The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the bishops of Malta in a pastoral letter are calling on the faithful to do their duty in the divorce referendum. It also reports that the fine for animal cruelty is to rise to €50,000.
The Malta Independent says a tanker which left from Turkey and stopped in Malta on its way to Libya was stopped by Nato ships.
l-orizzont leads with how a dog was buried alive in Birzebbuga. It also reports comments by Bishop Mario that Catholics must do the mission of Christ.
In-Nazzjon says that according to a Xarabank survey, 40 per cent are undecided on their referendum vote. It also reports that Trelleborg is to take 100 more workers and transfer production from Sweden.
The overseas press
The Washington Times reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected President Obama’s call for a peace deal with the Palestinians to be based on the pre-1967 borders. At a meeting at the White House, Netanyahu said such a deal would leave Israel indefensible. President Obama formally adopted the principle in a major speech on Thursday.
Al Arabiya says Syrian troops have killed at least 34 people when they opned fire on anti-government protesters across the country as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after Friday prayers. Reports said that in Syria’s third largest city, Homs, a 10-year-old boy was among those shot dead. Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said some 1,400 Syrians, many of them women and children without belongings, crossed the border with Lebanon last week to join many more who have fled the unrest at home.
Associated Press reports Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed he intended to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing. The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they filled p their cars.
El Pais reports that protests continued in Spain into today early hours despite a government ban ahead of local elections tomorrow. Thousands gathered in Madrid and while sit-in protests were staged in more than 30 cities, with some protesters vowing they would not move if police intervened. They were demonstrating against a combination of biting budget cuts designed to control Spain's deficit and a 21.3 percent unemployment rate – the highest in the EU. Many were also calling for reforms to Spain’s two-party system and a shake-up of the country’s political culture. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told the Cadena Ser radio station that he sympathised with protesters.
The New York Times says former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn – accused of a serious sexual assault on a chambermaid – has been released from jail and was being held under house arrest near ground zero after the luxury apartment where he had arranged to stay fell through because the neighbours objected to the media frenzy. Prosecutors said he would be temporarily housed in a building on a small street in lower Manhattan within the Police Department's "Ring of Steel" – a network of private and police cameras near where the World Trade Centre stood. Strauss-Kahn denies the charges. Meanwhile, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has emerged as Europe's likely choice to succeed Strauss-Khan and lead the fund.
According to Dawn, Pakistan has ordered an inquiry into the killing this week of five foreigners, including three women, by security forces in the southwest of the country. The authorities initially said they were suicide bombers but it has now emerged they were unarmed and one of the women was expecting a child.
Il Tempo the Vatican has criticised a new, giant modernist sculpture of Pope John Paul II outside Rome's Termini trainsStation, saying it did noteven resemble the late pontiff. Some Romans and tourists say the bronze statue looked more like Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini than the widely beloved pope.
Deutsche Welle announces the result of a survey by Berlin students which showed that prostitution was a widespread phenomenon in student communities – both male or female. One out of 27 students in Berlin, Paris and have had experience in sex work or are still engaged in it. They hey see it as the best way to earn good money quickly. Some make up to €3,000 a month, and most need the money because they're heavily in debt... and some said the enjoyed their work and would miss it if they stopped.
RTL Nieuws reports that the Salesian order in the Netherlands has confirmed one of his subordinate priests served on the board of an organisation that promoted pedophilia. Fr Herman Spronck said in a statement the priest served on the board of the "Martijn" organisation, which is widely reviled but not illegal. The order distanced itself from “this personal initiative” on the part of the priest, Spronck's statement said.