The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta and the Malta Independent report how the PN is set to have two deputy leaders.
The Times of Malta also carries a picture of the five French tourists on their boat shortly before they left Xlendi on their ill-fated trip on Sunday night.
In-Nazzjon says the PN’s leadership will be stronger and more effective as a result of the changes proposed by Simon Busuttil. It also says that comments by Joseph Muscat to the BBC about the Maltese economy being strong showed how he changed his tune after the general election.
l-orizzont says Transport Minister Joe Mizzi has ordered a preliminary investigation into the tragedy of the five French tourists who went missing in a small boat. It also focuses on how patients needing a particular medicine are still being asked to go to private dispensaries.
The overseas press.
CNN reports Ohio prosecutor Timothy McGinty has warned he would seek to press charges that carry the death penalty against a man accused of kidnapping three women, raping them and forcibly ending their pregnancies. Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old unemployed bus driver, has already been charged with kidnapping and raping the women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – over the course of a decade in his home in Cleveland, Ohio. He was ordered held on an $8 million bond on Thursday. But McGinty said investigators would also go back over the many torments Castro allegedly inflicted on the women during their long ordeal, with the aim of bringing even more serious charges relating to pregnancies terminated by force, which could carry the death penalty.
Meanwhile, the New York Daily News says both the daughter and mother of Ariel Castro tearfully apologized for the man’s sins. His mother, Lillian Rodriguez, told reporters outside another son's home that “I have a son who is sick, who has committed something serious”, adding, “I am sorry for what my son has done.” Arlene, Castro's 22-year-old daughter, said during her appearance on the Good Morning America show that she was “disappointed” and “embarrassed” by her father’s alleged actions. She apologised to victim Gina DeJesus, who was her best friend in high school.
According to the Times of India, a 20-year-old man has been arrested by Indian police in New Dehli on suspicion of raping a four-year-old girl – the latest incident of sexual violence to shock the country. The girl, who is the man’s neighbour, was taken to hospital where she was said to be in a stable condition. She was home alone at the time of the attack and was found crying outside her home by another neighbour.
London’s The Times reports the former Archbishop of York stood accused last night of covering up allegations that a senior Church of England clergyman had abused choirboys and school pupils. Lord Hope of Thornes was made aware of the accusations against the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral and once the cleric in overall charge of Church schools, in 1999 and again in 2003. Waddington was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the archbishop did not report concerns about alleged past abuse or a potential continuing threat to children to police or child protection agencies.
The death toll in Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster has soared past 1,000 after more bodies were found in the rubble of a collapsed nine-storey building outside the capital Dhaka. An army spokesman told AFP recovery workers had pulled out 130 bodies from the rubble of the lower floors. Some of the bodies, which were badly decomposed, could be identified by mobile phones in their pockets or factory identity cards around their neck.
RTV Slovenija quotes Slovenia's Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek announcing an austerity plan to help nation avoid an international bailout. She said the measures, which will include a Vat raise from 20 to 22 per cent in July, as well as the sale of 15 state firms, would help prevent Slovenia from going the way of Cyprus with an EU-IMF bailout. It is hoped the measures will raise €540 million in new taxes, enough to help balance the budget.
El Pais says thousands of students and teachers – from nursery to university – came together, outside the classroom, in a national strike in protest against education cuts and reforms in Spain. They took to the streets mainly gathering in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Unions are concerned cuts to scholarships are running down the state school system and creating elitism within higher education.
Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who designed the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, is under investigation over claims he broke strict family planning laws by fathering seven children. The People's Daily says Zhang could face a fine of up to 160 million yuan (€19 million). Parents can be ordered to pay up to twice their annual income for breaching China's one child policy, which limits most urban couples to one birth but allows rural families to have a second if their first is a girl. Other exemptions include allowing a childless individual whose spouse already has a child to have another.
Il Mattino reports Naples prosecutors have requested that Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi go on trial for bribing former centre-left senator Sergio De Gregorio to change parties. They allege that Berlusconi paid De Gregorio €3 million to switch to his centre-right People of Freedom party in 2006, a move allegedly aimed at bringing down the centre-left government of Romano Prodi, which eventually fell in 2008. This lead to new elections that were won by Berlusconi. De Gregorio has admitted to receiving €2 million from Berlusconi, which he did not declare for tax purposes, but denied the money was a bribe.
The Wall Street Journal says seven members of a worldwide gang of criminals have been accused in Brooklyn of stealing a total of $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe. Outmoded US card technology may be partly to blame for the thefts from ATMs using bogus
Sky News reports Olympic gold medallist Andrew Simpson has been killed after his yacht capsised in San Francisco Bay during training for the America's Cup. Simpson, 36, had been sailing on the Artemis, Sweden's entry in the America's Cup, when the catamaran turned over and he became trapped underneath for about 10 minutes, his racing team said in a statement. Attempts were made to revive him both in the water and on the shore, but he was unable to be saved.