The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how Finance Minister Tonio Fenech warned the Greeks yesterday that Malta had to be assured that funds given in bailouts were used well. It also reports how Syrian violence has spilled to Aleppo.
The Malta Independent says the eurozone has deemed the Greek measures to overcome the financial crisis as insufficient and is seeking further spending cuts.
l-orizzont says that not all dementia patients will be eligible for free medicines.
In-Nazzjon focuses on the opening of a new park at Bahar ic-Caghaq. It also says that Malta reported the steepest drop in children leaving school early.
The overseas press
As riot police clashed with protesters on the streets of Athens, and five ministers resigned in protest at the scale of the spending cuts demanded in return for a new €130bn bailout, Nea reports that Greece's cabinet has approved fresh austerity measures demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a €130 billion bailout. The draft bill must now be passed by the Greek parliament and approved by European finance ministers. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned the country faces "uncontrolled economic chaos" if it fails to agree spending cuts and defaults on its debts. The eurozone's finance ministers are to meet again in Brussels on Wednesday.
Kathimerini says an estimated 17,000 took to the streets of Athens at the start of a two-day general strike. Police ringed the Greek parliament as protesters also gathered near the building. Some demonstrators threw stones and petrol bombs at police, who responded by firing tear gas. A small number of people from both sides suffered minor injuries.
One of the sons of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to lead an uprising against the transitional authorities now running Libya. Speaking to Al-Arabiya TV by phone from Niger where he fled to after his father was overthrown – the first time he has spoken publicly in months – Sadi Gaddafi said he wanted to return to Libya "at any minute". Mohammed al-Alagy, former interim justice minister and who now heads the human rights council, told Al-Arabiya Saadi's comments were "an attempt to drive a wedge between the Libyan people."
Al Ahram reports that the ruling military council in Egypt has said that “plotters” were trying to destabilise the government. Activists called for a general strike today to urge the army to had over power immediately to civilian authority.
The New York Times reports that Argentina and Britain have clashed at the UN over the disputed Falkland Islands. The Argentine Foreign Minister, lodging a formal complaint, accused Britain of militarising the South Atlantic and sending a nuclear-armed submarine to the area. Britain’s ambassador to the UN described the complaint as absurd and declined to comment on the disposition of nuclear weapons. The two countries went to war in 1982 over the British overseas territory
Al Jazeera says the government and the opposition in Syria have blamed each other for two bomb explosions in the city of Aleppo that killed 28 people and wounded more than 200 others. Meanwhile, Syrian government tanks and artillery continued to bombard the city of Homs. Opposition activists say children ere among those killed.
Balkan Times reports that after 16 months of disagreement, lawmakers in Sarajevo have approved a power-sharing coalition government plan by 26 votes to seven with one abstention. The prime minister's post will go to Vjekoslav Bevanda, a Bosnian Croat, with the nine portfolios divided between the three major groups in the country: Muslims, Serbs and Croats. Bevanda, a former regional finance minister, told parliament "this year will be the year of the EU in Bosnia" referring to his country's ambitions to be accepted as an official candidate for EU membership.
The Daily Mail leads with a landmark legal ruling banning the tradition of saying prayers at council meetings was denounced last night as an “assault on Britain's Christian heritage”. An atheist former councillor started the case against a town hall in Devon from putting prayers on the formal agenda in 2010, claiming he had been “disadvantaged and embarrassed” when religious prayers were recited at formal meetings. The ruling came as two Christian B&B owners who refused to let a gay couple share a room lost an appeal against a ruling they must pay £3,600 in compensation to the men.
The Pittsburgh Tribune reports that an American woman has admitted that she was guilty of kidnapping a child she raised as her own for 23 years. Ann Pettway, 51, told a court in New York she had taken the three-week-old Carlina White from a hospital ward in 1987. Last year, Carlina became suspicious and contacted the authorities who showed her a photo of herself a baby reported missing. He real mother, Joy, wept in court as Pettway entered he guilty plea. Pettway will be sentenced in May.
According to Harare’s Herald, the water resources minister told a parliamentary committee that work on new reservoirs in Zimbabwe had stopped because builders have been scared off by mermaids. Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said the only way to solve the problem was to brew traditional beer and get rites carried to appease the spirits after workers were too terrified to go back to the sites. A belief in mermaids and other such creatures is popular in the African country.