The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times says the Air Malta plan has been revealed. It shows that the government needs to provide €25 million to the airline and the airline itself needs to borrow a further €51 million and dismiss 511 workers including 57 pilots. The newspaper also carries an interview with Angelina Jolie.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says the acquitted Lockerbie bomber may be retried. It also reports a father’s account of his son’s torturous ordeal in Tunisian custody after he refused to admit involvement in drug trafficking.
MaltaToday reports that the White Rocks investors have claimed the government is stalling negotiations.
Il-Mument claims that Alfred Sant has continued to be deceptive on referenda. It also reports how a traffic accident victim had 17 operations in a month at Mater Dei.
It-Torca reports that a family that lost its house in an explosion in an underlying garage in Fgura is still awaiting justice, nine years on. The newspaper also says that Malta has failed to convince EU countries to take more migrants from Malta.
KullHadd criticises government plans to build a bridge from Fort St Elmo to the breakwater arm. It also says that outdated equipment is still being used to treat cancer patients.
Illum says the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme has so far left out the south, the region with most needy families.
The overseas press
Hundreds of activists from cities across Spain have begun marches towards Madrid as part of a demonstration over the state of the economy. El Pais reports that the protesters plan to converge in the capital next month. Two years of recession have left the country with an unemployment rate of 21 per cent, rising to 35 per cent among those under the age of 30. Since last year Madrid has been carrying out austerity measures to reduce the country's public deficit but unlike other highly indebted eurozone nations, it has not needed an outside bail-out.
The number of adults who have been diagnosed with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled since 1980 to 347 million. The Lancet says this was by far higher than a previous projection, which put the number closer to 285 million. Of the 347 million with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India, with another 36 million in the United States and Russia. Type 2, the most common type of diabetes, is strongly associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
Associated Press quotes a Nato spokesman saying its missiles had hit a site in Brega that it had clearly identified as a place used by Gaddafi's forces to stockpile supplies. The alliance added it was unaware of 15 civilian deaths, which state media claims resulted from the strikes. Libyan state television Al Jamahariya TV said a local bakery and a restaurant had been hit, wounding 20 people in addition to the 15 dead. State news agency Jana said a strike in the same area earlier on Friday had killed five civilians.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that four members of Libya's national football team and 13 other football figures had defected to rebels. The British broadcaster said national goalkeeper Juma Gtat and Adel bin Issa, the coach of Tripoli's top club al-Ahly, announced the defections in the rebel-held Nafusa Mountains in western Libya. The news was considered as “a morale-booster for rebels”.
Al Ayyam reports that Gaza Strip militants Hamas have vowed that Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped five years ago, would not “see the light” until Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were released. Israeli officials have argued that releasing the men would put more Israelis in danger. Schalit, a tank crewman, was taken captive after militants tunnelled under the Israeli border, killed two soldiers at a border post and dragged him bleeding into Gaza. Hamas has allowed no one to visit him and last offered a sign of life in October 2009.
Al-Quds says that in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, families of some of the estimated 7,500 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails sat with pictures of their imprisoned sons emblazoned on birthday cakes. Number candles were planted on the cakes, signifying the 12 to 22 years the men had spent in Israeli prisons.
In Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports that some 400 supporters of Sgt Gilad Schalit gathered at the border crossing where he was seized by gunmen linked to Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement on June 25, 2006. They waved Israeli flags emblazoned with his likeness and demanded the government do more to secure his release. In Jerusalem, Mr Schalit’s parents, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend chained themselves to one another and to a railing on the side of a small road leading to the prime minister’s residence.
According to Al Jazeera, at least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Afghanistan. Dozens more were wounded in the attack at the facility in Azra district of eastern Logar province, south of capital Kabul. The casualties were all patients, their visitors and relatives and hospital personnel. President Hamid Karzai and his government strongly condemned the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility for the attack, saying whoever carried out the attack wanted “to defame the Taliban”.
One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, has been released after serving three and half-years in jail. His wife, Zeng Jingyan, told Reuters in a telephone interview that Hu was “back home with his parents and me”. Hu Jia was arrested in December 2007 after a long period of confinement at his home. He was sentenced in April in 2008 for “incitement to subvert state power”.
France 24 reports that tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched through the streets of Paris on Saturday marking the 10th Gay Pride weekend. They demanded equality and promised to make it an issue in the 2012 presidential elections. Meanwhile, US Today says that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill legalising same-sex marriages, making New York the sixth and most populous state where gay couples could wed. The move was described as “a key victory for gay rights advocates”.
India Daily says a man from India claims to be the world's smelliest person after he refused to wash himself for more than 37 years. The 65-year-old has not bathed or cut his 6ft long dreadlocks since 1974, shortly after he married. Apparently, the man was told by a priest that he and his wife would bear a son if he did not wash. However, the religious advice has clearly failed as the man has seven daughters.