The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times reports that the prime minister yesterday moved a bill to amend the Constitution, providing for balanced budgets.
The Malta Independent discusses what ACTA (the Internet intellectual rights treaty) actually provides.
In-Nazzjon also leads with the Constitutional amendments moved by the prime minister.
l-orizzont says the government is allocating less funds to local councils after the EU ordered spending cuts.
The overseas press
Al Jazeera announces Egyptian authorities have deployed troops in the northern city of Port Said and declared three days of national mourning after at least 79 people were killed and 1,000 others injured in clashes between rival football fans. Violence flared after the final whistle when supporters of the home side Al-Masri rushed on to the pitch to celebrate a 3-1 victory over Egypt’s top team Al-Ahli. Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said 47 people had already been arrested. In a rare phone call to the sports TV channel owned by Al Ahli,, the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Tantawi, vowed to track down those behind the violence. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he was "very shocked and saddened" by the incident.
The New York Times says the UN Security Council has been negotiating behind closed doors to try to settle differences on how to tackle the crisis in Syria. Both Russia and China oppose a resolution put forward by the Arab League which says the Syrian President Bashar al Assad should hand over powers to his deputy.
The US will wind seek to down combat operations in Afghanistan by as early as th middle of next year – 18 months before a deadline for withdrawal. The BBC quotes Defence Secretary Leon Panetta saying the US hoped to switch to training and supporting Afghan forces. His comments are the first time a senior US official has given a timetable for transition. Some 68,000 troops are due to remain in Afghanistan after the end of 2012.
Mitt Romney, the multi-millionaire Republican presidential seeking to become the next president of the United States, is taking fire from his political rivals over remarks suggesting he is indifferent to America's poor. The wealthy ex-governor of Massachusetts and former private equity executive made the comments in an interview with CNN on the morning after his crucial victory in the Florida primary. He said he was in the race to help the struggling middle class Americans and was not concerned about the very poor. The middle class, he said, did not have the safety net which the poor had. The fuss took the shine off his triumph in Florida, where he captured 46 per cent of the vote to former House speaker Newt Gingrich's 32 per cent.
Heavy snow has caused disruption across Europe, carpeting much of Italy to the south and Turkey to the east. Baltic Times reports helicopters lifted dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and brought in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept Eastern Europe in its icy grip. The death toll from the cold rose to 80 and emergency services worked overtime as temperatures sank to minus 32.50C in some areas. Meanwhile, Corriere della Sera says that in Italy’s center north, snow fell for over 20 hours on 1,000 km of highways and a temporary ban on heavy goods lorries (TIR) was in force in all provinces of the Tuscana, Le Marche and Umbria regions. Four Serie A football games were postponed due to snow. European weather forecasters have warned the severe cold is likely to persist in many parts of continental Europe for at least another week.
An anti-Putin banner appeared yesterday morning in front of the Kremlin, two days before a big opposition protest. The website of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a photo report on the banner produced by activists of the Solidarnost movement. The yellow banner with a portrait of the favourite for president on March 4, with a cross over his face, was placed on a building next to one of the Kremlin towers. It carried the simple message: “Putin leave”. The banner was later removed.
Times of Nigeria says security services have arrested the spokesman for Islamist sect Boko Haram. Abu Qaqa, who frequently made statements to the press after the attacks carried out by the sect, was arrested in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna at dawn. The Islamist sect, that seeks to impose Sharia (Islamic law) across Nigeria, has carried out a series of violent attacks over the past few months, especially against Christians, to force them out of the country's north.
Four men in South Africa have each been sentenced to 18 years in prison for the brutal murder of a lesbian teenager six years ago. The Post says a Cape Town court found that the 19-year-old girl was stoned and stabbed nine times just metres from her home. The sentences were praised by activists who had been calling for tougher laws for those who kill or attack people because of their sexual orientation. South Africa is the only African country to allow same-sex marriage, but despite constitutional safeguards, violence against homosexuals is common, particularly in black communities.
El Pais reports that Spanish curators have identified what they think is the earliest copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, painted in the artist's own studio and looking younger and more ravishing than the original. Madrid's Prado Museum said the painting will go on show at the Louvre alongside the original from March 26.