The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.

Times of Malta leads with the arraignment of teacher Erin Tanti, who was accused of murdering student Lisa Maria Tanti.

The Malta Independent says Erin Tanti denied murdering Lisa Marie Zahra.

In-Nazzjon reports that Martin Schulz, president of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, has been accused of removing a paragraph in a report on John Dalli.

l-orizzont also reports how supply teacher Erin Tanti was accused of the murder of his student Lisa Maria Zahra.

The overseas press

La Republica reports Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has told a convention in Palermo that his government had information there were “between 300,000 and 600,000 people in North Africa waiting to cross the Mediterranean”. 

Russia’s NTV reports security services have detained 25 Ukrainians suspected of planning “sabotage” and “terrorist attacks” in seven Russian regions between March 14 and 16 in. It said the group contained three activists from Pravy Sektor, a radical nationalist group in Ukraine, and claimed all 25 were following “instructions” from the Ukrainian security agency, the SBU.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, 12 members of Ukraine’s disbanded Berkut riot police have been detained on suspicion of mass murder after shooting participants in Kiev’s months-long anti-government protests.

Malaysia's opposition leader has accused the Malaysian government of deliberately concealing information about missing flight MH370. Anwar Ibrahim, who personally knew the pilot of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, called for an international committee to take over the Malaysian-led operation.

Haaretz says the Israeli government has cancelled the expected release of the last 26 Palestinian prisoners (the fourth group) and requested a review of the peace talk process. 

El Universal says Colombia’s Nobel-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the 87-year-old author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” has been taken to hospital for undisclosed reasons. 

Il Tempo says Pope Francis met Queen Elizabeth at the Vatican for the first time yesterday, in the British monarch’s first international trip since 2011. Francis and Queen Elizabeth, who was accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, met in the pope’s study rather than the regal Apostolic Palace, indicating the relatively light protocol event. 

The Washington Times reports the world will soon get its first look at more than 480 of a 6,200-page report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation practices during the George W. Bush administration. This follows a vote by the US Senate Intelligence Committee to declassify key sections of it.

In a move hailed by consumer groups, the European Parliament voted to end mobile-phone roaming fees and barred telecoms operators from prioritising some Internet traffic in order to maintain so-called “net neutrality”. EU Observer says the legislation, which is aimed at creating a single market for telecom services, will phase out roaming fees across the 28-member European Union by December 2015, boost mobile and broadband consumer protections, and make the sale of mobile licenses uniform across the Union.

The leader of the Italian Five-Star Movement Beppe Grillo yesterday advised a prostitute to ply her trade on the Internet to avoid the dangers of street-walking. Ansa reports Elisa, a well-dressed blonde, asked the comedian-turned-politician, “What’s on the Internet? Are they reopening the brothels?” In Italy it’s legal to trade sex for money, but organised prostitution, whether indoors in brothels or controlled by third parties, is prohibited. Brothels became illegal in 1958. Grillo assured her his movement was open to “the most advanced solutions”.

More than one quarter of active professional footballers and 39 per cent of those who have retired have said they suffered from depression or anxiety. France Football quotes a world players’ union survey saying 26 per cent suffered adverse alcohol behaviour, three per cent said they had low self esteem, seven percent said they were smoking and five per cent reported “signs of burnout. FIFPro chief medical officer Vincent Gouttebarge said that “contrary to popular belief, the life of a professional footballer has some dark sides”.

 

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