The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta says Greece is heading for a eurozone exit. It also carries a detailed look at the ministerial declaration of assets and the Cabinet's top earners.
MaltaToday reports that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has met the Swedish prime minister to discuss the issue of weak concrete at Mater Dei Hospital, for which Swedish company Skanska is being blamed.
The Malta Independent says former Police Inspector Daniel Zammit went into business with an online gaming operator two weeks after leaving the police force.
Il-Mument highlights the PN’s call for an independent inquiry into links between the Gaffarenta family and an inspector involved in a murder investigation.
It-Torca continues to follow-up its story of ‘spies’ for shadow minister Tonio Fenech.
Illum, under the heading Total Collapse, reports on how the EU’s bailout talks with Greece have failed.
KullHadd says the Institute for Tourism Studies is being given a new vision.
The overseas press
Kathimerini announces Greek lawmakers early this morning (Sunday) authorised Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ proposed July 5 bailout referendum, setting Greece on course for a plebiscite that has enraged international creditors and increased Greece’s chances of exiting the eurozone. The vote was 178-120.
Ta Nea reports, Tsipras told parliament before the vote he expected “the Greek people will say an emphatic no to the ultimatum but at the same time a big yes to European solidarity”. He said the negotiating power of the country would be strengthened with an emphatic “no”, adding the referendum was not a tactic to break away from Europe but on international creditors’ latest proposals for reforms.
International Monetary Fund officials, stung by the breakdown of negotiations won’t provide further aid if the Greeks miss a payment due to the IMF on June 30, Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the BBC. She also said the referendum would be asking voters to weigh creditors’ proposals and arrangements that are no longer valid.
AFP reports the European Central Bank governing council would meet “imminently” – most likely today and it could take the form of a teleconference – to discuss the situation. The council brings together the six members of the Executive Board and 19 central bank governors of the eurozone member states.
Radio Tunisi says tour operators have begun pulling out European tourists from Tunisia a day after a gunman killed 39 people at a resort hotel in the city of Sousse. Most of the dead were foreigners, including 15 British nationals. Sousse’s tourism commissioner Saloua Kadri said 3,000 tourists – including some 2,200 British and nearly 600 Belgians –left yesterday.
Sources told Journal du Dimanche the suspect in the beheading of a French businessman, 35-year-old father of three Yassin Salhi, took a selfie with the body. He is believed to have sent the picture to a Canadian mobile number via Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service. Investigators could not immediately confirm media reports that the selfie had gone to an unspecified person now in Syria, where the Islamic State has seized territory.
Al Watan reports most of the victims of Kuwait’s Shiite mosque bombing were laid to rest on Saturday. Local police have arrested nearly 20 suspects in connection with the suicide bombing, which was claimed by the “Islamic State” group. Thousands of Kuwaitis turned out in large numbers and sang religious slogans to honour the victims whose coffins were draped in national flags.
China Times says a fire on a music stage spread into a crowd of spectators at a party at a Taiwan water park, injuring more than 200 people, 83 seriously. Video showed rescue workers and bystanders carrying burned and injured people on their backs, in inflatable boats and on stretchers to get medical treatment.
An unidentified black woman and another man have been arrested as they temporarily removed the Confederate flag from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse. VOA News reports the woman was about halfway up the more than 30ft steel flagpole just after dawn when State Capitol police told her to come down. Instead, she continued up and removed the flag before returning to the ground. Calls for removing the flag have been renewed since a white man shot and killed nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina church last week.
Clarin says Argentine judge Lilian Herraez has ordered the seizure of $156 million worth of assets of oil drilling companies operating in the disputed Falklands Islands. Britain and Argentina fought a short war in 1982, after the then Argentine military dictatorship briefly seized the islands, and tensions have escalated again in recent years with the discovery of oil deposits.
A Brazilian man found out the hard way that parking in a spot reserved for people with disability is not a smart thing to do. O Globo says the man’s car was covered in blue paper. White ‘disabled’ symbols were made with sheets of white paper on the back and sides. The illegal parker also had to endure the taunts of the crowd, who cheered as he finally drove off.
The English language has grown even richer, as some 500 new words have been added to the Oxford Dictionary. Metro says now you can catch an Uber to the club, do some twerking in your jeggings while smoking an e-cigarette and not have to use any slang.
Football: Chilevision announces Paraguay defeated Brazil 4-3 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw to advance to the semi-finals of the Copa América. Midfielder Everton Ribeiro and striker Douglas Costa each missed penalties for Brazil, and Derlis González converted the winning spot kick for Paraguay, setting up a match against Argentina on Tuesday. Chile will face Peru on Monday in the other semi-final.
And Globe and Mail says in the Women’s World Cup in Canada, England knocked out hosts Canada 2-1 to reach the semi-final for the first time and book a date with defending champions Japan who had a narrow victory over Australia. The other first semi-final is between Germany and the USA.