The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and the other newspapers report that the husband of former Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono is set to be taken to court to face charges in connection with the works for votes allegations.
All the newspapers also report the inauguration of the new Parliament House.
l-orizzont also reports how a Maltese-Australian port worker is at the heart of a drugs investigation in New South Wales, Australia.
The overseas press
Reuters quotes EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker telling students at the University of Leuven in Belgium that Britain should get a fair deal in the European Union but cannot impose its agenda on the bloc's other 27 members. British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he wants to be able to limit an influx of people from other EU states to Britain, putting him at odds with the European Commission, which says EU treaty provisions ensuring free movement of labour are non-negotiable.
In Britain, latest opinion polls carried out by The Independent and The Mirror put the Conservatives and Labour both at 33 per cent with the Eurosceptic UKIP at 13 and Libdem at eight per cent. A day before, The Sunday Times put the Tories 34 per cent and Labour at 33, while the The Mail on Sunday inversed the result: Labour 34 per cent and the Tories 31. The Observer predicts a week of “complete paralysis of the British political scene”.
Kathimerini quotes Greece’s cash-strapped government saying it was seeking the swift release of delayed bailout money to keep up with its debt payments, following weekend progress in negotiations with creditors. Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis will today meet with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt, while Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis meets with Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in Brussels. Without the money, Greece faces the possibility of going bankrupt in the coming weeks.
Police and FBI agents have searched the apartment of one of two gunmen shot dead after they opened fire outside a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. The New York Times identified the shooters as 31-year-old Elton Simpson and 34-year-old Nadir Soofi. It said one had been identified by the FBI as a jihadist terrorism suspect. The other was quieter, ran a carpet cleaning business in Phoenix and prayed at the same mosque, often accompanied by his young son.
The Himalayan Times says two more people – a 60-year-old porter and a 23-year-old nun – have been found alive and extracted from the rubble following the devastating April 25 earthquake in Nepal. Meanwhile, the bodies of about 100 Nepali and foreign trekkers have been found in a remote village that was buried by an avalanche following last month's massive earthquake.
Britain’s newspapers laud the choice of Charlotte Elizabeth Diana as the name of the new baby of Prince William and his wife Kate as a tribute to family. “Charlotte Elizabeth Diana: a name to honour the women in William’s life” reads the headline in The Times. Most sentimental of all is perhaps the baby’s third name, Diana: “For the mother he lost” says the Daily Mail while The Daily Telegraph called it a “fitting tribute”.
Il Tempo reports Italy’s lower house of parliament, in a secret ballot yesterday, voted a fiercely-contested electoral reform Bill into law with 334 votes in favour, 61 against and four abstentions. In a snub to the government, opposition parties left the chamber before the vote. And rebel lawmakers from Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s ruling centre-left Democratic Party voted against the Bill. One of the key and most contested elements of the new electoral law is a bonus of 15 per cent of extra seats awarded to the party that obtains 40 per cent of votes, giving it a working majority in parliament.
Norway ranks as the world’s best place to be a mother. Fox News quotes the Save the Children’s annual scorecard which shows Somalia is the worst place, just below the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
Gulf News says five people have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia for killing an Indian during an armed robbery. According to the Interior Ministry, two of the convicts were from Yemen, one from Chad, one from Eritrea and one from Sudan. The Kingdom executed 87 people in 2014, according to rights group Amnesty International. Over 70 people have already been put to death this year. Murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable with death.
Times of India reports at least 21 people were burned to death when a bus fell into a ditch and caught fire in central India yesterday. The police said the death toll from the crash may rise as police teams cut into the wreckage of the charred bus.
Le Parisien reports French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen does not want the president of the Front National is called Le Pen. The outburst came after he was suspended from the party following a series of controversial remarks about Jews and Nazis. He hopes his daughter , marie, “loses the family name as quickly as possible... she can do this either by marrying her partner, M. Philippot (the front’s vice president who is openly gay) or someone else”
Adkronos says an Italian post office worker who took paid leave from work, purportedly to care for a disabled relative, is in trouble after he posted to Facebook a picture of his air ticket to a Champions League match on the same day. The man, from the eastern city of Macerata faces fraud charges for allegedly claiming 11 such days leave from work on full pay to attend soccer matches in Italy, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden, mainly in 2013 and 2014.