The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times leads with the search in the ARMS offices and says the company’s chief has not quit. It also reports that PN staff are finally being paid their basic salaries.
The Malta Independent on Sunday quotes Lawrence Gonzi saying in an interview that the content of the President’s address was insulting. It also says that according to a document presented to the European Parliament, Malta has little room for corruption.
MaltaToday leads with how an inquiry report pointed to offences by top civil servent Rita Schembri.
It-Torca says there is no agreement with the GWU on new fines introduced by Arriva on its drivers. It also says that a team will review the environmental impact of the Sant Antnin waste treatment plant.
Il-Mument says new Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit had carried out work for the Labour Party. It also says members of the Cabinet violated the Code of Ethics by continuing private practice.
Illum says the police are to be asked to investigate ‘criminal action’ by Rita Schembri. It also says there is anger among PN staff against Paul Borg Olivier after they were not paid on time.
KullHadd leads with meetings being held abroad by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.
The overseas press
The United States and China have agreed to make a joint effort to push for the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, following weeks of bellicose rhetoric from North Korea and rising tensions in northeast Asia. Fox News reports US Secretary of State John Kerry and China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, said both countries supported the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Yang said China’s stance on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula was clear and consistent.
Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas Maduro is expected to win today’s presidential elections, after leading a 10-day campaign completely devoted to the memory of the late president Hugo Chavez. El Universal says opinion polls show Maduro, the late president Hugo Chavez’ hand-picked heir, enjoying a lead of between 10 and 20 percentage points over Capriles, the former governor of the state of Miranda. Electronic ballot machines were placed in more than 13,000 locations. Some 125,000 soldiers will guard polling centres to guarantee voter safety.
Avvenire announces that Pope Francis has named eight cardinals to an advisory panel that will help him run the Church and study possible reforms of the Vatican’s Curia. The eight cardinals named to the panel come from Italy, Chile, India, Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States, Australia and Honduras. An Italian archbishop will serve as secretary of the panel.
Croatian voters go to the polls today to choose their first-ever group of MEPs. The country of 4.4 million people joins the European Union on July 1, the second nation to do so from the former Yugoslavia. Croatia Post says opinion polls suggest that enthusiasm for becoming the 28th EU member has dropped in recent years, especially as the eurozone crisis rumbles on.
Espresso reports thousands of people have rallied in the streets of Lisbon to protest rising poverty resulting from the government's belt-tightening measures. The anti-poverty march was organised by Portugal's leading union, the CGTP, and capped about a week of protest activities that have been held throughout the eurozone country.
Deutsche Welle says German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have called on G8 countries to show “global leadership” on tax evasion. Merkel and Cameron also spent Saturday, the second day of their meeting, discussing global topics of concern such as the war in Syria, and Iran's nuclear programme. The trip is part of Cameron's push to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union, and create substantial reform within the bloc itself.
According to The Observer, millions of people could become destitute in Africa and Asia as staple foods more than double in price by 2050 as a result of extreme temperatures, floods and droughts that will transform the way the world farms. As food experts gather at two major conferences to discuss how to feed the nine billion people expected to be alive in 2050, leading scientists have told the newspaper that food insecurity risks turning parts of Africa into permanent disaster areas. Rising temperatures will also have a drastic effect on access to basic foodstuffs, with potentially dire consequences for the poor.
Sky News reports hundreds of opponents of Margaret Thatcher filled London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday evening for a rain-soaked celebration of the former British prime minister's death earlier this week. Former coal miners involved in the year-long strike against the Iron Lady's government in the 1980s joined far-left activists and students to drink to the Iron Lady's demise. There were reports of minor scuffles between protesters and police.
Al-Ayyam says Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the resignation of his Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad. The two had been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute over the extent of the prime minister’s authority.
Al-Ahram reports the judge in the murder retrial of Hosni Mubarak abruptly withdrew from the case on Saturday, sending the matter to another court and delaying the decision on the deposed president's fate over the actions of his police and army during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah said he felt "unease" at presiding over the trial and referred it to a Cairo appeals court.
USA Today says guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison fired non-lethal shots to quell prisoner unrest on Saturday as they relocated inmates into individual cells. According to a statement from a spokesman with the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which runs the prison, some detainees resisted with improvised weapons, and in response, four less-than-lethal rounds were fired. There were no serious injuries to guards or detainees.
Jakarta Globe reports that investigators are trying to work out how an Indonesian passenger plane overshot the runway at Bali airport before crashing into the sea. All 101 passengers and seven crew on the Lion Air flight survived, although dozens were said to be injured and at least seven were taken to hospital with head wounds and broken bones. The new Boeing 737-800 had been trying to land at Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International Airport when it crashed.
According to Peru’s Panamericana TV, a passenger bus has plunged off an Andean road into a river, killing at least 27 people. Police said the cause of the crash was not immediately clear, though he said there have been heavy rains in the area some 600 miles north of the Lima, the capital. The victims of the crash include three doctors, two nurses and several rural school teachers. Forty-three passengers were aboard the bus.
Le Journal du Dimanche says French police are searching for one of the country's most dangerous gangsters after he took several wardens hostage and blasted his way out of jail. Redoine Faid, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and break free in the northern town of Sequedin. Police and helicopters were trying to track the 40-year-old, who set fire to his getaway car south of the city of Lille, before getting into a second vehicle. State prosecutor Frederic Fevre said Faid was a “particularly dangerous prisoner” and was still armed and in possession of explosives.