The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says the European Commission has forecast robust growth for the economy.
The Malta Independent features the declaration of assets of some MPs but many, including the prime minister’s are missing.
In-Nazzjon reports how the Opposition will move a motion to outlaw discrimination against people with disabilities.
l-orizzont also reports how the EU expects strong growth by the Maltese economy.
The overseas press
Libya Herald reports Congress President Nuri Abu Sahmain has backed Ahmed Maetig as prime minister, saying he approved the contested vote when he was elected by 121 votes, one more than was constitutionally needed. As a result it had been agreed that Abdullah Al-Thinni would remain as prime minister while Maetig drew up a new government. He would then step down once that new government was presented to Congress and approved. A maximum deadline of two weeks was given to 42-year-old Maetig, a businessman from Misrata who owns the Thobacts hotel in Tripoli.
Kyiv Post says four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and an army helicopter shot down by pro-Russian militants near the eastern city of Sloviansk. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the gunmen used heavy weapons against Ukraine's units involved in the “anti-terror” operation and accused the militants of trying to ambush government forces on the outskirts of the city. The rebel stronghold remains sealed off by Ukrainian troops. Pro-Russian militants have seized government buildings in a dozen or more Ukrainian cities in the east. Kiev accuses Moscow of supporting and arming the gunmen, a claim denied by the Kremlin.
The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram has threatened to “sell” the 223 schoolgirls it abducted on the night of 14 April. Militant leader Abubakar Shekau sent a video obtained by the AFP news agency, in which he said for the first time that his group had taken the girls. He said the girls should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married, adding “God instructed me to sell them, they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions.”
Tribune de Genève reports a UN committee has linked the sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests to torture, stepping up its criticism of the Holy See. Members of a UN committee on torture questioned Vatican officials for two hours about the church’s handling of abuse cases. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said when the Vatican signed up to the torture treaty it did so with the “very clear and direct intention” that it applied only to the territory of the Vatican state and not to its priests and bishops around the world. Last January, Mgr Tomasi appeared before a committee on children’s rights, which also opposed the Vatican’s territorial argument. The panel noted that priests were “bound by obedience to the Pope” in canon law, making the Vatican accountable for their conduct.
In his first interview with ERTU Egyptian television, presidential candidate Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has said the Egyptian people have rejected the Muslim Brotherhood and it would no longer exist if he became president. Sisi removed Egypt’s first democratically-elected President Mohammed Morsi from power last July. He denied he had any political ambitions when he ousted the Brotherhood last year, saying he changed his mind because of threats from both inside and outside Egypt. Sisi is widely expected to win the election in three weeks’ time.
At least 22 people have drowned and several others have been reported missing after a yacht and a dinghy crammed with migrants capsized off the Greek island of Samos – a favourite destination for migrant-smuggling gangs because it’s close to the Turkish coast. Kathimerini says seven more people were missing, in what was one of the deadliest migrant boat accidents in Greek waters in recent years and the third fatal one this year. Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East pack into often unsafe boats to get into the European Union. The numbers have increased since “Arab Spring” uprisings triggered unrest across North Africa and civil war in Syria.
Somalia is the worst country on Earth to be a mother, according to a report published by Save the Children on Monday which calls for more action to protect mothers and children in crisis-hit areas. The Independent says the London-based charity estimates that 800 mothers and 18,000 young children are dying around the world every day from largely preventable causes. Finland is the best place to be a mother, followed by Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands.
According to the Daily Mirror, a British woman was forced to quit her dream life in Australia after discovering she was recorded as a boy on her birth registry – and is technically locked in a ‘gay’ marriage. Mother-of-five Kim Walmsley had to move back to the UK after it emerged the registrar wrongly recorded her as a male when she was born in February 1965. The 49-year-old has been told the information could not be changed, making her 23-year marriage to husband Jack, 49, illegal. The family has been forced to return to England where she has been told the only person left who can intervene was Prime Minister David Cameron. The General Registry Office, although accepting the mistake, insisted they could not help.
A drunken British woman was questioned by police in the US after reportedly having sex with a man in the toilets of an airliner. The Sun reports cabin crew had to intervene after the woman, said to be in her 20s and flying with her parents, disappeared into the toilets with a man sitting next to her. After a row broke out with air stewards following the incident on a Virgin Atlantic flight, the woman was taken away for questioning by US authorities. The paper reported the incident happened on a flight from London Gatwick to Las Vegas in the US last week. The woman was questioned by police but released with a warning before continuing her holiday.