The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times says that cheap Air Malta flights will be offered for the divorce referendum. It also says that thousands have flocked to Rome to see Pope John Paul II beatified.
The Malta Independent says there is a sense of emptiness at City Gate, whose demolition starts tomorrow. It also says that Curiae in Gozo and Canada have asked the police to investigate a person using the false identity of Fr Joe Grima, and posing to be in favour of divorce.
MaltaToday says there is a new twist in the Sandro Chetcuti case with the focus on the injuries which Vince Farrugia reportedly suffered.
Il-Mument quotes the prime minister saying that 7,500 women saved €7.5m in tax in one of the government’s family-friendly policies.
It-Torca says Malta is being implicated in the transport of weapons to Gaddafi.
Illum also leads with flight cost reductions for those coming to Malta to vote in the referendum.
KullHadd reports on modern day slavery at Mater Dei where an agent exploited Pakistani nurses.
The overseas press
The news that 29-year-old son Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s youngest son, and three of his grandchildren have been killed in a NATO air strike, is the leading story in many media outlets. Al Jazeera quotes Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim saying that Gaddafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house hit by at least one missile fired by a Nato warplane in what he claimed was "a direct attempt to assassinate the leader of the country". Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was the most unknown of the Libyan leader's children and had been largely invisible since the conflict began. There was no immediate NATO reaction or independent confirmation of the incident. Rifle fire and car horns rang out in the rebels' eastern capital of Benghazi as news of the attack spread.
Avvenire reports that more than 200,000 people of all ages flooded the Circo Massimo, an ancient Roman field, for an all-night prayer vigil commemorating Pope John Paul II on the eve of his beatification, remembering his teachings, travels and his own suffering. Pilgrims waving flags from Poland, Spain Germany and Brazil heard the testimony of those who knew him well, including former Vatican spokesman Joaqim Navarro Valls, his former secretary Don Stanislaw, now Cardinal Dziwisz of Cracow, and Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, who recounted how she was cured of Parkinson's disease – the miracle at the base of the beatification.
Zenit, the international Catholic news agency, said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz revealed the two occasions he saw John Paul II “really angry," but with "good reason". He said that in Agrigento, [Sicily], he raised his voice against the mafia, and “we were all a little scared”. The other occasion was during the Angelus, before the Iraq War, when “he said with force: no to war, war doesn't resolve anything. I have seen war. I know what war is”. The pope sent a cardinal to Washington and another to Baghdad, to say: do not seek to resolve these problems with war. The cardinal said “He was right. The war is still ongoing and it hasn't resolved anything."
Al-Arabiya says at least four people were reported killed in Deraa as Syrian security used tanks and heavy weapons to take over a mosque which had become a focus of anti-government protesters. Residents said there was sustained heavy gunfire after which snipers were also posted on the mosque’s roof. With no one being allowed to hold funerals of those killed in the siege sine Monday, bodies are being stored in refrigerated trucks.
Asharq Al-Awsat reports that the main opposition group in Yemen has accused President Ali Abdullah Saleh of sabotaging a deal aimed at ending the political crisis. He had been expected to add his signature after his officials said the deal brokered by Gulf Arab states had been accepted. But he reportedly said he would only sign the agreement in his capacity as head of the ruling party. Opposition spokesmen insist he must sign as president. Meanwhile, new clashes in the Yemeni port of Aden have left three people dead.
Al-Arab says powerful MPs in Iran have called for a closed debate on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apparent boycott of his official duties. The president has not been seen at his office for eight days, missing two cabinet meetings and cancelling a visit to the holy city of Qom. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, recently re-instated a cabinet minister he had pushed out.
Asia Times reports that a controversial minimum wage law comes into effect in Hong Kong – one of the least regulated economies. The government said it wanted to narrow the gap between rich and poor which is the highest in the ASIA-Pacific region. It says the new minimum wage of €2.36 per hour would benefit some 270,000 werkers or around 10% of the working population.
France Football says Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno and FFF president Fernand Duchaussoy have suspended the technical director of the national football federation François Blanquart amid allegations by French website Mediapart of a secret racial quota for trainees. Senior FFF members were said to have secretly approved limiting the number of black and Arab players to 30 per cent from the age of 12-13. Blaquart and French national team coach Laurent Blanc said the comments were taken out of context. An inquiry into the allegations is expected to be completed within eight days