The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Sunday Times says that Col Gaddafi is preparing for battle.

The Malta Independent quotes Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici saying that Malta is preparing for the worst-case scenario of an influx of migrants.

MaltaToday says there are concerns about reprisals on Malta.

Illum reports Malta was on high alert because of the Libya crisis.

It-Torca also reports concerns about the foreign military presence in Malta.

KullHadd says Malta exported €79.7 million in small arms to Libya in 2009.

Il-Mument quotes the prime minister saying Malta is showing solidarity in practice through the evacuation of foreign nationals from Libya.

The overseas press

The New York Times reports that the UN Security Council has unanimously imposed a package of sanctions on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his five children and 10 top associates in a bid to stop the deadly crackdown on protesters. The sanctions include an arms embargo, an assets freeze and a travel ban. The council also agreed to refer the Gaddafi regime's deadly crackdown to a permanent war crimes tribunal for an investigation of possible crimes against humanity.

The formation of a transitional government for Libya is reported to be underway in the rebel-controlled eastern town of Benghazi. The former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the body would prepare for elections in three months. Jalil had quit Gaddafi’s government in protest against the excessive use of force against demonstrators.

Al Arabiya says the embattled Libyan regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints and sent armed patrols roving the terrorized capital to try to maintain control of Gaddafi's stronghold and quash dissent as rebels consolidated control elsewhere.

The Washington Times quotes US President Barack Obama urging Gaddafi to leave now. The White House said Obama told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a private telephone conversation Merkel that when a leader's only means of holding power was to use violence against his people, then he had lost the legitimacy to rule and needed to do what's right for his country by "leaving now". It was the first time that Obama had called on Gaddafi to step down.

Al Jazeera quotes Libya's former interior minister General Abdul Fatteh Younis saying most of Libya was out of control of the government, and Gaddafi's grip on power might soon be confined only to Tripoli. He said he had called upon Gaddafi to end his resistance to the uprising. London’s The Independent on Sunday reports that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also called Gadaffi.

There have also been big street protests across the Arab world. Sky News reports:

• In Tunis, three people have been killed in clashes between Tunisian security forces and rioting youths.
• Reports from Yemen said four people died and 40 others were injured after police shot at protesters.
• Hassan Mushaima, a prominent Shi'ite opposition leader, has gone back to Bahrain after months of voluntary exile in London to join the protest movement in the capital Manama.
• Two teenagers who took part in anti-government protests in Iraq’s "Day of Rage" have died. Thousands voiced anger over corruption, unemployment and failing public services.
• Egypt's constitutional amendment committee has proposed reducing the presidential term to four years and a maximum of two terms. It also recommended easing restrictions on who could run for president.

Abrar quotes a senior Iranian government official saying technicians would have to unload fuel from the country's first atomic power plant because of an unspecified safety concern. The vague explanation raised questions about whether the mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet might have caused more damage at the Bushehr plant than previously acknowledged.

Zaman reports that visiting Turkey for the first time since taking office in 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reaffirmed his opposition to the country's bid for EU membership, insisting that the mainly Muslim nation did not belong to Europe. Instead, he urged Ankara to pursue an alternative partnership with the 27-nation bloc.

Sunday Tribune says that with more than half the votes counted in the Irish general election, it had become clear that the governing Fianna Fail party has suffered its worst defeat in nearly 80 years. The new government is expected to be a coalition between te main opposition party Fianna Gael and the centre-left Labour Party.

El Universal says that the naked bodies of four dead men with their head severed have been dumped in a square near the city of Nuevo Laredo, close to the border with the US. Gunmen laid the bodies out of a sheet in full view of horrified pedestrians. Beheadings have become a feature of the violent struggle between Mexican drugs gangs fighting for control of smuggling routes into the US.

Rockdale Citizen reports a US toddler spent two hours trapped in a bank vault in suburban Atlanta after the child went missing while visiting a grandparent who worked at the Wells Fargo bank in Conyers. The child was found after being spotted on security cameras inside the vault, which has a time locked. Rescue workers, who pumped fresh air into the vault while a locksmith worked on prying loose the door, said the baby could be heard crying during the rescue operation.

Corriere della Sera says a man from the Balkans has been arrested in Italy after cheating people by pretending he was a prince of India. Dragan Dragutinovic, 33, said he had inherited a fortune from his parents to secure business deals from all over the world. Using 16 fake identities, he conned as much as €60 million by taking money in advance as down payments then never following through. He was finally arrested in Milan under suspicion of a fraud involving the property business.

O Globo reports Francisco Silva, the clown who had to prove he could read and write before taking his seat in Brazil's Congress, will be a member of the commission overseeing education and culture. Silva won more votes than any other candidate in Brazil's October elections. But critics suggested he was illiterate and a judge ordered him to take a test in court to prove he was literate.