The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Labour is studying options on the holding of a divorce referendum and will hold a meeting today. It also reports on how a 15-year-old girl took her parents’ car without their knowing and crashed in Marsa.
The Malta Independent leads with yesterday’s political speeches by Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat.
In-Nazzjon says that it is the PN which wants a referendum on divorce.
l-orizzont carries comments by Joseph Muscat that the people should decide on divorce. It also features comments by Glen Vella after his Eurovision Malta win.
The overseas press
Al Ahram reports Egypt's military leaders have dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution, meeting two key demands of protesters who have been keeping up pressure for immediate steps to transition to democratic, civilian rule after forcing Hosni Mubarak out of power. The military rulers set as a top priority the restoration of security, which collapsed during the 18 days of protests that toppled the regime. The caretaker government held its first meeting since the president was ousted and before it began, workers removed a giant picture of Mubarak from the meeting room.
The Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya has reported that the former Egyptian president was making plans to head to the United Arab Emirates. A Kuwait daily, Al-Qabas, said that UAE officials have offered Mubarak haven in Al Ain, a desert city near the Omani border.
Blick says Switzerland has frozen whatever assets Hosni Mubarak and his associates may have there, and anti-corruption campaigners are demanding the same of other countries. But experts say hunting for the deposed Egyptian leader's purported hidden wealth – let alone recovering it – would be an enormous task. Mubarak's actual worth remains a mystery. A recent claim that he and his sons Gamal and Alaa may have amassed a fortune of up to $70 billion – greater than that of Microsoft's Bill Gates – helped drive the protests that eventually brought him down.
Egypt’s Daily News quotes Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass saying a full inventory of the Egyptian Museum has found that looters escaped with 18 items during the anti-government unrest, including two gilded wooden statues of famed boy king Tutankhamun. Around 70 objects, many of them small statues,were damaged.
Khaleej Times says Bahrain's security forces set up checkpoints and clashed with marchers as opposition groups used social media sites to stage the first major anti-government protests in the Gulf since the uprising in Egypt. The wide-ranging clampdown appeared directed toward Bahrain's Shiite majority and reflected the increasing worries of the Sunni rulers.
According to Yemen Post, police armed with sticks and daggers beat back thousands of protesters marching through the capital in a third straight day of demonstrations calling for political reforms and the resignation of the country's US-allied president. Police used truncheons to stop protesters, many of them university students, from reaching the capital's central Hada Square. Witnesses said plainclothes policemen wielding daggers and sticks also joined security forces in driving the protesters back.
El-Watan says the organizers of a pro-reform protest that brought thousands of Algerians onto the streets of the capital over the weekend have called Sunday for another nationwide rally next week. The Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria – an umbrella group for human rights activists, unionists, lawyers and others – said around 10,000 took part in the gathering, though officials put turnout at 1,500. Some 26,000 riot police set up barriers throughout the city in a failed bid to quash Saturday's gathering.
Haaretz reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has urged refugees to arrive at Israel's shore until it gave in to their demands. In his first speech since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak and marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, Gaddafi also issued a call to Muslim countries to join forces against Western powers. He said the world was divided into white – representing the United States, Europe and their allies – and green, the Muslim world. He also said that all Arab states which had relations with Israel were cowardly regimes.
France 24 says Somali pirates have hijacked the Maltese-flagged MV Sinin with 23 crew. The European Union Naval Force said there were 13 Iranians and 10 Indians onboard when the bulk carrier came under attack on Saturday. NATO said that in a separate incident, a Danish warship freed a hijacked fishing vessel and arrested 16 suspected Somali pirates.
Il Tempo reports more than 100,000 Italians – mothers, daughters, grandmothers and many husbands and boyfriends – turned out across the country to protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, saying his dalliances with young women humiliate the sex as a whole and degrade female dignity. Backers of the 74-year-old Berlusconi, who is under investigation for allegedly paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl, dismissed the protests as strictly political.
The Washington Times says dozens of firefighters battled a blaze fueled by strong winds on Washington's Yakama Indian Reservation that destroyed 18 homes. Officials said the fire apparently started in one house and then spread in the town of White Swan, bolstered by 40 mph winds.
Tribune de Genève says Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to tighten the nation's relaxed firearms laws. The decision was hailed as a victory by gun enthusiasts, sports shooters and supporters of Switzerland's citizen soldier tradition. Neutral Switzerland has more guns per capita than almost any other country except the United States, Finland and Yemen –some 2.3 million weapons in the country of less than 8 million people.
Sky News reports Colin Firth and has been crowned Best Actor at this year's Bafta Awards. He won the judges' vote for his regal performance as George VI in The King's Speech. The made-in-England story of stuttering monarch King George VI had 14 nominations for the British Academy Film Awards and took five early prizes: best British film, original screenplay, original music, supporting actor for Geoffrey Rush and supporting actress, for Helena Bonham Carter's performance as the Queen Mother Elizabeth. Natalie Portman picked up the Best Actress award for her role in Black Swan. David Fincher took the Best Director prize for The Social Network
ABC News says here's Michelle Obama's advice for couples this Valentine's Day: laugh with your partner. She says it's what she and President Barack Obama do, and it seems to be working. Their marriage, although tested throughout the years by his political ambitions – for the Illinois Senate, the US Senate and later president – is going on 19 years.