The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Sunday Times carries an interview with a young man who said that a girl's gang rape claim had wiped out six years of his life.
The Malta Independent says that much has been achieved at Air Malta, but much remains to be done.
MaltaToday says a Titanic telegram was found in a Kalkara jumble sale. It also says that Labour has a 12-point lead over the PN.
It-Torca says a man is not being allowed to appear as the father of his son because another man’s name is shown on the birth certificate. It also says Midi shareholders want an extraordinary general meeting after learning from the media that the group is changing its aims with regard to Manoel Island.
Kullhadd reports on further criticism of the government by Franco Debono. It also says that Joseph Muscat has met Libyan leader Jalil in Tripoli.
Il-Mument says Yana Mintoff is refusing to make statements against abortion. It also says that Joseph Muscat’s comments to the North Korean ambassador were damaging for Malta.
Illum says the PN is in a race against time to project a good image of itself and the government.
The overseas press
Al Ahram says Egypt's election commission has disqualified 10 of the 23 presidential hopefuls from taking part in Saturday’s election. They include the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hosni Mubarak's former spy chief as well as fundamentalist Islamists. They have 48 hours in which to appeal. The surprise decision left a field of moderates in the race for the country's first post-revolutionary leader.
The New York Times reports the UN Security Council has decided to send an advance team of ceasefire monitors to Syria. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would make firm proposals by next Wednesday for enlarging the UN team. He said they would need complete freedom of movement to monitor the situation in Syria. Russia and China backed the resolution, the first to be approved by the UN body since the uprising began 13 months ago. The council also condemned human right violations by Syrian forces and abuses by “armed groups”. Heavy shelling by government forces was reported in Homs and Aleppo and activists say 17 people were killed.
Meanwhile, Germany was looking into a report that weapons bound for the Syrian regime were loaded on to a German-owned ship. Der Spiegel reported yesterday that the Atlantic Cruiser was halted in the Mediterranean after its owners were warned it was suspected of carrying Iranian military equipment to Tartus in Syria.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the Italian Football Federation has called off all league games this weekend following the death of the Livorno mid-fielder Piermario Morosin, who collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest in the first half of his side’s game against Pescara. He was 25.
Gazete Oku says the first international talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in 15 months were being conducted in Istanbul in a constructive atmosphere. The so-called P5+1 group of five permanent United Nations Security Council members – the US, Britain, China, France, and Russia – together with Germany will meet Iranian delegates in Baghdad on May 23 amid calls for urgent diplomacy to avert military strikes.
The Washington Post says five US military personnel involved in the security operation for President Obama’s trip to Columbia were facing an investigation into possible misconduct. They were staying at the same hotel as 11 service agents who were recalled on Friday. The agents have since been suspended over incidents thought to involve prostitutes.
The conflict on the border between Sudan and South Sudan has deepened. Sudan Tribune quotes the vice-president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, saying the Sudanese air force had bombed a marketplace, killing five civilians. Sudan’s ambassador in London, Abdullahi Al Azreg, told the BBC his country did not target civilians.
Tripoli Post reports that the family of Lockerbie bomber Abdulbasit al-Megrahi said he had received 11 litres of blood in an emergency transfusion after his health deteriorated suddenly on Friday night and he had to be rushed to hospital in Libya. The 60-year-old is suffering from advanced prostate cancer. He was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds in 2009 following claims he only had months to live.
L’Avvenire says the Vatican has insisted it had done everything possible to try to resolve the 1983 disappearance 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, whose father was a lay employee of the Holy See. It also said that it had no objections to allowing inspection of the tomb of a reputed mobster from a gang purportedly linked to her presumed kidnapping. Chief Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, spoke following media speculation that the Vatican knew something it has not revealed about the disappearance.
USA Today reports baseball-sized hail was breaking windows and tearing siding off homes in northeast Nebraska, while tornadoes were spotted in Kansas and Oklahoma as forecasters warned residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life threatening" weather. Tornado sirens sounded across Oklahoma City before dawn, and at least three possible tornadoes were reported west and north of the city. Some homes were damaged, though no injuries were immediately reported in any of the states.
Associated Press says in the birthplace of the Titanic, residents gathered for a choral requiem. In the North Atlantic, above the ship's final resting place, passengers will pray as a band strikes up a hymn and three floral wreaths are cast onto the waves. A century after the great ship went down with the loss of 1,500 lives, events around the globe are marking a tragedy that retains a titanic grip on the world's imagination – an icon of Edwardian luxury that became, in a few dark hours 100 years ago, an enduring emblem of tragedy.
The Inquirer reports that former Bee Gee Robin Gibb is in a coma after contracting pneumonia. A statement on his official website confirmed media reports that the singer was gravely ill, saying "we are all hoping and praying that he will pull through". British media reported that the 62-year-old was at a hospital in Chelsea, west London, where wife Dwina, his three children and brother, Barry – also of the group – were keeping a bedside vigil.