The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says a UK team caught and later released by Libyan rebel forces is heading back for Malta on board HMS Cumberland. It also says the ‘no’ camp is to lobby MPs on the‘loaded’ divorce question.
The Malta Independent says that Libyan forces are fight rebels advancing against Tripoli.
In-Nazzjon also reports that the fighting in Libya is getting more fierce.
l-orizzont reports that the Opposition is calling for explanations on the fuel price increases.
The overseas press
France 24 reports that troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched counter-offensives against rebel-held towns on Sunday, increasing fears that Libya is heading for a protracted civil war rather than the swift revolutions seen in Tunisia and Egypt. The Gaddafi government proclaimed sweeping overnight victories over what it called terrorist bands. But after what residents said was a day of fierce fighting with artillery, rockets and mortar bombs, rebel forces announced they had fought off Gaddafi's forces in the towns of Zawiyah, to the immediate west of Tripoli, and Misrata to the east.
The BBC quotes the UN coordinator for emergency relief, Valarie Amos, urging for urgent humanitarian access to the Libyan city of Misrata where the Libyan government and opposition forces were locked in heavy fighting. Baroness Amos said aid workers should be allowed into Misrata immediately to treat the injured and dying. Misrata, with a population of 300,000, is the largest town controlled by rebels outside the rebel-held east of the country. Mohammed Ali, a member of the civil committee for Misurata affairs, has told Al Jazeera that rebels are in control of the area.
AFP reports that the eight-strong British diplomatic team who were detained near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi have left Libya on a warship. British Foreign Secretary William Haig said the diplomatic team had tried to make contact with the Libyan opposition. They were seized by opposition fighters when it was found that they were carrying weapons.
London’s The Independent reports that US President Barack Obama has asked Saudi Arabia to supply Libyan rebels with weapons to fight Colonel Gaddafi.
Kathemerini says three Bangladeshis have died and 16 were still missing off the coast of Greece after they jumped off a ship which had just evacuated them from Libya.
Al Ahram quotes French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking on a visit to Cairo, saying any international military intervention in Libya would have "absolutely negative" effects. He said Western nations had to be prepared to react should the violence become bloodier, and should plan for a possible no-fly zone.
The Associated Press reports that Senator John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee aid the US and its allies should plan for a no-fly zone over Libya, and consider bombing the country's airports and runways, but they should take no action unless there is an international agreement.
Avvenire says Pope Benedict has appealed for peace in Libya, extending his prayers for the victims of a "growing humanitarian crisis".
Al Bawaba reports that suspected al Qaeda militants have killed four Yemeni soldiers. In a separate incident, two officers in the Yemeni Political Security Organization, the country's intelligence agency, were assassinated. The attack occurred near downtown Marib while the vehicle was on a ration-distributing duty.
Le Soir says forces loyal to Ivory Coast's presidential challenger Alassane Ouattara claimed to have captured the western town of Toulepleu from incumbent Laurent Gbagbo Sunday. The fighting between the two camps threatened to reignite civil war in the country. The United Nations plans to add 2,000 more soldiers to its peacekeeping mission in the Ivory Coast amid escalating violence between supporters of rival politicians.
Reuters reports that Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip won the elections and said he wanted to keep the current centre-right coalition after it successfully launched the euro and got the Baltic state on a path out of a deep recession. His Reform Party won 33 seats while current junior coalition partner, Pro Patria and Res Republica Union, won 23. That gives a total 56 seats in the 101-seat house, six more than the parties together won in the last election.
The head of leading economic Ifo think-tank says the EU's new banking stress tests were too lax. Hans-Werner Sinn of Munich's Ifo Institute told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the tests would fail to expose all loans at risk of default because they were no better than last year's widely criticized ones. Only seven banks failed the last slate of tests. In fact, all of Ireland's banks passed just months before that country's banking crisis forced Dublin to appeal for an international bailout.
The Daily Telegraph reports that British ministers seemed set to downgrade Prince Andrew's role as a trade ambassador over his association with a convicted paedophile. Government sources told the British newspaper that the ministers would carry out a review into Andrew's position, which could result in the queen's second son losing his role completely. The prince came under increased fire after it emerged that US businessman Jeffrey Epstein – who served 18 months in jail for child sex offences – had paid off debts accrued by the Duchess of York, Andrew's former wife.