The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports that a third of toddlers are at risk of tooth decay because of poor eating habits.
The Malta Independent says there have been conciliatory moves between Greece and the EU in debt talks.
In-Nazzjon leads with yesterday's press conference by shadow minister Claudio Grech, who said the tariffs on 400 government services are rising. The newspaper also reports that the administration in Tripoli has set up a committee to deal with migration, but it cannot contact the Maltese government, since it only recognises the government in Tobruk.
l-orizzont says no decision has been taken by the Electoral Commission yet over whether it would appeal the court sentence awarding two extra seats in Parliament to the PN.
The overseas press
Le Monde quotes European Council president Donald Tusk warning Russia the EU was ready to take further measures in addition to the sanctions it had already imposed if a new Ukraine peace pact was breached.
Le Soir says technical talks between European institutions and the Greek government on an aid programme lasting till the end of February will begin today in Brussels, with the Eurogroup meeting on Monday set as a deadline for an agreement.
Il Tempo reports Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has warned that the chaos in Libya risked turning the Mediterranean into a cemetery. Fending off calls for a return to indiscriminate search-and-rescue operations, Renzi urged the international community to act to end the fighting in Libya that has allowed people smugglers free rein on coasts that are no longer being patrolled.
ABC says the head of Australia’s Human Rights Commission has ruled that Australia’s policy of indefinitely holding children of asylum seekers in immigration detention camps violated international laws. The government’s human rights watchdog was commenting after an inquiry uncovered hundreds of reports of assaults involving child detainees. It called for the swift release of children from detention centres.
Fox News reports the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution aimed at cracking down on trade with, and ransom payments to, Islamic State militants. The measure calls for sanctions on any person or group trading with IS.
Meanwhile, Haaretz reports the Islamic State has said it was holding an Israeli Arab who had posed as a foreign fighter in order to spy for Mossad – an account denied by Israel and by the man’s family, who said he had been kidnapped. In an interview published by Islamic State’s online English-language magazine Dabiq, Muhammad Musallam, 19, said he had joined the insurgent group in Syria so as to report to the Israelis on its weapons caches, bases and Palestinian recruits.
Gazete Oku says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised President Obama for his silence over the murder of three Muslim students in the US. He said politicians were responsible for events in their countries and had to clarify their stance over them. More than 5,000 people attended the funeral of the students who were shot dead in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. With a suspect in custody, police are still investigating the motive, amid family claims it was a hate crime.
Information wars in conflict zones, reprisals against journalists by terrorist groups like the Islamic State and censorship on religious grounds contributed to a “drastic decline” in press freedom in 2014. Metro says that according to Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, two-thirds of the 180 countries surveyed performed less well than in 2013, while there was an eight per cent increase in the number of violations of freedom of information in 2014 compared to the year before. RSF put Eritrea and North Korea at the bottom of the index. Top of the table was Finland, followed by Norway and Denmark.
Pope Francis has decided not to hold an Easter Mass for Italian parliamentarians this year despite the massive turn-out for the service by the pontiff last year. Monsignor Lorenzo Leussi, chaplain at the Montecitorio lower house building told Ansa this year Francis has “renounced” holding a repeat service. No reason for not holding the Mass for the MPs was given but after last year’s service some politicians who attended moaned about what they considered the “excessive severity” the pope displayed in his homily in which he lashed out at the “ruling class” who had “distanced themselves from the people” and “shut themselves up in their own group, party and internal struggles”. Francis also lambasted “the corrupt” for whom “there is no salvation”.
International Business Times reports former Korean Air exec Heather Cho, whose father runs her country’s flag carrier, was jailed for one year for obstructing aviation safety during a row over nuts. Cho forced a plane to return to the gate in New York last December and offload a steward because she did not like the way she had been served nuts. The jsaid it was a case where “human dignity” had been “trampled upon”. Cho has apologised and quit the national airline.
Shoddy waste management and littering across the globe added eight million metric tons of plastic to the ocean in 2010 – posing significant dangers to marine life. The study is the first of its kind to measure the amount going in from 192 countries with a coastline in 2010. The five worst offenders listed in the study published in the journal Science were China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.