The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times reports that Prime Minister Gonzi will vote against the divorce bill, thus helping to kill the possibility of a referendum. It also says that the government will offer alternative employment to Air Malta staff who are made redundant, but only if the airline is left free to choose which employees are laid off.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says Malta is concerned about a new wave of immigrant crossings across the Mediterranean. It also reports on the PN position on divorce.
Malta Today says Joseph Muscat is expected to move a motion for the holding of a referendum on divorce.
Il-Mument say the PN decision on divorce also shows that the party is open to everyone.
It-Torca says the Office of the Children’s lawyer is only manned part-time.
Illum carries an interview with Michelle Muscat, who complains about politics which are instilling division.
KullHadd says that former Tunisian President Ben Ali had been honoured by Gonzi in 2005.
The overseas media
Maghreb Weekly Monitor reports that anti-government rallies in the capitals of Algeria and Yemen, inspired by events in Egypt, have been broken up. Riot police in Algiers dispersed an estimated 2,000 people gathered in the capital’s central square defying a government ban to demand that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika step down. A similar march in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave office was attacked by government supporters. Both Yemen and Algeria have recently witnessed demonstrations for greater freedoms and better living standards.
The Washington Times reports that President Barack Obama sent his senior military adviser to the Mideast to reassure allies in Jordan, also facing rumblings of civil unrest, and Israel, which sees its security at stake in a wider Arab world transformation. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is today expected to meet King Abdullah II and other senior officials in Jordan, the scene of weeks of protests inspired by unrest in Tunisia and Egypt.
Al Ahram says that on Egypt's first day in nearly 30 years without Hosni Mubarak as president, its new military rulers yesterday pledged to eventually hand power to an elected civilian government and outlined its first cautious steps in a promised transition to democracy. It reassured the world that it would abide by its peace deal with Israel.
Associated Press says that from London to Gaza City to Seoul, the world was savoring the spectacular fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, with demonstrators rallying in the thousands on Saturday in cities across the world. But other authoritarian regimes weren't celebrating – and some were trying to censor the news. In China, terse media reports downplayed the protests in Egypt and emphasized the country's disorder and lawlessness. In oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, where coup leader Teodoro Obiang has been in power since 1979, state-controlled media was ordered to stop reporting about Egypt altogether. Nearly everywhere else, newspapers congratulated Egypt's revolution, with many headlines carrying the word: "Finally!"
Senegal’s Le Soleil says the uprising in Egypt gave a positive boost to the closing of the World Social Forum in Dakar, with participants saying Egypt had showed that people could change their world for the better. The WSF is an open meeting of people “opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital”. At the meeting, several issues affecting African countries were on the agenda – democracy, the exploitation of African natural resources and the debt burden that weighs on African countries.
La Gazzetta del Sud reports that the Italian government has declared a humanitarian emergency after nearly 3,000 migrants have arrived on the island of Lampedusa in the last three days, swamping facilities there. Officials say most of the migrants were from Tunisia, which has seen continued turmoil since the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini have requested "the immediate deployment of a Frontex mission for patrolling and interception off the Tunisian coast".
According to Al Ayyam, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank on Saturday promised to hold long-overdue general elections by September – a surprise move spurred by political unrest rocking the Arab world and embarrassing TV leaks about peace talks with Israel. In another development, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat announced his resignation. He had been widely vilified since Al-Jazeera, citing hundreds of internal documents, alleged last month that Palestinian negotiators secretly offered far-reaching concessions to Israel. Erekat said he resigned as chief negotiator because the documents were leaked by someone from his office.
Dawn reports that a Pakistani court has issued an arrest warrant for ousted military leader Pervez Musharraf over allegations he played a role in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf, who has not been charged, described the accusations as a smear campaign by a government led by her aggrieved husband.
Yale Daily News reveals Yale University has signed an agreement to return to Peru some 5,000 Inca artefacts removed from the famed Machu Picchu citadel nearly a century ago. The relics – stone tools, ceramics and human and animal bones –were taken by American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1912.
Hawaii Globe says US marine archaeologists have found the sunken whaling ship belonging to the captain who inspired Herman Melville's classic 19th Century novel, “Moby Dick”. The remains of the vessel, the “Two Brothers”, were found in shallow waters off Hawaii. Captain George Pollard was the skipper when the ship hit a coral reef and sank in 1823. His previous ship, the “Essex”, had been rammed by a whale and also sank, providing the narrative for the book.
A US woman who gave birth to another woman’s baby after a getting the wrong embryo implanted by a fertility clinic has said she could accept not having any more children. Carolyn Savage said in a Dateline interview on NBC that she had no regrets about carrying the baby boy and giving him to his biological parents after giving birth in September 2009. Ms Savage and her husband, who already have three children, have written about their experience in an upcoming book, “Inconceivable”.
The New York Post reports US lovers were being urged to forget flowers, chocolates and lingerie if they wanted to win the affections of their sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. The Bronx Zoo in New York believed a Madagascar hissing cockroach was the best way to ensure that Cupid’s arrow hits the target. The Wildlife Conservation Society was offering the public the chance to name the huge cockroaches for a $10 (€7.40) donation. Recipients get a certificate. And, as the zoo put it: “Flowers wilt. Chocolates melt. Roaches are forever.”
Le Dauphine newspaper reports that David Trezeguet's shirt from France's 1998 World Cup final win over Brazil has been destroyed by French customs officers who wrongly believed it was a counterfeit. Collector Oliver Demolis, who had bought the shirt from a Brazilian over the internet and agreed to pay £6,250, said he went mad when told about the mishap. Hosts France beat Brazil 3-0 in the final watched by Trezeguet who was an unused substitute at the Stade de France.