The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times says that Mario de Marco and Chris Said are not expected to stand for the PN deputy leader election. Seven ministers are also opposing Simon Busuttil. It also focuses on fireworks transport fears.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says a committee of MEPs has already agreed to disagree on Borg’s nomination.
Malta Today says top civil servant Rita Schembri used government offices for undeclared private work connected to a casino bid.
It-Torca asks what is happening at the prison. It says a former prisoner has alleged abuses and the presence of drugs which is undermining rehabilitation.
Il-Mument says PL efforts to strike people off the electoral register shows how the party is frozen in the past.
KullHadd says broadcaster Peppi Azzopardi was ‘caught lying’ on PN promises to eliminate hospital waiting lists. It also quotes Joseph Muscat insisting that an EU report shows the government will raise power tariffs again, after the election.
Illum says there is anger among minsters at Simon Busuttil. It also says some €70m linked to corruption related to the sale of Eurofighter aircraft to Austria were channelled through bank accounts in Malta.
The overseas press
Several British nationals lead with the resignation of BBC Director-General George Entwistle over a TV report that falsely implicated a British politician, in a child sex abuse scandal. The Sunday Times reports that Entwistle, who only took over as director-general in September, said standing down from his role with the BBC was "the honourable thing to do". The programme did not identify the politician, but he was widely named on the internet as former Tory party treasurer Alistair McAlpine, who went public on Friday to strongly deny the allegations.
“It’s official: Obama wins Florida” screams The Los Angeles Times, saying that after a four-day count, President Obama has won Florida’s 29 electoral votes with a squeaker of a margin, giving him 332 electoral college votes to 206 for his Republican rival, Mitt Romney. Obama had 50.01 per cent of the vote in Florida compared to 49.13 per cent for Romney, translating into a lead of 74,000 votes for the president.
Al Ayyam says Israeli tank fire killed four Palestinians and wounded 25 in the Gaza Strip after an anti-tank missile hit an Israeli army jeep, wounding four soldiers. Palestinian fighters also fired rockets into southern Israel in a new flare-up of fighting. Israel warned residents of communities near the Gaza border to stay within 15 seconds of their blast shelters. The casualty toll was one of the highest in a single incident in Gaza in recent months.
Al Sumaria reports Baghdad cancelled a $4 billion (€3.15 billion) weapons package with Russia citing graft concerns. Cancellation of the deal, which had been announced when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki led a delegation to Russia last month, is a setback for Moscow's attempts to firm up its slipping foothold in the Middle East and also throws into doubt efforts by Iraq to equip its armed forces. The deal would have made Moscow Iraq's biggest arms supplier after the US.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat says two large explosions shook Syria’s southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s military intelligence in Daraa. The group said “dozens” of regime forces were killed and wounded in the near simultaneous explosions. Activists say more than 36,000 people have died in Syria during the nearly 20-month-old conflict.
L’Avvenire reports a Vatican court convicted a computer programmer on Saturday of helping Pope Benedict XVI's former butler Paolo Gabriele leak confidential papers. Claudio Sciarpelletti received five years of probation and a two-month suspended sentence.
A senior member of the European Central Bank has said Greece should be given more time and aid to get its financial house in order. German ECB official Jorg Asmussen told the Belgian economic daily L’Echo that giving Greece additional aid would be far less expensive than the cost of the country leaving the eurozone. His comments come ahead of the Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels tomorrow, during which they are due to discuss releasing a €31.5billion aid tranche to Athens, which has been held back since June.
Le Confident says the president of Central African Republic has ordered the detention of his own son for refusing to pay a large hotel bill. Police detained Francois Bozize's son for several days after he ran up a bill of up to €12,000 at the five-star Ledger Plaza hotel in Bangui. The bills include the cost of the room, meals and services.
The BBC reports that the next Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested people who made money by correctly betting on his appointment should donate their winnings to parish churches. The Rt Rev Justin Welby made the call on the social networking site, Twitter. Ladbrokes, which suspended betting after a flurry of bets placed on Bishop Welby's name, has now said it will donate £1,000 to Canterbury Cathedral. The bishop was named as the next head of the Church of England on Friday.
Metro says women who suffer from depression during pregnancy need the same support as women with postnatal depression. A snapshot survey by the Royal College of Midwives and Netmums suggests more than a third of women who become depressed during their pregnancy have suicidal thoughts. The poll of 260 mothers with antenatal depression found they were at greater risk of worsening mental health problems then women with postnatal depression. Only 22 per cent sought help from their GP. Experts say women with the condition need more support.