The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times says Labour has widened its lead to 10 points over the PN, according to an opinion survey on voting intentions. 19 percent do not know how they will vote.
The Malta Independent on Sunday speculates that a general election could be held in November or December.
MaltaToday says former Bank of Valletta CEO Tonio Depasquale is now a director on Zaren Vassallo’s companies.
It-Torca carries a big picture of Transport Malta CEO Stanley Portelli and says an investigation is under way on the purchase of 10 vehicles . It also reports that the Cospicua waterfront project has fallen further back.
Il-Mument reports how Malta is creating jobs while unemployment grows in the EU.
Illum quotes Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando saying it would be better for Richard Cachia Caruana to leave the PN before he presents evidence.
KullHadd highlights how the government is now going for a gas fired power station after having spent millions on an oil-firing plant. It also says three secretaries of PN committees have resigned.
The overseas press
Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) looks set for victory in Libya’s historic National Conference elections. Libya Herald reveals early indications from both Tripoli and Benghazi suggest the NFA was comfortably ahead of any of its 130 rivals, including major contenders such as the Justice & Construction Party, the Nation Party and the National Front. However, an NFA victory would not please all Libyans. The paper says there were reports that former revolutionaries had been meeting across Libya over the past few days to discuss possible action should Jibril win and decided action would be taken on the grounds that a victory for him would be a “theft of their revolution”.
The Tripoli Post says voting day – the first free national election for 60 years – was unusually calm, secure and celebratory. Fireworks were set off in the capital Tripoli and the second city, Benghazi, after voting ended on Saturday evening. The election was largely peaceful, but for pockets of unrest in the east, where people expressed fear the region would be under-represented in the new temporary assembly being elected. In Agedabia, in the east in Cirenaica, a man was killed while he attempted to steal a ballot box. Another person was injured. Estimates put the turnout at about 60 per cent. The head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, confirmed that after the results of the election are published, latest Tuesday, the council would stop functioning.
Reuters reports Syria's conflict spilled further into Lebanon on Saturday when mortar fire from President Bashar al-Assad's forces hit villages in the north, killing five people after rebels crossed the border to seek refuge. Meanwhile, in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, acknowledged the failure of his peace plan and hoped Iran, one of Syria's closest allies, would be involved in future negotiations, as demanded by Russia. The United States opposes this move. The former UN Secretary-General said that "Iran should be part of the solution", as its influence on Syria could not be ignored.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has told Spanish newspaper El Pais that the eurozone was unlikely to set up its planned banking supervisory body this year. Observers said his comments raised pressure on Spain, which was waiting to finalise loans from its eurozone partners to secure its troubled banking sector. The eurozone has offered a credit line up to €100 million to stabilise Spanish banks, stricken by the collapse of a construction bubble that burst in 2008. Meanwhile, AFP reports Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged Europe to quickly make good on its latest crisis-fighting agreements. At the same time he promised he would adopt fresh measures in the coming days to cut the deficit.
Der Spiegel says the office manager of the eurogroup, the council of finance ministers of euro area countries, would be split between the finance ministers of Germany and France. The mandate of the current president, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, would expire on July 17. He has already announced that he did not intend to seek a new mandate.
At least 134 people were killed and thousands of homes were flooded by torrential rain, landslides and a "wave of water" that rushed through one town in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. The English-language Russian news channel RT reported some of the victims were electrocuted while others were swept into the sea. Many of the dead were elderly people who had been sleeping and drowned. At least 1,000 people were displaced. According to RIA Novosti, residents of the southern Russia’s city of Krymsk, the most affected by Saturday’s severe floods, blamed authorities for opening reservoirs – an action, they said, that could have caused a sudden wave of water that had swept the city.
The New York Times says an exceptional heat wave with peaks of over 40 degrees in the eastern US has killed at least 36 people since the temperatures first shot up 10 days ago. New York and Washington have been hard hit where possible blackouts were feared because of the excessive use of air conditioning. Some of the states worst affected are Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Worsening the situation was the lack of electricity in thousands of houses in the Midwest after last week's storms.
Meanwhile, Sky News reports a man in his early 20s has died after his car came off the road during torrential rain that continues to cause flooding across the UK. More than a month's worth of rain fell in just 24 hours in some parts of the country, with Devon becoming the worst hit.
El Universal says tens of thousands of people were demonstrating in Mexico City against the results of the presidential election won by Enrique Pena Nieto a week ago. The demonstrators, from a broad section of society, said the election was neither free nor fair and they accused Pena Nieto’s party of buying votes – allegations that he denies.
The BBC has learnt that a patient had been diagnosed with cholera in the Cuban capital, Havana, days after three people died in a rare outbreak in the south-eastern town of Manzanillo. More than 50 people were infected and about 1,000 have received medical attention. The authorities say the outbreak is under control but four hospitals are prepared to isolate patients. They say people became ill after drinking water from contaminated wells.
Diario de Navarra says six people have been injured during the first running of the bulls in Pamplona. One of them, a 73-year-old woman, was gored by a bull. Yesterday’s running of the bulls was fast and dangerous over streets left slippery by the rain. Tens of thousands of people attended. The nine-day festival will run until July 19.
The Sunday Mirror reports American tennis player Serena Williams has won the women’s championship at Wimbledon for the fifth time. Several hours later, she went on to win the women’s doubles championship with her sister Venus. Later today, Andy Murray takes on six-time champion Roger Federer on Centre Court. He is the first Briton to reach the men's singles final in 74 years.