The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports comments by experts that births to teenage mothers are unfair on the babies.
The Malta Independent reports how a woman's heirs have been given compensation after her house collapsed during next-door works in 1995. It also reports that migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean are being taken to Tunisia after they were refused in Lampedusa.
In-Nazzjon carries an interview with the new UHM leadership and says the union has a positive attitude to the jobs market. It also says that the police are looking for a car in connection with last Thursday’s murder in Marsascala.
l-orizzont says the MUMN has warned it will order a strike in operating theatres unless conditions for nurses are improved.
The overseas press
France 24 says a colossal manhunt is underway in France as police search for a gunman who killed three pupils and a teacher outside a Jewish school in Toulouse. Hundreds of mourners have gathered for an overnight vigil at the school. In a nationwide TV broadcast, President Sarkozy has said that the gun used in yesterday’s shooting of three, was the same one that killed three soldiers of North African descent in similar incidents last week. He put the country’s southwest region on its highest terror alert and the presidential campaign has been temporarily suspended.
El Universal reports 12 Mexican police officers have been killed in an ambush as they searched for the bodies of 10 people whose heads were found on Sunday. They were attacked in a mountainous area where two rival cartels were fighting for control of the drugs trade.
Kurrier quotes the International Atomic Agency saying it had received an invitation to visit North Korea – three years after its inspectors were expelled from the country. North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear testing in return for food aid from the United States.
Al Ahram reports Egypt’s new parliament has voted to award compensation to people left severely handicapped after clashes with security forces in last year’s uprising. The Bill gives some €13,000 to every protester.
Le Soir says the European Union has pledged €35 million for two Palestinian infrastructure projects. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the agreements one for a water treatment plant in northern West Bank and another for the crossings in Gaza. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters that the money comes from the €300 million in Palestinian aid that the EU has earmarked for 2012. The two officials spoke after a meeting in Brussels, two days ahead of an international Palestinian donors' conference due to take place in the Belgian capital. According to Fayyad, the PA was facing serious financial difficulties.
According to Euronews, a new report by Amnesty International has accused Nato of not taking responsibility for killing innocent civilians in Libya last year. Fifty-five civilians, including 16 children and 14 women, died as a result of NATO airstrikes across Libya during a seven-month military campaign. Amnesty International said NATO was denying basic justice to the victims' families by not investigating their deaths.
USA Today says Mitt Romney, who faces an important test in Illinois tonight in the latest round of the Republicans' presidential nominating contest, has intensified calls for his opponents to concede defeat even before voters cast their ballots. While he is leading, the deeply conservative Rick Santorum has caught the imagination of the party's right wing and turned the nomination battle into an extended fight before the November election against President Barack Obama. But Romney beat Santorum in Sunday's primary in Puerto Rico.
It's official: the world is slowly getting warmer! Metro says updated records of global temperatures stretching back more than 160 years have confirmed that since the year 1900, the planet has warmed by .750C. Britain's Met Office and the University of East Anglia have released the figures, which they compiled with new data from countries including Canada and Russia.
Europe News says a Panorama investigation has found that most young British Muslims support violence against women who “dishonour” their families. The hard-hitting BBC documentary revealed 18 per cent of Asians aged 16 to 34 say communities should live according to “honour” or “izzat”. Certain acts thought to shame families – disobeying a father, marrying someone unacceptable or wanting to end a marriage – were justification for violence, they said. Honour-related violence can include acid attacks, abduction, mutilations, beatings, and death. But 94 per cent of those questioned said there was 'never a justification' for murder. A study of police data by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation recorded over 2,800 honour crimes a year.
In the UK, The Sun leads with a Bolton Wanderers FC statement saying stricken footballer Fabrice Muamba “has been able to recognise family members and respond to questions appropriately”. The announcement came as one of the player's friends revealed he was speaking again. Earlier doctors treating the Bolton ace said he was showing “signs of improvement” as his heart started beating on its own for the first time. Muamba remains in intensive care 48 hours after he was floored on the pitch by a cardiac arrest. But the 23-year-old's heart was now beating without medication and the player was moving his arms and legs of his own accord.