The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times says journalists wounded in Misurata have been flown to Malta. It also reports that the US Ambassador has been told to leave next month. He had planned to step down on August 15.
The Malta Independent says that BirdLife has recorded over 800 spring hunting illegalities. It also says that the AFM wants twin-engine helicopters.
MaltaToday discusses the economic impact on Malta of the crisis in Libya.
It-Torca says another two armed French aircraft have had to land in Malta. It also says there is a plan for a ‘moral offensive’ as part of the anti-divorce campaign.
Il-Mument carries claims by former ambassador Alexander Cachia Zammit about a papal plane which he said had an emergency near Malta in 1990 and was ‘saved’ by Our Lady Ta’ Pinu.
Illum says a Zejtun family is awaiting compensation of €7m for land expropriated in Qajjenza some 30 years ago.
KullHadd says the government is abusively engaging workers as self-employed.
The overseas press
Al-Jazeera reports that the death toll from two days of violence in Syria has reached more than 120 as security forces fired on funeral processions that drew tens of thousands on Saturday – one day after the bloodiest crackdown so far in the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria’s National Organisation for Human Rights, said 112 people were killed on Friday and at least eight yesterday. More than 300 people have been killed in the past five weeks. The violence prompted two Syrian lawmakers and a religious leader to resign in disgust over the killings.
Al-Thawra says President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has agreed to step down under a 30-day transition plan aimed at ending violent unrest over his 32-year rule. He will hand power to his vice-president a month after an agreement is signed with the opposition, in return for immunity from prosecution. At least 120 people have died during two months of protests.
Al-Arabiya reports heavy fighting raged anew in Misurata, killing 25 people and wounding another 100 as Col Gaddafi's forces gave up more ground inside Libya's third-largest city. Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said troops have halted operations in the city to enable tribal elders to negotiate with the rebels. Rebel spokesman Gemal Salem told Sky News by telephone that Gaddafi's forces had left the city but remained outside and would still be in a position to bombard it. Al-Jazeera reported heavy fighting continued around a hospital in the westof the city – an area being used as a base by Gaddafi's forces.
According to the French magazine Closer, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Carla Bruni is pregnant. The presidential couple was married in 2008 and has since announced several times his desire to have a child. If the rumour is confirmed, it would be Sarkozy’s fourth child and Bruni’s second. Bruni, 43, has a 10-year-old son Aurelien, from a previous relationship, and Sarkozy has three children from two former marriages.
Agra-Europe says financial problems were behind the suicides of more than 300 French farmers last year. Despite receiving the highest subsidies in the EU, many are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. »
Hollywood Reporter announces the death of former president and chairman of Sony, Norio Ohga, who was credited with developing the compact disc. Ohga, who was 81, led the company from 1982 to 1995. As a young man, then aspiring opera singer wrote to Sony to complain about the quality of its tape recorders. That move changed the course of his life, as the company promptly recruited the man whose love of music would shape the development of the compact disc and transform the Japanese electronics maker into a global software and entertainment empire.
The Observer says the British woman who was dropped into the sea off Norway while being transferred from a cruise ship to another vessel has died. Janet Richardson, 73, was taken ill on the Ocean Countess and fell into the sea while being stretchered onto a rescue vessel. She spent eight minutes in the near-freezing Arctic Ocean before being rescued and taken to hospital in Norway. The incident is under investigation by the cruise company and the Norwegian rescue authorities.
Basler Zeitung reports that thousands of plant lovers flocked to the northern Swiss city of Basel to see a giant, nastily-smelly flower bloom for the first time in 17 years. The Basel Botanical Gardens expected over 10,000 people to see its amorphophallus titanum, or corpse flower, in full glory before the bloom wilts. Visitors have not been deterred by the strong stench of rotting flesh the flower emits to attract insects for pollination. The two-metre tall flower is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the last one to bloom in Switzerland was 75 years ago. Worldwide, there have been only 134 recorded blooms from artificial cultivation.
A high profile Chinese author is planning to spend €150,000 on plastic surgery to make himself look like William Shakespeare. According to Shanghai Daily, Zhang Yiyi will undergo 10 surgeries over a 10-month period to sculpt his face into the spitting image of the British playwright. The surgeon set to perform the procedures said it would not be too difficult because Zhang already has a sculpted face with a sharp nose and deep eyes, similar to Shakespeare.
Nursing Times publishes the results of a new research which showed that babies who persistently cry were more likely to become problem children. According to the study carried out in Switzerland and Germany, babies who cried excessively and who had sleeping and feeding problems, might well go on to become difficult children. It found babies with these issues were 40 per cent more likely to grow up to display unruly behaviour, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).