The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Gonzi and Debono are heading for a showdown.
The Malta Independent also reports on the May 9 vote. It also quotes the Governor of the Central Bank saying subsidising energy costs is not a good idea.
MaltaToday says Gonzi has called Debono’s bluff on voting in parliament.
In-Nazzjon says farmers have benefited from €71 million in government and EU funds. It also says that the Budget measures vote will be taken on May 9.
l-orizzont says the government is continuing to avoid the vote on motions on the justice and home affairs sectors.
The overseas press
CNN reports UN special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan has expressed concern about surges in violence reported following visits by UN peace monitors to Syrian cities. Day Press News quoted opposition activists in Syria saying 70 people were killed on Monday, mostly in the city of Hama, after the UN team’s visit. The New York Times reports US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said all Security Council members wanted a more rapid deployment of observers to Syria.
In the UK, The Sun says Labour have called for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to resign following claims that he backed News Corporation’s bid to take over BSkyB and leaked inside information to the media giant. The demand followed the release of a 163-page dossier detailing contacts between the Culture Secretary’s office and senior News Corp executive Frederic Michel. But Downing Street insisted that the Culture Secretary still had the Prime Minister’s full confidence and said Hunt would respond to all of the points raised at yesterday’s hearing when he gives evidence himself to the Leveson Inquiry “in a few weeks’ time”.
Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist rival Francois Hollande have stepped up their battle for more than six million votes that went to the far right in the first round of France's presidential election. Hollande told Liberation it was up to him to convince the National Front voters, arguing that many of them were in fact left-wing and their support for the anti-immigrant, anti-EU party was a protest vote. In an interview later with TF1 television, Hollande said he would listen to the concerns of those who backed Marie Le Pen. Polls show most far-right supporters prefer Sarkozy, but up to a quarter could switch to Hollande in a final round on May 6. Opinion polls say the socialist will win.
The Washington Times reports the United States was concerned about reports that Israel had legalised the status of three settler outposts in the West Bank and was seeking further clarifications from the Israeli government. A State Department spokesman said the Israeli moved was “unhelpful” to the peace process. The US rejects the legitimacy of continued settlement activism.
Los Angeles Times says Mitt Romney has moved closer to securing the Republican nomination to run against Barack Obama in the US presidential election in November by winning five primary contests yesterday. He was declared a winner in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Huffington Post reports a former BP engineer has become the first person to face criminal charges in connection with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill two years ago. Kurt Mix of Texas is accused of deleting hundreds of text messages about how efforts to cap the broken well were failing. BP said it had made substantial efforts to preserve evidence. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which had been leased by BP, exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and eventually spilling more than 200 million gallons of crude oil.
Voice of America says two more members of the US Secret Service have resigned over a prostitution scandal in Colombia. Six agents have already left the service after being implicated in a night of partying and carousing that embarrassed the US government and overshadowed President Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas. Six more members and 12 US military personnel remain under investigation. The men are alleged to have taken as many as 21 prostitutes back to their beachfront hotel in Cartagena on the night of April 11. The scandal came to light when a prostitute argued with an agent in a hallway of the hotel over her fee.
Meanwhile President Obama has blamed a the scandal on the misconduct of a "couple of knuckleheads", insisting the majority of agents perform their work admirably. Obama's comments – during a recording of an appearance on a late-night show on NBC – appeared to play down the extent of the controversy, the worst in decades to hit the agency responsible for protecting the president, his family and other senior officials. He said "99.9 per cent" of Secret Service agents put their lives on the line and did a great job.
Al Jazeera reports the African Union has called on Sudan and South Sudan to reach a peaceful peace deal within an AU framework. A senior AU official said the organisation would take “appropriate measures” if either country failed to implement the proposal within the specified time-frames.
According to Al Ahram, the former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik has been disqualified as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential election. He was barred by the electoral commission under a law that prevents former senior officials of the Hosni Mubarak era from standing. Shafik is the latest of a series of candidates to be disqualified. From an original shortlist of 23, only 12 remain in the race.
United States authorities have reported the country's first case of mad cow disease in six years. Bloomberg says the meat, which came from a Californian dairy farm, did not enter the food chain. The agricultural department says there is no cause for alarm and beef and dairy products are safe. The first mad cow case in the United States was in late 2003 and caused the nation's beef exports to drop by nearly $3 billion the following year.
France 24 says a man drove his car down the steps of a Metro station in central Paris on Tuesday, mistaking the entrance for that of a parking garage. Noting that the entrance was nearly level with the street, the distraught 26-year-old driver told AFP that there was a sign saying “Haussmann Parking” right in front of the Metro entrance, “and ... I made a mistake”. No one was hurt, and the car, a Dacia Duster, also escaped damage. Police were quick to give the man an alcohol test, which he passed. An employee of a nearby restaurant said a similar incident took place at the site four or five years ago