The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that three police officers and a bouncer have been cleared in court proceedings because of an error in the charge sheet. The case was about a student who was allegedly beaten in a bar. It also reports on the political developments yesterday, saying the Opposition has paved the way for Franco Debono to bring down his enemies.
The Malta Independent says there were angry scenes as Mepa rejected the Portomaso extension project. It also reports how the Opposition is trying to force the prime minister’s hand in parliament.
In-Nazzjon reports how Mepa yesterday gave the go-ahead for the interconnector project but rejected an extension to Portomaso.
l-orizzont says investigators are convinced that a lawyer who was found dead last week had been strangled.
The overseas press
The Globe reports victims of rebels in Sierra Leone’s civil war have welcomed the conviction of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity carried out by rebel fighters – the first African head of state to be found guilty by an international tribunal. Many people who were mutilated or lost relatives said they felt justice had been done. Human rights groups said the verdict showed nobody was above the law.
Hague News says the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a UN-backed international court, convicted Taylor of 11 counts of war crimes including murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to the court, Taylor, who was president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, supported and gave orders to Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in the 11-year civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone that killed about 50,000 people. The sentence is to be handed down on May 30.
Voice of America quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying he was gravely alarmed at reports from Syria that the government was continuing to shell populated areas. He said the UN ceasefire monitors had reported that the Syrian government was in contravention of the peace plans agreed to and which had been endorsed unanimously by the Security Council. Violence in Syria left at least 11,100 dead in just over 13 months of a popular revolt.
Reuters reports that an emergency meeting of the West African bloc Ecowas has decided on an immediate deployment of regional military forces to Guinea Bissau and Mali to monitor the return to civilian rule after the recent coup there. Ecowas leaders gave both countries 72 hours to comply with the decision or face diplomatic and economic sanctions.
Bomb attacks on newspaper offices in two Nigerian cities have killed at least seven people. In the capital Abuja, a car rammed the offices of one paper, This Day. Another driver attempted to do the same to the newspaper office in Kaduna but was stopped by a crowd. Police said he threw a bomb killing several people but was then overwhelmed and arrested.
Sudan Tribune says an international UN review has recommended a cut of about 4,000 troop and police of the peacekeeping force in Sudan. The head of UN Peacekeeping, Hervé Ladsous said improvements on the ground justify the move. The reduction would save more $76 million in the first year alone. The hybrid mission, known as UNAMID, is composed of more than 24,000 troops, police and civilians from more than 40 countries. It costs the United Nations more than $1.5 billion a year.
Dawn reports Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to appeal against a supreme court decision to hold him in contempt of court for refusing to re-open corruption investigations into President Asif Ali Zardari, accused of using Swiss bank accounts to launder bribes. If he loses his appeal he could be forced out of office.
Associated Press says expanding the prostitution investigation, the US Secret Service has acknowledged it was checking whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of President Barack Obama's visit last year to El Salvador. The disclosure came not long after the Homeland Security secretary assured skeptical senators that the recent prostitution scandal in Colombia appeared to be an isolated incident.
The Vatican has censured one of Ireland's most outspoken and best known priests, Fr Brian D'arcy. A report in the weekly Catholic journal The Tablet says Fr D'arcy has been told he must submit his articles or broadcasts for approval by a church censor. It says the action is being taken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after an anonymous complaint.
The BBC says the European space agency has signed a contract to send a spacecraft closer to the sun than ever before. British firms have been given the task of building the “Solar Orbiter” to withstand temperatures of around 500oC as it takes up positions between the sun and planet Mercury.
Russian officials have reassured Moscow residents that green-tinged clouds over the capital were not an alien invasion, but tree pollen. Komsomolskaya Pravda said green dust also covered streets and cars. Some people in Moscow and the region apparently called emergency numbers in a panic, leading officials to say the air was thick with tree pollen, not disaster fallout.