The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times features the plight of a young girl from Eritrea who is in the middle of a 'battle' between members of her family that is going to Switzerland and foster parents in Malta.
The Malta Independent says the MCESD amendment bill was given a first reading in parliament yesterday. It also reports on past praise to N.Korean by Maltese personalities as reported by the Korean Central News Agency.
In-Nazzjon features a meeting which the prime minister had with workers at Methode electronics. It also quotes the Finance Minister says Malta is committed to keeping its deficit below 3%.
l-orizzont gives prominence to the fact that the attempted murder charge against Sandro Chetcuti has been dropped. It also reports on GWU/Forum plans to hold a national conference on precarious jobs.
The overseas press
Reuters quotes the United Nations saying crime generated an estimated €1.6 trillion in global proceeds each year – 3.6 per cent of the world's gross domestic product. In what are the first UN figures for global crime profits, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has announced criminal business is one of the world's top 20 economies. UNODC head Yury Fedotov said up to €30.5 billion were lost through corruption in developing countries annually, and illicit income from human trafficking amounted to €24.3 billion every year.
Bloomberg reports Asian shares fell when markets opened this morning as political uncertainty and disappointing data in Europe raised fears the euro zone could struggle to push through austerity measures and might stay in recession until late in the year. After a Sunday vote in France placed the presidential race wide open, Dutch Price Minister Mark Rutte on Monday tendered his government's resignation in a crisis over budget cuts, creating a political vacuum in one of the eurozone's most stable nations. US stocks fell over one percent and European equities plunged to a three-month low on Monday, hurt by data showing the eurozone's business slump deepened at a far faster pace than expected in April. The euro inched down 0.1 percent at $1.3147, while the yen held firm against the dollar at around 81.10 yen.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has meanwhile been wooing far-right voters. Le Parisien says Sarkozy has warned that the Europe that did not regulate migration and defended its borders was finished. He needs the far-right support to win the second round of the election against the Socialist François Hollande on May 6.
Al Bawaba says that at least 80 people were killed Monday in further violence in Syria, where 300 international observers are to be deployed from next week to monitor a fragile cease-fire seriously compromised. This is the first time that so many people were killed in one day since the cease-fire was officially declared on April 12.
CNN reports that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to stop the slide towards further confrontation and return to dialogue immediately. Ban condemned yesterday’s bombing by Sudanese warplanes of a market town in Bentui, in South Sudan. Sudan’s UN ambassador accused the South of being the aggressor.
Earlier, Al Jazeera quoted President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan pledging not to negotiate with South Sudan amid reports of fresh air attacks on his country's southern neighbour. The renewed tensions come as South Sudan's 10-day occupation of the oil town of Heglig has left parts of the town blood-soaked and in ruins. Bashir told Sudanese troops at a barracks near an oilfield along the two neighbours' contested border that South did not understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition.
The BBC says a report by a committee MPs accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of making strategic mistakes. The British government has been forced to defend itself in recent weeks over its response to a threatened strike by fuel tankers drivers, its tax policy and Abu Qatada's deportation. According to The Guardian, an opinion poll has shown David Cameron's Conservative Party has fallen eight points behind the Labour Party.
The Wall Street Journal reports that shares in the retail giant Walmart have fallen by five per cent over allegation that it covered up a bribery scandal at its Mexican subsidiary. Walmart said it would investigate whether bribes had been used to secure permits to build new stores.
According to USA Today, voters in California would be asked whether they want to abolish the state's death penalty. The measure, which would appear on November's ballot after more than 500,000 people signed up to back the proposal, would see death row inmates have their sentences commuted to life. Just 13 people have been executed since the law was re-introduced in 1978. Backers say abolition could save California €76 million a year, but opponents say justice would be harmed.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spoken on Globovision TV for the first time since he arrived in Cuba for more cancer treatment nine days ago. The 57-year-old president dismissed rumours that he had died undergoing radiotherapy for a second tumour in his pelvic region. Speaking over the phone from Havana, he said his treatment was progressing but he still needed a lot of rest. However, he felt obliged to attend to his duties while undergoing treatment. Chavez had surgery in February and has been shuttling back and forth between Caracas and Havana for treatment.