The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the Police Commissioner is considering action over a charge sheet error in a police beating case which saw the officers acquitted on a technicality.
The Malta Independent leads with the political activities held yesterday by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
In-Nazzjon gives prominence to remarks by the Prime Minister that the PN's priorities are jobs, education and health.
l-orizzont says there have been claims that the New Year double homicide could have been the case of 'revenge'. It says victim and aggressor knew one another.
The overseas press
Bloomberg says voters in Greece and France have challenged austerity as Europe’s sole prescription for the financial crisis, adding pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to broaden her focus from debt reduction to save the 17-nation bloc. Greek elections left the two biggest parties short of the clear majority to keep bailout efforts there on track. In France, Socialist François Hollande defeated President Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel’s preferred partner for enforcing fiscal rigor. Alexis Tsipras, head of the Syriza party which unexpectedly came second in the Greek general election, told Merkel “to get lost”. He told state-run NET TV, “European leaders, and especially Merkel, should realize their policies have undergone a crushing defeat.” The euro fell to a three-week low in Asian trading after the elections, declining to $1.3026 in Tokyo.
Le Parisien reports Hollande has arrived was given a rousing welcome from supporters in Paris – hours after inflicting a humiliating defeat on Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election. Jubilant crowds filled the Plaçe de la Bastille – the symbolic home of the French Revolution and traditional rallying point of the Left – waving banners and letting off fireworks. Hollande, who polled just under 52 per cent of votes in Sunday's run-off, told them his victory should bring hope to people across Europe of an end to austerity.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – who backed Sarkozy in the election – has congratulated Hollande on his victory and invited him for early talks in Berlin. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Berliner Zeitung he was confident that the two countries could work together on a growth path for the Eurozone.
CNN says President Barack Obama has invioted Hollande to the White House later this month, expressing hope they would work "closely" on a range of shared economic and security challenges. The US president is due to host the leaders of the Group of Eight rich nation's club at his Camp David retreat in Maryland between May 18 and 19, followed by the NATO transatlantic alliance summit in Chicago on May 20 and 21. Obama proposed that they meet beforehand at the White House for a bilateral meeting.
Meanwhile, AFP quotes Hollande's campaign chief Pierre Moscovici urged voters to "confirm and amplify" Hollande's victory in the two-round parliamentary vote on June 10 and 17. Polls released late Sunday showed the Socialists and Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party neck-and-neck ahead of the vote. Under France's political system the president requires a parliamentary majority to form a government; otherwise the prime minister is in charge of the executive.
Kathemerini says preliminary results in the general election in Greece suggest dramatic losses for the two main parties and big gains by parties opposed to the country’s austerity measures. With three-quarters of votes counted, centre-right New Democracy is leading with 19.6 per cent and centre-left Pasok is in third place with 13.5 per cent. Left-wing coalition Syriza, which opposes the austerity measures, is in second place with 16.3 per cent. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party could enter parliament for the first time if their tally of almost seven per cent holds up. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras had called for a coalition to keep Greece inside the Eurozone.
Serbia Post reports incumbent President Boris Tadic and nationalist opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic will contest the second round of presidential elections May 20. Preliminary estimates show Tadic and Nikolic leading with 26.7 per cent and 25.5 per cent respectively. In the parliamentary elections, Nikolic's Serbian Progressive Party became the biggest party with 24.7 per cent of the vote. Tadic's Democratic Party got 23.2 per cent
London’s Daily Express announces that scientists at the Medical Research Council toxicology unit at Leicester University are a step closer in finding a way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease after discovering how to “switch off” its power to destroy brain cells. The breakthrough has been hailed as a “very exciting” development in the search for potential treatments to end the misery of Alzheimer’s and other illnesses such as Parkinson’s and the human form of mad cow disease.
Pan-Americana TV reports at least 1,200 birds, mostly pelicans, have washed up dead along a stretch of Peru's northern Pacific coastline after an estimated 800 dolphins died in the same area in recent months. The government has urged residents and tourists to stay away from the area as it investigates the unexplained deaths. Preliminary tests on some dead pelicans pointed to malnourishment.
La Vanguardia says Barcelona striker Lionel Messi has smashed the world record for the most goals in a single season, scoring an astonishing 72 in all competitions. The previous record of 70 goals was set 87 years ago by Scotsman Archie Stark, a player with the former US team Bethlehem Steel, who notched up the tally in the 1924-25 campaign, five years before the club folded. Argentinian Messi passed him after scoring all the goals in Barca's 4-0 home defeat of Espanyol on Saturday night. His third goal at the Camp Nou saw him capture his 14th hat-trick in La Liga.