The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times reports that the Polidano Brothers are facing 55 enforcement notices. It also highlights a new book about Dom Mintoff.
The Malta Independent on Sunday reports how Franco Debono has been appointed Commissioner for Laws. It also says Malta is indicating to Russian investors that they should not transfer their Cyprus investments to Malta.
MaltaToday says Gonzi loyalists are backing Simon Busuttil for the PN leadership.
It-Torca highlights the fact that the opposition joined the government for the Freedom Day official celebration yesterday.
Il-Mument quotes PN leader Lawrence Gonzi saying the Speaker should be a serving Labour MP. It also quotes Cardinal Prospero Grech saying he hopes the new Pope will visit Malta.
Illum says there is pressure on the government to demand the resignation of the Commissioner of Police over his handling of the John Dalli investigation.
KullHadd says the justice system reform commission will be announced today.
The overseas press
The Cyprus Weekly says Cyprus officials and international representatives ended torturous negotiations in the early hours of Sunday with no agreement on a plan to raise money the island needs to qualify for a bailout package. Talks are set to resume later today in Brussels, but failure would mean Cyprus could declare bankruptcy in just two days and possibly have to exit the eurozone. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Finance Minister Michalis Sarris are already on their way to the Belgian capital. A viable plan must be cemented before finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro currency meet in Brussels in the evening.
Financial Mirror says savings accounts in Cyprus holding more than €100,000 will be hit by a controversial levy. The deal was reached between the Cypriot government and the Troika yesterday evening and will see a tax of 20 per cent applied to all savings accounts above €100,000 at the Bank of Cyprus. It will also see a four per cent levy on all savings accounts of over €100,000 applied at all Cypriot banks. The tax is part of a move aimed at raising nearly €6 million in funds in order to gain access to a €10bn bailout from the EU and IMF.
Meanwhile, the BBC quotes EU's commissioner for economic affairs Olli Rehn saying Cyprus had only “hard choices left” and must agree terms on Sunday for a crucial bailout for its ailing banks, He said there were no longer any “optimal solutions” and that Cyprus's near future “will be very difficult”. EU sources have said if no deal is reached, the 27-nation bloc is ready to eject Cyprus from the eurozone to prevent contagion of other debt-hit members such as Greece, Spain and Italy.
The Observer reports experts in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies have been deployed to the British property where Russian exile Boris Berezovsky was found dead. The body of the 67-year-old oligarch and long-time opponent of the Kremlin was discovered yesterday at his apartment in the town of Ascot, west of London. British police are treating the death as “unexplained”. Berezovsky's lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky earlier told Russian state television his client committed suicide after suffering depression because of “financial difficulties”.
CNN says President Obama has returned home to Washington after a four-day tour seeking to rekindle his engagement on Middle East peace and dominated by his embrace of Israel. His tour of the region was dominated by assurances to Israel that America is serious about countering Iranian threats and to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace hopes alive. Obama also warned Syria could become an enclave of “extremism” as his own policy toward the vicious sectarian war threatening to tear the nation apart came under scrutiny.
Haaretz has learned the Palestinians are lowering their expectations ahead of the new round of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, aimed at renewing peace negotiations with Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met on Saturday with Kerry in Amman. The paper quotes a senior Palestinian official saying the Palestinians “feel a lack of initiative”. At the same time, they are planning to expand their non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation by holding a “Palestinian Via Dolorosa” parade in the Old City of Jerusalem to mark the beginning of the Easter celebrations.
Avvenire says tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected in St Peter's Square today for Pope Francis’ Palm Sunday's Mass – the start of Holy Week. Sprigs of olive trees will be distributed to the faithful in remembrance of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem before his crucifixion. After the Mass, the Pope will lead six more liturgies during the week, culminating with the Easter Sunday Mass and Urbi et Orbi blessing. On Saturday, the Pope held a first meeting with his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict, who is now living in retirement near Rome – an unprecedented encounter in the history of the Catholic Church.
Nearly seven out of 10 people in Brussels would opt for the EU capital to become an independent city state in the event that Flemish nationalist advances bring about the end for Belgium. A major by commercial broadcaster RTL-TVI and Le Soir showed 68 per cent of those surveyed in the federal Brussels capital region, home to nearly two million of Belgium's 11 million population, would prefer to go it alone rather than join French-speaking Wallonia, or far less the Dutch-speaking Flanders that surrounds it, were the country to break up.
Forbes reports Continental Resources chief executive Harold Hamm, one of America's wealthiest and most influential businessmen, is embroiled in a contentious divorce that could lead to a record financial settlement and threaten his control of America's fastest-growing oil company. Sue Ann Hamm, Harold Hamm's second wife and a former executive at Continental, filed for divorce on May 19, 2012, Oklahoma court records show. Documents in the case are sealed. But in a March 7, 2013 filing obtained by Reuters, Sue Ann Hamm alleges that Harold “was having an affair” that she discovered in 2010, prompting her to later file for divorce. Last Year, Forbes listed Hamm, 67, among the 50 richest Americans. Ranked No. 35, he is worth $11.3 billion.
MSN reports Ford and its Indian advertising agency have apologized for advertising showing women in bondage and admitted that they should never have been created at all. One of the ads for the Ford Figo subcompact car show caricatures of three scantily clad women gagged, bound, and crammed into the back of the Figo while Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks back from the front seat, smiling and giving the “peace sign”. The tag line at the bottom of the ad says, “Leave Your Worries Behind”.