The following are the top items in today's local and foreign newspapers:
The Sunday Times focuses on the Good Friday power cut. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech told Enemalta that Malta needs a guaranteed service The newspaper also follows up the discovery, three years ago, of a baby in a shoebox. The mother says the baby is her best ever gift.
The Malta Independent says a Maltese is pleading to the Vatican for a papal apology for child sex abuse.
Malta Today carries a survey on the Catholic religion in Malta and asks whether religion is ‘a la carte'. It also says that Mario Debono, vice president of the GRTU, has suspended himself from the organisation because of investigations into alleged illegal imports.
Il-Mument quotes President George Abela saying his first year in office had been a positive experience. It also publishes a letter issued by the Central Bank at the time of the Labour government before the 1987 election, warning the Finance Minister of problems caused to the banks by the dockyard.
It-Torca says it had been 50 years since the Church interdicted Labour Party activists.
KullHadd says that despite the abuses found at the VAT Department, such abuses are continuing among property developers. It also reports Joseph Muscat saying Malta pays the highest power bills for the worst service.
Illum says 321 Gozitan migrants who returned to Malta have decided to go back abroad.
The overseas press
"A crude propaganda against the Pope and against Catholics" is the headline of the main story in L'Osservatore Romano which publishes unanimous declarations of support from bishops around the world close to Benedict XVI - a target of a defamatory operation". The Vatican newspaper reports with particular emphasis excerpts of the homily of the Archbishop of Paris. Cardinal André Vingt-Trois denounced what he called an "offensive" media", which aimed to destabilize the Pope, and, through him, the Church".
Avvenire points out that Pope Benedict is set to deliver his key Easter speech at the Vatican amid a child sex-abuse scandal that has engulfed the Catholic Church. The Pope did not refer to the crisis during yesterday's three-hour Easter vigil Mass in Saint Peter's basilica.
The Mail & Guardian reports that 69-year-old South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been beaten to death on his farm in the north-west of the country. Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, became the champion of a tiny minority determined to stop the process that was bringing apartheid to an end. Two of his farm workers have been charged with his murder.
Asharq Al-Awsat says 25 people were arrested after gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms raided homes in a Sunni village south of Baghdad, executing 25 people, including five women.
China Central Television reports that the first group of rescuers and divers have entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, but returned within hours and described the situation underground "very difficult".
Asia Observer says South Korea's military has ended its underwater search for dozens of sailors missing from a navy ship that sank following a mysterious blast eight days ago. Families of the sailors asked the military to suspend the operation for fear of additional casualties among divers after one died and as chances of finding survivors grew increasingly unlikely after the discovery of the body of one of the sailors.
The Washington Times reports President Obama has forced the big three US carmakers, and their unions, to accept tough mileage rules for cars and SUVs (sport utility vehicles), ending a loophole in US law by which SUVs were exempt from emissions standards that applied to cars.
Le Soir says that Belgian police have detained hundreds of anti-nuclear activists protesting in and outside a military base where nuclear weapons are believed to be stored. Some 300 people demonstrated near Kleine Brogel base not far from the Dutch border, while more than 800 protesters tried to storm the police-protected military area. The demonstration was part of Europe-wide protests putting pressure on governments in NATO countries about to revise the alliance's strategic concept.