The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports how stolen trucks in Italy were found in Malta. It also says the COLA (cost of living adjustment) system may be changed.
The Malta Independent highlights the focus being placed by the government on the rehabilitation of state schools.
In-Nazzjon says Sandra Sladden learnt from the media that she was no longer ETC chairman.
l-orizzont also leads with the government schools maintenance programme, saying a majority of schools were found in a dilapidated state.
The overseas press
CNN says President Barack Obama has vowed to vigorously investigate early assessments that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons before a decision on any action is made. Washington and London claim they have growing evidence that Syria's government forces have deployed chemical weapons, but Obama says questions remain about where and when such weapons have been used. He says any proof would be a “game changer” for possible international intervention.
Euronews says a European Commission poll shows trust in the EU has fallen to a record low. The survey covered the bloc’s six biggest countries: Poland, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, where euro-scepticism has soared.
Frettabladid reports voters in Iceland go to the polls today in elections which are expected to oust the ruling centre-left coalition. Analysts predict that two centre-right parties would be able to form a new cabinet, pledging to soften unpopular austerity policies and halt the island nation's EU membership talks. The centre-right was widely blamed for Iceland's near-economic collapse in 2008. More than 230,000 voters are eligible to cast their ballots.
According to AFP, the Socialist Party of French President Francois Hollande pilloried German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her “selfish” insistence on austerity as the solution to Europe's debt crisis. In a document on Europe released yesterday and due to be presented at a party congress in June, the Socialist party accused Merkel of being obsessed with “Berlin's trade balance and her electoral future”.
Radio Belgrade says Serbia's parliament has given its green light to an EU-brokered deal aimed at normalising ties with former foe Kosovo – a landmark accord already approved by the government. Out of 203 deputies present, 173 voted to approve the deal, while 24 were against it. The deal had come under fire from ultra-nationalists and Kosovo Serbs.
Clashes broke out in Al Wasata, in the Beni Suef province south of Cairo, after news spread of an elopement of a Copt and a Muslim girl who converted. Al Ahram reports that groups of irate Muslims at first tried to break into the town's church of St George, then began throwing petrol bombs. Police intervened to protect the holy site and disperse the violent crowd with tear gas.
RIA Novosti news agency says a fire in a psychiatric hospital near Moscow, has killed at least 38 people. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said 41 people were in the building at the time of the fire, three of whom managed to escape.
Times of India reports some 15 people are feared trapped after a hospital building partially collapsed in central India. A rescue operation has been launched at the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state. Four people have been rescued from the debris. The cause of the collapse was unclear.
According to Bangla Times, Bangladeshi police said Saturday they had arrested two owners of garment factories based at the eight-storey building that collapsed outside the capital as the death toll rose to at least 323. The arrest followed clashed between thousands of protesters and the police. As rescue workers extracted 72 survivors from the rubble, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has reported that actor Horst Tappert, who from 1974 to 1998 portrayed Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick on television, served as a member of the notorious Waffen-SS and hid the fact for years.
La Terecera says police in Chile have arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed the end of the world was near and the child was the antichrist. The three-day-old baby was taken to a hill and was thrown into a bonfire.