The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports how Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday during The Big Debate that the people did the right thing when they voted on divorce. It also says that Joseph Muscat met the Police Commissioner over his allegations that a minister made pressure for a person to be released from the lock-up. In another part of the debate Dr Gonzi replied ‘no’ when asked if he would step down from the PN helm if he lost the election.
The Malta Independent leads with the arraignment of another two persons in connection with the oil scandal.
MaltaToday says the prime minister has not denied that oil trader invoices were taken to him two years ago. Dr Gonzi said that he referred the matter to the police.
In-Nazzjon says the PN will continue on the road of job creation.
l-orizzont reports on a €500,000 contract awarded just over a week before the election.
The overseas press
Avvenire predicts at leat 50,000 people are expected to fill St Peter's Square this morning for Pope Benedict 's last general audience before he steps down at the end of the month. In a break with tradition, Benedict will make his address from a window overlooking St Peter's Square instead of in a hall inside the Vatican. Benedict will make his final public appearance tomorrow at 5.30p.m. when he arrives at the papal summer residence in Castelgandolfo outside Rome. At 8.00p.m. that evening, he will cease to be pope and the Holy See will fall vacant. Cardinals have said they hope to elect a new pope by Easter Holy Week, which begins on 24 March.
L’Osservatore Romano says Pope Benedict XVI would retain the title "His Holiness" and would be known as “Pope Emeritus”. He would keep his papal title “Benedict XVI”, rather than reverting to his name, Joseph Ratzinger, and would wear his distinctive white cassock but without a cape or trimmings. He would no longer wear a ring and would hand over his gold ring of office, known as “the fisherman's ring”. As when a pope dies, his personal seal would be destroyed by the cardinal camerlengo, the acting head of state of the Vatican City when the papacy is vacant. Benedict would no longer wear his specially-made red leather loafers, typically worn by popes and symbolising the blood of martyrs. Instead, he would don brown shoes, hand-made for him by a Mexican craftsman during a brief visit to Mexico last year, which he is said to find very comfortable.
According to Sole 24 Ore, European markets have reacted anxiously after Italy's general election produced a stalemate between centre-right and centre-left blocs. The Milan stock market plunged and Italy's borrowing rates jumped after centre-left Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani scraped a razor-thin victory in the lower house of parliament, but the Senate remained up for grabs. Markets in Europe, Asia, the United States and Australia also fell on fears of instability in the eurozone's third biggest economy.
Associated Press announces that the Obama administration, in coordination with some European allies, is for the first time considering supplying direct assistance to elements of the Free Syrian Army as they seek to ramp up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and end nearly two years of deadly violence. Officials in the United States and Europe said Tuesday the administration was close to decide on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully-vetted fighters opposed to the Assad regime in addition to what it is already supplying to the political opposition.
The Washington Times reports the US Senate has confirmed Chuck Hagel as President Obama's new Secretary of Defence. The Senate voted 58-41 to elect the former Republican senator as the civilian leader of the Pentagon in a largely party line vote. Just four Republicans joined the Democrats and independents in support of Mr Hagel's nomination.
Al Ahram says 19 touristsand an Egyptian were killed in a balloon crash after it exploded into flames before crashing into fields near Luxor. Health Minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed listed the foreigners as hailing from Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary.
A new report in The National Enquirer claims that Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius may have shot his girlfriend dead after learning that she was pregnant with his child. A source close to investigation told the supermarket tabloid nthat the police believe the pregnancy secret she revealed was what sent Pistorius “over the edge and left her dead, with bullet wounds to the head, chest, pelvis and hand”.
USA Today reports beer lovers across the United States have accused Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands, in class-action suits seeking millions of dollars in damages. The suits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on labels. Budweiser and Michelob each boast of being 5 per cent alcohol, while some "light" versions are said to be just over 4 per cent.
Metro says that frozen burger sales in the UK are down by 43 per cent and frozen ready meals by 13 per cent in the wake of the horsemeat contamination scandal. However, two polls have found a significant number of consumers would be happy to eat horsemeat providing it was “safe” and properly labelled. Meanwhile, a study published by three professors at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University found buffalo, donkey and goat meat in mislabelled beef burgers and sausages. No horsemeat was found.
An Australian billionaire says he wants to build a new version of the Titanic that could set sail in 2016. The Age reports that Clive Palmer unveiled blueprints for the famously-doomed ship’s namesake in New York, saying 40,000 people have expressed interest in tickets for the maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. Construction is scheduled to start soon in China. The original Titanic was the world’s largest and most luxurious ocean liner when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank on April 15, 1912. More than 1,500 people perished in the maiden voyage.