The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says importers are suffering delays in maritime cargo. It also says that a tipoff led inspectors to carry out checks on EasyGas.
The Malta Independent says the President and the Labour Party have denied North Korean press statements.
In-Nazzjon says Joseph Muscat wants to strengthen relations with North Korea and held a meeting with the N. Korean ambassador.
l-orizzont asks if the FORUM will join the MCESD within a week. It also highlights proposals by the Today Public Policy Institute to the political parties.
The overseas press
Members of the UN Security Council have finalised a revised draft of a resolution authorising an advance team of observers to travel to Syria to monitor the ceasefire. Al Jazeera says the US has called for vote this afternoon, even though Russia was not certain to back the text. Earlier, international negotiator Kofi Annan, told the council a team of observers was "standing by" to leave for Damascus. The ceasefire put in place under the six-point plan was tenuous, but largely holding.
Meanwhile, CBS News reports Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country Friday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance. At least six people were killed. The rallies, described as some of the largest in months, stretched from the suburbs of Damascus to the central province of Hama, Idlib in the north and the southern province of Daraa.
The Washington Times says President Obama has announced an aid deal aimed at supporting opponents of Bashar Al-Assad's Syrian regime. The US, which has ruled out arming rebel forces, will send communication and medical equipment to non-violent activists. The US was also cancelling food aid deliveries to North Korea after it defied Security Council resolutions and went ahead with a rocket launch on Friday.
The New York Times reports the Security Council deplored the launch but stopped short of imposing new penalties in response. The satellite disintegration over the Yellow Sea 90 seconds into the launch, which brought swift international condemnation. It also raised concerns that the North's next move could be even more provocative – anuclear test, the country's third.
Gazete Oku says delegations from Iran and the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – known as the P5 plus 1 –are in Turkey ahead of the first talks later today on Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Tehran has faced Western sanctions over accusations that it is trying to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran says its program is for peaceful use.
According to Radio Renascenca, Portugal’s parliament has ratified the European fiscal treaty designed to prevent government overspending and help end the bloc’s sovereign debt crisis. Portuguese MPs ratified the treaty by 204 votes to 24 with two abstentions. Portugal has one of the frailest economies of the 17 countries using the euro and last year needed a €78 billion bailout to avert bankruptcy.
Il Tempo reports tens of thousands of union activists and workers gathered in central Rome today to protest against premier Mario Monti’s pension reforms. Activists say the government’s proposals would leave workers out of a job and without retirement pay. Meanwhile, Ansa says President Napolitano lashed out at tax dodgers and speculators, saying tax cheats followed “antisocial logic to the detriment of the common good”. He said they were “unworthy” of being associated with the word ‘Italy’.
The Times reports British Prime Minister David Cameron has called for sanctions against Burma to be eased today after holding talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the lakeside villa where she spent 15 years under house arrest. Making a historic visit to the former British colony, the Cameron insisted that moves towards democratic reform should be rewarded.
Four alleged terrorists targeted Danish Crown Prince Frederik as part of their planned revenge attack on a newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, a court heard today. Prosecutors told the court the suspects probably intended to attack the offices of the Politiken newspaper where the crown prince was scheduled to hand out an annual sports award. The four men – three Danish citizens and one resident of Sweden – are accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weaponry and could face 16 years in prison if found guilty.
Associated News says Barack Obama will be on the defensive heading into this weekend's Summit of the Americas, with the US clinging to positions opposed by most Latin American and Caribbean leaders. Obama could expect even some of Washington's friendliest allies to protest US insistence on excluding communist Cuba from the gathering. Vigorous discussion among the 33 leaders is expected on drug legalisation, which the Obama administration opposes. And Obama can expect to be in the minority in his opposition to Argentina's claim to the British-controlled Falkland Islands.
O Globo says that gay tourism was growing at a rate of 20 per cent per year and in 2011 accounted for 12 per cent of the 5.3 million foreign visitors who had chosen Brazil as their holiday destination. Data from the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism have been disclosed to the International Convention Homosexual on Tourism which has opened in Florianopolis. An NGO in Bahia has complained that of the record of murders of gays, which last year reached a record of 266 cases.
It's official: E!Online quote a spokeswoman for Brad Pitt saying that he and Angelina Jolie are engaged to be married. But no wedding date has yet been set, she added, describing the engagement as "a promise for the future". The couple, who are among Hollywood's most widely recognised celebrities, have been together since 2005. They have six children together, including three adopted.
O Dia says three members of a Brazilian sect have been arrested in Pernambuco on charges of having eaten the remains of several women, killed because they had been considered “unclean”. Among them was also a 51-year-old woman street vendor, who police say admitted of having sold burgers containing human meat.