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

Times of Malta quotes the prime minister saying bullies should not ruin hunting. It also quotes John Dalli accusing Giovanni Kessler, head of the EU's anti-fraud agency of being 'a manipulator'.

The Malta Independent says the Libyan Investment Authority Board has held its first meeting of the year in Malta.

In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the PN needs to be the alternative to Joseph Muscat's policies. 

l-orizzont uses macabre pictures of dead migrants floating in the Mediterranean as it reports on the experiences of rescuers. 

The overseas press

Channel News Asia reports leaders from around the world have paid tribute to Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew after his passing aged 91. Lee, who founded modern Singapore, was both feared for his authoritarian tactics and admired for turning the city-state into one of the world’s richest nations.  

France 24 says former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party and its allies won the first round of the French local elections. According to partial results that tallied with exit polls, the UMP and its allies together secured around 30 per cent of the national vote, the National Front garnered 26 per cent and the ruling Socialists some 21 per cent of the vote.

According to Sputnik International, some 150 representatives of far-right parties across Europe have been meeting in Russia to co-ordinate policy. The event in St Petersburg, organised by the pro-Kremlin Rodina party, heard strong criticism of the West’s support for the Ukrainian government.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel amid mounting concern that Athens is running out of money. The Financial Times reports Tsipras had warned Mrs Merkel Greece could not meet imminent debt payments without new aid.  

Medanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has proposed to create a joint commission of Greek and German experts to address the issue of compensation from Germany for damages caused by Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II. In an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Kotzias said he favours finding a political way to solve the dispute.

A third attacker is still “on the run” after the deadly Bardo Museum attack in which 23 people died. In a live interview with French iTele TV from inside the museum in Tunis, President Beji Caid Essebsi confirmed that the attack on March 18 involved a third gunman along with the two who were shot dead by the country's security forces. He said it was clear there had been three attackers, because they had “been identified and filmed on surveillance cameras”.

The New York Times reports an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire, held their funerals – a day after a hot plate left on for the Sabbath is believed to have caused the blaze. The bodies of the children from the Sassoon family, aged from five to 16, were being sent to Israel for a prompt burial.

The BBC says six people have been arrested in north London after a group forced its way into a synagogue in what police have described as an “anti-Semitic” incident. Police said the drunk men had just left a nearby party and tried to get into the synagogue in the early hours of Sunday. One man was punched in the face as he tried to stop them. The six were held for public order offences and assault.

According to public broadcaster RTBF, Belgium is to scrap all prison sentences under one year as part of efforts to reform its justice system that would make the county’s penal system more modern and effective. The government believes short prison sentences could actually encourage small-time criminals to break the law again and argues that such punishments are ineffective and expensive.

The leader of Shiite Houthi rebel movement in Yemen, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, called for a general mobilization to continue advance into the country’s south. He told Azaal TV the move is aimed against al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIL) extremists only and not against the people of south Yemen.

Russian website RBK reports the younger son of Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych, also called Viktor, has drowned in Lake Baikal in Russia. Both Russian and Ukrainian media reports said he died after his vehicle fell through ice during a sporting event. Ukrainian news website Levvy Bereg said five other people in the vehicle escaped.

Metro says the Ukip leader Nigel Farage has branded a group of LGBT rights protesters “filth” and “scum” after they invaded a pub where he was having lunch with his wife and two younger children, aged 15 and 10.  Farage was pictured leaving the pub through a throng of people to his waiting car, after which protesters chased him down the road and tried to jump on the car’s bonnet. The protesters claimed they represented “those who have been targeted by Ukip”.

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