existence of a hollow space between the walls over which Vasari painted his fresco.