The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times quotes former President and Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami saying that the clergy is wrong to use ‘sin’ in the divorce debate. Judicial Vicar Arthur Said Pullicino said a few days ago that Catholic judges presiding over divorce cases would commit a sin. The newspaper also reports that 15,000 have still not received their water and electricity bill this year.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says Parliament is at odds again over the BWSC contract.
MaltaToday says the PN has closed down a ‘sleaze’ club in Mosta after a police tip-off.
Il-Mument says the first office block of SmartCity will be inaugurated this evening.
It-Torca highlights the conviction of Norman Bezzina for association to traffic drugs. It also says that Arms Ltd employees were trained by workers who will lose their jobs. It also reports the appeal made by the parents of a child who is in a vegitative state.
KullHadd says hundreds of people joined up as volunteers in the Labour connect initiative. It also claims that David Spiteri Gingell is making € 130,000 from many consultantancies.
Illum reports a Maltese discovery regarding dementia.
The overseas press
El Mostrador quotes Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne saying that rescuers were expected to start pulling out the 33 miners trapped next Wednesday as it was decided to reinforce the top 96 meters of the rescue shaft in steel pipe. The rest of the escape shaft is exposed rock, and the rescue team has decided its strong enough to provide for a smooth ride for the miners' escape capsule. The date was set after the shaft was inspected with a video camera yesterday following the completion of the hole earlier in the day — a success that set off celebrations by the miners underground and by their families and rescue workers on the surface.
The Washington Times reports global finance leaders have failed to resolve deep differences that threaten the outbreak of a full-blown currency war. The International Monetary Fund wrapped up two days of talks with a communique that pledged to "deepen" its work in the area of currency movements, including conducting studies on the issue. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the rising economic tensions reflected a weak global recovery. Various nations are seeking to devalue their currencies as a way to boost exports and jobs during hard economic times.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told HirTV that the northern wall of an aluminium sludge reservoir was likely to collapse, threatening a second spill of the dangerous heavy metal waste. The village of Kolontar, which lies close to the deadly sludge spill in the country's west, was evacuated as a precaution. Crews were building a new five-metre-high dam in Kolontar to ward off any fresh sludge inundation.
New Euroasia says some 2.8 million Kyrgyzstan voters go to the polls today in parliamentary elections to elect a new 120-member parliament amid fears that the vote could reignite ethnic violence that killed hundreds this year. Acting President Roza Otunbayeva has vowed that the polls, overseen by a record 850 international monitors from 32 organisations, would be held in a spirit of fairness and transparency.
CNN reports that as a military parade, billed as the largest in Pyongyang's history, began today, North Korea's, Kim Jong Il, made a rare public appearance with his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. Video from the event showed thousands of military personnel who'd been silent a moment earlier erupt into applause and chanting as the Kims appeared in the capital to start the parade. The event featured 20,000 military personnel and plenty of military hardware as part of North Korea's annual celebration marking the anniversary of the country's Peoples' Workers Party.
Dhaka Post says hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh have been made homeless by three days of storms and heavy rain. At least 16 people were killed and dozens are missing.
According to The New Tork Times, a delegation from the UN Security Council has ended a visit to Sudan by expressing its concern of the situation there. The delegation said the timetable for a referendum on southern independence expected next January was extremely tight but still doable.
Corriere della Sera quotes Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urging Nato to speed up the transfer of security responsibilities in Afghanistan to the country’s armed forces. His comments came after the killing of four Italian soldiers in a ambush in western Afghanistan yesterday.
Sky News says the British government has defended an aborted military rescue initiative in Afghanistan during which a kidnapped British aid worker, Linda Norgrove was killed. Prime Minister David Cameron said it was right to send in special American forces.
India Times says the Indian Foreign Office has summoned the Australian High Commissioner to India to protest racist emails circulated by Victorian police officers. It was reported that a racist email showing the electrocution of an Indian man was circulated among members of the Victoria Police force, and that police officers had crudely suggested the action would "fix" Melbourne's Indian student problem. The email scandal has dealt a fresh blow to relations between Delhi and Canberra, which were damaged last year by a spate of attacks on Indian students.