The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times quotes a maritime law expert saying some fishermen have a false sense of security. It also says that a nun has been found guilty of unfair dismissal of a cleaner who had been employed for decades.
The Malta Independent leads with the prime minister’s comments that Labour will impose a minimum wage freeze.
In-Nazzjon also reports that Labour will freeze the minimum wage.
l-orizzont says a Budget promise to give free pills to dementia patients appears to have been forgotten.
The overseas press
Xinhua news agency announces that a Chinese court has jailed the former police chief of Chongqing municipality, Wang Lijun, for 15 years. He had earlier admitted trying to defect to the United States and covering up the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last November by Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, one of China's most controversial politicians. Gu was last August sentenced to a suspended death sentence, which effectively means life in prison.
Radio Svoboda reports President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has warned the opposition not to march against Sunday's parliamentary elections, which opponents called “a sham”. Lukashenko called the opposition cowards who have nothing to say to the people as they ordered a boycott of the elections to elect more than 100 deputies to parliament. Election officials said voter turnout was almost 75 percent and it was unlikely the opposition won a single seat.
The Washington Times says the US State Department has described as "disgusting" the fact that CNN had reported on the contents of the diary of slain US Ambassador Chris Stevens despite objections from the diplomat's family. CNN said on its website the public had the right to know what the station had learnt from multiple sources about the fears and warnings of a terror threat before the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed Stevens and three other Americans. CNN said it found the journal on the floor of what it called the "largely unsecured" compound. It said its findings raised questions about why the State Department did not do more to protect Ambassador Stevens.
Vanguard reports that a suicide bomber killed two people and wounded more than 48 others at a Catholic church in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi. The Islamist Boko Haram group, which wants to impose Sharia law across Nigeria, has often been targeted the area.
Himalaya Times says an avalanche on the world's eighth-highest mountain in northern Nepal has killed at least nine climbers – four French, two Spanish, an Italian, a German and a Nepali Sherpa. Three others are still missing. A group of about 25 people was near the top of the 8,156-metre Manaslu when it was hit by a wall of snow in one of the worst tragedies in Himalayan mountaineering in recent years.
La Tribune de Genève says voters in Switzerland have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places. Swiss business and hotelier associations welcomed the rejection, saying the initiative would have imposed extra costs on their members. The Socialist Party deplored the result, saying bystanders and hospitality workers remained at risk from passive smoking.
In London, The Times exposes confidential police reports and intelligence files that reveal a hidden truth about the sale and extensive use of English children for sex. They show that for more than a decade, organised groups of men, mainly Asian, were able to groom, pimp and traffic girls across the country with virtual impunity. Offenders were identified to police but not prosecuted. A child welfare expert described the agencies’ reluctance to tackle such street-grooming networks as “the biggest child protection scandal of our time”.
Honduras’ La Tribuna says a lawyer who represented peasants in disputes with landowners has been shot dead at a wedding. Antonio Trejo was shot dead by unknown gunmen after walking outside the church to answer a mobile phone call.
The BBC announces that a musician from a popular 1970s French-American band died on stage during a concert in Brazil. The generation Esmeralda drummer Bud Parker collapsed in front of thousands of people in the city of Uba. Local media said he died of a heart attack. The group is made up of old members of Santa Esmeralda, which was successful in the disco era with a cover version of “The House of the Rising Sun”.
The giant panda cub born last week in Washington has died. VOA reports zookeepers heard the baby’s mother giving a distress call. Vets tried to restart the cub’s heart and tried other life-saving methods but to no avail. The cub appeared to be in good health all week and showed no sign of injury or infection. The mother gave birth last week after five previous false pregnancies since 2007. Pandas born in captivity are rare.
Newsday says officials in Zimbabwe's second largest city Bulawayo have urged homeowners to flush their toilets at a specified time as a way to unblock sewers after days of severe water rationing. City Council officials said "synchronised flushing" was needed to clear waste that would have accumulated in sanitary facilities which would have been affected by days of water outages.
Sky News reports the former England football captain John Terry has announced his retirement from international competition. He said his position with the national team had become untenable because of the FA’s decision to pursue disciplinary charges against him over accusations of racism when he had already been cleared by a court of law.