The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta leads with how prisoners will get a 100-day amnesty, with 54 walking free tomorrow. It also reports how the planned privatisation of MOBC was 'sabotaged'.
The Malta Independent leads with reform proposals in the justice sector. It also reports on the attempted assault on Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes.
In-Nazzjon says the PN has renewed its leadership team to move the party forward.
l-orizzont focuses on yesterday’s tragedy at Salina, where a worker was killed.
The overseas press
A Sky News poll has revealed that the UK is divided on whether to remain in the European Union or not. A referendum on the issue could be four years away, but if it was held today, 45 per cent of voters would vote to opt out of the EU. Just 44 per cent said Britain should remain a member, while 11 per cent were unsure. Although the three main parties wish to stay in the Union, public opinion on the matter sides with Nigel Farage’s UKIP and Tory Euro-sceptics.
Forbes reports the International Monetary Fund has admitted it made mistakes in handling Greece's first international bailout. The IMF said it was too optimistic in its growth assumptions and said a debt restructuring should have been considered earlier. Greece was granted a €110 billion bailout by the IMF and EU in May 2010. Another €130 billion rescue package was approved in February last year.
Latvia will become the second Baltic country after Estonia, and the 18th overall, to join the EU’s single currency. The Financial Times quotes the European Commission saying Latvia has met all of the necessary criteria to be considered for entry into the EU’s single currency. It said the country’s general budget deficit, debt levels, and inflation and interest rates were all in keeping with the broad goals of the eurozone as a whole.
Aljazeera reports Syrian pro-government forces have recaptured the strategic town of Qusayr after a siege lasting more than two weeks. It had been the focus of fighting between rebels and troops backed by a pro-government militia and fighters from Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shia Islamist group allied with Iran.
Clarin announces that Argentina has approved in-vitro fertilization for same-sex and heterosexual couples in the national health care system. The move came as barriers to gay marriage and adoption have fallen in a number of countries across mostly Catholic Latin America. Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalise gay marriage in 2010.
The Washington Times says President Obama has named US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice as his national security adviser. In a second-term shuffle of his foreign policy team, the president also nominated human rights researcher Samantha Power to replace Rice.
According to ABC, Paris Jackson, the daughter of late pop legend Michael Jackson, is in hospital after attempting to kill herself by “cutting her arm with a kitchen knife”. Her grandmother's lawyer told Associated Press that the 15-year-old was physically fine.
France 24 reports a Paris court has ordered the authors of La Frondeuse (The Rebel), to pay French first lady Valérie Trierweiler €10,000 in damages after ruling that a book about her love life breached her right to privacy. Trierweiler sued over claims that she two-timed President François Hollande.
In Sweden, not even a soon-to-be-married princess can get away with breaking the traffic rules. Lars Lindholm, acting head of the unit that stopped her told newspaper Aftonbladet she faces a 1,000 kronor (€116.71) fine for driving in a bus lane.
Huffington Post says an 84-year-old Florida widow, who bought her Powerball ticket after another customer let her get ahead in line, has claimed the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history: $590 million. Gloria C. MacKenzie, a retiree from Maine and a mother of four who lives in a modest, tin-roof house, took her prize in a lump sum of just over $370 million. After federal taxes, she is getting about $278 million.