The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times says Prime Minister Gonzi is working to avoid an early poll.
The Malta Independent says all eyes will today be on the PN general council as it meets in the wake of Thursday’s no confidence vote.
MaltaToday says it was Richard Cachia Caruana who spoke of Franco Debono as ‘bicca deputat’. It also says one option facing the PN is to ditch Lawrence Gonzi for Simon Busuttil or Mario de Marco.
It-Torca carries comments by Alfred Sant on the differences between the current crisis and the crisis he faced in 1998. It also says that the PN wants Franco Debono to vote in favour of a new confidence motion.
KullHadd says the government has failed to reach agreement on the much vaunted Sports village at the White Rocks.
Il-Mument quotes Foreign Minister Tonio Borg saying the government will continue its legislative programme. It also says that unemployment is down to 4.1 percent.
Ilum says Frank Portelli has likened the PN to the Titanic.
The overseas press
As international pressure mounts for action to help young people chart a way through the deepening economic crisis, EU leaders are to consider plans to commit €22 billion to tackling the scourge of youth unemployment across Europe. The Observer reports that the issue was high on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where politicians, economists and bankers said action was essential to stimulate demand and prevent a generation becoming strangers to work. In Spain, 51.4 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds are looking for a job. In Greece the figure is 46.6, in Portugal 30.7 and in Britain 22 per cent. At Monday's EU summit in Brussels, EU leaders will discuss a plan to guarantee all young people either work, training or further education within four months of leaving school.
Deutsche Welle says Greek officials have firmly dismissed a German proposal for Greece to surrender control over its budget policy to an EU commissioner. Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou said the idea was “the product of a sick imagination”. The proposal was first reported by the Financial Times on Friday. The European Commission in Brussels came out in support of the Greek government on Saturday, reaffirming its rejection of the proposal and saying key decisions “must remain the full responsibility of the Greek government”.
According to Panamerican TV, 26 patients died and 12 others were seriously injured when a fire swept through a rehabilitation clinic for drug addicts and alcoholics in Peru. The inmates were reportedly locked in to stop them from fleeing during treatment. Several survivors said the blaze was started by two patients who wanted to break out of the private centre. Most of the victims were thought to have died from smoke inhalation.
Al Jazeera reports the Arab League has halted its observer mission in Syria because of the increasing violence. At least 80 people have been killed in the past three days in Syria. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and the prime minister of Qatar are heading to New York to seek UN support for an Arab plan to end Syria’s crisis.
Pravda says some 10,000 supporters of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have rallied in the city of Yekaterinburg on Saturday to back his bid to return to the Kremlin as president. The Russian Trade Union Federation, which represents some 25 million workers, is planning pro-Putin rallies across Russia ahead of the presidential election on March 4. Large anti-Putin rallies were held in Moscow following legislative elections on December 4, following accusations of widespread fraud.
Eurasia reports about 1,000 opposition supporters held an unsanctioned demonstration in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty on Saturday to protest the results of the recent parliamentary election, in which President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won 83 of 107 seats on January 15. International observers said the election fell short of democratic standards. No arrests were made.
The Sunday Times says five people have been arrested over payments to police officers in the phone-hacking inquiry. Scotland Yard said a serving police officer and four current and former employees of The Sun newspaper are being questioned by detectives.
Ansa reports that heavy weather has forced salvage crews to suspend pumping thousands of tonnes of fuel from the wrecked Costa Concordia liner overnight as divers found another body. Despite rough weather, recovery work continued and divers pulled the body of another victim from a submerged deck on the stricken ship. The Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks on January 13 with some 4,200 people aboard and is lying on its side off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Fifteen people remain missing.
Sole 24 Ore says the Vatican has rewritten its anti-money laundering legislation after European inspectors found that it did not fully meet their tough standards to combat the financing of terrorism. The new law requires the Vatican to create a list of terror organisations based on those issued by the UN and requires the Vatican enter into agreements with other countries to share financial information.
Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested the man who led last week's failed military mutiny. The Sunday Chronicle reports Colonel Yaura Sasa was arrested at a lodge in the Port Moresby suburb of Boroko last night. A police spokesman confirmed the arrest and said Colonel Sasa was being processed, but could not say if he has been charged.
Metro reports that Connecticut lawyer Matthew Couloute is suing his former girlfriend after she posted a warning about him on a website dedicated to exposing people who cheat on their partners. Couloute claimed the accusations had cost him work and affected every area of his life. His ex-partner Amanda Ryncarz has admitted, saying she wanted to warn other women to protect them from what she suffered after he married someone else just 12 days after they split up. Her lawyer said the case was not about a single messy break-up, but about freedom of expression on the internet.
ABC reports that South Korean activists have floated balloons containing 1,000 pairs of socks over the heavily-fortified border into North Korea. The activists say socks are in short supply in North Korea and are much needed to help people cope with sub-zero temperatures. They say socks are also a valuable trading tool in the closed communist state, with a pair fetching about 10 kilograms of corn, enough to feed a person for a whole month.