The following are the top headlines in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and the Malta Independent lead with the speeches by the political leaders yesterday ahead of the Mepa decision on the power station today. Times of Malta also reports that new drug laws are to be moved in Parliament before the summer.
In-Nazzjon leads with Simon Busuttil's call for the PM and Mepa to put the people's interests first in the gas power station plans.
l-orizzont says a San Lawrenz property in Gozo has been identified for an initiative by the new presidency for community services.
The overseas press
While Russia continued to push Ukrainian forces out of Crimea, NATO and Ukraine have issued warnings about the build-up of Russian troops along Ukraine’s eastern border. The Washington Post reports that NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe has warned that the Russian military presence along the east Ukrainian border posed a threat to both sides of the country
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister tells ABC News the chance of war with Russia was “becoming higher”. Andrii Deshchytsia said the problem was that Russians, and particularly President Putin himself, were not talking to the rest of the world.
Moscow has denied that there was any troop build-up. Russia Today reports Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said the issue has even been discussed with US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel. Antonov also invited international observers to verify his claims.
The crisis in Ukraine is expected to overshadow a two-day 53-country nuclear security summit. Hague News says world leaders are to discuss reducing and securing nuclear supplies, and keeping them out of extremists’ hands. The summit in The Hague will form the backdrop for an emergency meeting this afternoon of the Group of Seven leaders on Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending, instead sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry. Notable absentees from the nuclear summit are North Korea and Iran.
ABC says the hunt for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off the coast of Western Australia is shifting north, after French satellites picked up floating objects outside the current search zone. This morning Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the latest sighting of debris was about 850 kilometres north of the search area that aircraft and ships had been scouring since Thursday.
EurasiaNet quotes the Turkish military saying it had warned the Syrian warplane four times that it was approaching Turkish air space before shooting it down on Sunday. The Turkish General Staff said a second Syrian aircraft heeded the warnings and turned back. Damascus has described the incident as “blatant aggression” and said its place was in Syrian airspace.
France 24 reports the far right National Front of Marie Le Pen has done better than expected in the first round of voting for municipal elections across France as voters expressed disenchantment at the governing party of President François Hollande. Observers say the ruling Socialists are likely to struggle in next Sunday’s second round to hold off challenges from the main centre-right opposition party, the UMP.
Adolfo Suarez, the former Spanish Prime Minister who steered Spain to democracy has died at the age of 81. El País called Suárez the “most solitary politician of the democracy”. He was chosen by King Juan Carlos to organise the country's first democratic elections after the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975.
Doctors Without Borders has launched an emergency medical intervention following reports of the Ebola virus in southern Guinea, where an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever has left at least 34 people dead. Le Jour quotes Guinea’s Ministry of Health saying the outbreak had reached epidemic proportions. Since it was first reported last month, it had registered 49 infections – including three suspected infections in the capital, Conakry.
Police in Nigeria have discovered what local media are calling “a house of horrors” in the south-western city of Ibadan. The Tribune shows gruesome pictures of rotting bodies, human skulls and other body parts littering the scene, as well as ID papers and ATM cards, shoes, bags and clothes. Several extremely malnourished people were found nearby and local media reported that about 15 people were discovered in chains. The police have arrested six suspects, including five security guards allegedly armed with guns, bows and arrows.