The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta reports that Mepa is planning an amnesty for building violations.
MaltaToday says voter apathy is giving hunters a vital push. It also says oil trader George Farrugia had information on competitors’ stocks.
The Malta Independent recalls that the Labour Party when in opposition had refused to nominate anyone to the Fuel Procurement Advisory Committee.
Il-Mument reports that Simon Busuttil called for immediate and substantial fuel price cuts at a meeting with the MCESD yesterday.
Illum says Gozo ferry passengers are ignoring warnings not to stay in their cars, saying in case of fire, the doors seal themselves automatically. It also says a battle is brewing between the parties for Qala council.
KullHadd and It-Torca give prominence to the drop in fuel prices on Monday. It-Torca also says the government is being vigilant over irregular migration, but it should not be mixed up with terrorism.
The overseas press
There has been world-wide condemnation at the purported beheading of high-profile Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. Fuji TV reports it prompted a sharp response from the Japanese government with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saying he would do everything to bring the Islamic State killers to justice.
Al Ahram quotes President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi calling on Egyptians to prepare for a long battle against extremists after the Islamic State attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula. At least 32 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in a series of simultaneous bombings and mortar attacks targeting a military base, a hotel, a police club and several checkpoints in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Thursday.
Kathimerini reports Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has expressed hope that Greece and its creditors would reach an agreement on the debt issue. “No side is seeking conflict and it has never been our intention to act unilaterally on Greek debt,” he said hours before Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis left for Paris to seek support for a renegotiation on Greece’s massive loans.
Spanish state broadcaster TVE says hundreds of thousands of people have marched through Madrid in a show of strength by a fledgling radical leftist party, which hopes to emulate the success of Greece’s Syriza party in the Spanish general election later this year. Podemos supporters from across Spain converged around the Cibeles fountain before packing the avenue leading to Puerta del Sol square in what was the party’s largest rally to date.
Ansa reports that with his anti-mafia credentials, a CV that includes work as a judge on Italy’s Constitutional court, and a reputation for integrity, Sergio Mattarella has been hailed as a “worthy choice” to become the twelfth president of Italy. Palermo-born Mattarella, 73, has a long history in politics, which was something of a family business. His father Bernardo Mattarella served as a Christian Democrat cabinet minister several times in the 1950s and 1960s and in 1980, his brother Piersanti Mattarella was assassinated by the Mafia while serving as regional governor of Sicily.
Moscow Times says a fire at the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences – one of Russia’s largest public libraries – has destroyed thousands of rare documents.
Avvenire reports Pope Francis has called for a radical rethink in the way food is produced. During an audience with Italian farmers’ association Coldiretti, the pope condemned “market rules and a culture of waste”, which together with other factors, “cause misery and suffering for many families”.
Reuters reports Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of the late pop star Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her Georgia home but she was revived and rushed to a hospital.
Australia’s main national newspaper is facing a worldwide volley of criticism over an obituary calling the nation’s most famous author “plain” and “overweight”. The Australian’s obituary of Colleen McCullough, whose novel “The Thorn Birds” sold 30 million copies worldwide, opened not with a list of her myriad accomplishments, but with a description of her appearance.
Tributes have poured in for actress Geraldine McEwan, best known for playing Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, who has died aged 82. The Mail on Sunday says McEwan starred in the role of the spinster consultant detective Jane Marple in 12 television films aired on ITV. Stars and fans took to Twitter to pay tribute to the actress, who retired from the role of Miss Marple in 2008.
ABC reports a “very large sum of money” has been accidentally donated to Melbourne’s St Vincent de Paul Society. Staff sorting through donated clothing came across the cash stashed in the pockets of four men’s jackets, which were collected from charity bins sometime between January 15-17. Staff were shocked by the discovery and called police.
USA Today says police in Las Vegas have rescued a woman who was being attacked after the phone in her pocket accidentally answered a telemarketing call. Workers at the Nevada call centre alerted authorities after hearing the woman begging “Please don’t kill me” on the other end of the phone 1,450km away in Oregon. Police forced their way into the home to find a 33-year-old man still assaulting the woman, who was trying to escape. He was booked into the county jail on charges of fourth-degree assault, menacing and strangulation.
A professional competitive eater from Chicago downed 444 chicken wings in 30 minutes at the 23rd annual Wing Bowl in Philadelphia, narrowly edging out his nearest rival and shattering the record of 363 wings set a year earlier, Reuters writes. Patrick Bertoletti ate 50 wings in the last two minutes of the contest, ripping the meat from the bone and stuffing it in his mouth, a technique that left him chewing for more than two minutes after the final buzzer rang.