The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

The Times and most of the newspapers announce the commission of the Justice Sector reform Commission, headed by Judge Giovanni Bonello. It also says that a Gozitan patient died after a hospital incident.

The Malta Independent reports that Franco Debono is to be Commissioner of Law.

In-Nazzjon quotes representatives of constituted bodies saying valid persons should be allowed to continue to work for any government. It also reports how the PN has criticised the appointment of Franco Debono to coordinate the Constitutional Convention, saying the appointment is divisive.

l-orizzont describes the reform of the justice sector as ‘urgent’ as it announces the commission which will manage it.

The overseas press

Reuters quotes an EU spokesman saying early Monday morning that Cyprus had reached an outline deal with international lenders for a €10-billion-bailout that would shut down its second largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors. The tentative deal emerged after fraught negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and heads of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – hours before a deadline to avert a collapse of the banking system. The draft proposal, which still has to be approved by eurozone finance ministers, would wind down Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits below €100,000 to the Bank of Cyprus to create a “good bank”. Deposits above €100,000, which under EU law are not guaranteed, would be frozen and used to resolve debts. The EU spokesman said no levy would be imposed on any deposits in Cypriot banks. At one stage Anastasiades was so exasperated with the troika’s attitude that he had threatened to resign if he was pushed too far.

Pope Francis celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square yesterday, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart. Avvenire says the square overflowed with some 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans eager to join the new Pope at the start of solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter. Francis said he was joyfully looking forward to welcoming young people to Rio de Janiero in July for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day – the first foreign trip on the calendar of the new papacy.

The Daily Mail reports British Prime Minister David Cameron woud unveil a sweeping immigration crackdown later today aimed at discouraging migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving to Britain when EU restrictions on their right to travel and work there expire next year. Under his plans, access to Britain's National Health Service would be curbed, new migrants will have to wait up to five years for social housing, fines for employers who hire illegal workers

Ansa quotes Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi saying he was ready for a snap election if efforts to form a government fail. Speaking at a rally in Rome, the centre-right bloc leader told thousands of his supporters another contest was the only solution possible because last month’s inconclusive result has led to a month-long deadlock. But he also warned the centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani that if he insists on making “a ridiculous attempt” to govern with a minority then he should be ready to have an extremely strong opposition. Bersani begins talks with political leaders on Monday to see whether he can win backing in parliament to form a government and end the political impasse.

According to Yeni Balkan, the party in power in the Republic of Macedonia is the winner in the local elections held over the weekend. With over 50 per cent of the ballots vetted, some 45.8 per cent  of all voters have supported the nominees put forward by VMRO-DPMNE. The main oppositional party SDSM has won 28.8 per cent of all votes. Meanwhile, the Democratic Union for Integration (DSI), also part of the coalition currently in power, won the Albanian vote with 9.3 per cent, followed by the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) with 5.6 per cent.

Le Parisien reports French police used tear gas and batons to fight crowds who pushed their way onto the landmark Champs-Elysees avenue and toward the presidential palace as part of a huge protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. Some 1.5 million people — conservative activists, schoolchildren with their parents, retirees, priests — converged on the capital Sunday in a last-ditch bid to stop the bill. The lower house of France’s parliament approved the “marriage for everyone” bill last month with a large majority, and it’s facing a vote in the Senate next month.

El Pais has retracted a column that compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler and apologised for its “inappropriate” content after sparking an indignant internet outcry. In the column, published on the paper’s website and in its Andalusia regional edition, economist Juan Torres Lopez of the University of Seville wrote that “Angela Merkel, like Hitler, has declared war on the rest of the continent, this time to guarantee (Germany) its vital economic space.”

Associated Press reports US Secretary of State John Kerry has confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq's behaviour was raising questions about its reliability as a partner. Speaking to reporters during a previously-unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in “a very spirited discussion” on the Iranian flights, which US officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

El Universal reports the bodies of seven men – all shot in the head – were found dumped on plastic chairs on a busy roundabout in the Mexican city of Uruapan. One of the threatening messages nailed to some of the men's chests warned: “This is going to happen to all muggers, pickpockets, kidnappers, rapists and extortionists.” Their deaths come after seven people were killed in neighbouring Guerrero state when armed men opened fire in a bar on Friday evening. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the last seven years.

Gawker says Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is offering up $100,000 of initial funding for the designer of the “next generation of condoms” that enhance sexual pleasure. The challemge is aimed at promoting “ a more widespread use of condoms against disease”.

Peter Scott, a prolific British cat burglar who identified himself as a modern Robin Hood, has died aged 82. According to The Daily Telegraph, among his victims, none of whom he held in high esteem, were such stars as Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh and Lauren Bacall. Notable was  theft of a £200,000-necklace belonging to Loren while the actress was filming “The Millionairess” in London in 1960. At the time, Fleet Street said it was the biggest jewellery robbery ever in Britain; but it only earned Scott £30,000 from a “fence”.

Slate quotes a UN report which reveals there are now more people with mobile phones (six billion for world population of seven billion) on earth than there are with access to clean toilets (4.5 billion). The reports says it shows how, in the developing world, multinationals are often better at responding to peoples’ needs than governments. Open defacation, while not widely discussed, causes illnesses such as diarrhea that kill 4,500 children daily. Poor sanitation also hobbles emerging markets economically. According to the UN, the problem costs India $53.8 billion a year, while Nigeria loses $3 billion annually.

 

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