The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times and the other newspapers give prominence to developments in Egypt. It also reports how Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is urging the PN to back responsible divorce.
The Malta Independent also features Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s amendments to a PN motion on divorce.
In-Nazzjon says the Archbishop made a strong message in favour of marriage in yesterday’s feast of St Paul.
l-orizzont says the CEO of PBS has a potential conflict of interest. It also carries strong criticism by the Divorce Movement of a motion for the PN to oppose divorce and for a referendum to be held if parliament votes in favour of introducing divorce.
The overseas press
The International media is dominated with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s televised address in which he refused to step down or leave the country and instead handed some of his powers to Vice-President Omar Suleiman, remaining president and ensuring regime control over the reform process. Mubaak promised a peaceful transfer of power but did not spell out exactly what was next.
Al Ahram reports that after Mubarak's address, Suleiman urged the protesters to return home. “Youth of Egypt: go back home, back to work, the nation needs you to develop, to create. Don't listen to radio and TV, whose aim is to tarnish Egypt,” he said. He assured the crowd that President Mubarak had empowered him to preserve security and stability in Egypt, and restore normality. “The protests had had an effect, and a process of constitutional change would now go ahead”.
Anti-government protesters have reacted angrily to Mr Mubarak's address. Al Jazeera says stunned protesters in central Cairo waved their shoes in contempt and broke out into chants for him to go. The crowd in Tahrir Square had swollen to several hundred thousand in expectation that Mubarak would announce his resignation in the nighttime address to the nation. Instead, they watched in shocked silence, slapping their foreheads in anger and disbelief. Some broke into tears.
The BBC says one opposition figure, Mohammed El Baradei has urged the army to save the country, warning that Egypt was about to explode.
The Washington Times quotes US President Barack Obama saying the Egyptian government had yet to put forward a “credible, concrete and unequivocal” path to democracy. In a strongly-worded statement issued shortly after a meeting with his national security team at the White House, Obama said the Egyptians remained unconvinced that the government was serious about a genuine transition to democracy.
Ma’ariv says Israel’s Defence Minister, Ehud Barak said the region risked catastrophe if the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement were to come to power.
Le Monde quotes President Sarkozy said Egypt must avoid another form of dictatorship.
Al Hayat says an Iranian opposition leader, who had called a rally in support of anti-government demonstrations in Egypt, has been put under house arrest. Mahdi Karroubi’s official website said security officers were stationed at the entrance to his house in Tehran and were preventing relatives from meeting him.
According to Gulf News, 10 moderate Saudi scholars have formed the kingdom’s first political party and have asked the king for recognition. After the turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia, there have been demands for reforms in Saudi Arabia, which follows strict Islamic rule. They said it was time to endorse political rights, including the right to elect a government, promote the role of women in society and preserve women’s rights.
The Jerusalem Post reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced four measures to ease the economic burden. These include reducing the costs of public transport by 10 per cent; lowering the soaring cost of water; raising the monthly minimum wage by €90, and cancelling a recently-imposed tax on gasoline, which had brought the price at the gas pump to $6.26 a gallon. The announcement followed a surge in public discontent over rapidly rising prices.
Les Echos says protesting judges and magistrates, angry about Mr Sarkozy’s comments on a high-profile case, have shut down almost all of France’s courthouses in a stand-off with the government. After a young waitress disappeared and parts of her body were found in a pond, Mr Sarkozy branded the suspect in the case “presumed guilty” even before trial. He also complained of incompetence by magistrates who failed to assign a probation officer to the suspect, who had 15 convictions on his record and had recently been released from prison.
Corriere della Sera quotes Foreign Minister Franco Frattini saying Premier Silvio Berlusconi could take the Italian State to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for violating his privacy in the case of the premier's alleged use of an underage prostitute. And in an exclusive interview with Il Foglio, Berlusconi says there was “an anti-democratic plan” to get rid of him without going to the polls. He vowed he would not bow out. “At the Quirinale,” he said, “there was a gentleman.”
The Wall Street Journal reveals Google and Facebook have both held low-level talks with Twitter about purchasing the privately-held social networking service. The talks have valued Twitter at between $8 (€5.8) billion and $10 (€7.4) billion.
Metro reports that an 18-year-old girl died of a rare heart condition after her first kiss by her boyfriend. An inquest heard that the girl, who was a long distance swimmer and keen hockey player, was the victim of the rare cardiac condition SADS – Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, also known as the adult version of cot death and kills 500 people in Britain each year. The inquest heard the boy did everything he could to save her life.