The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with an EU report that the health system ‘offers poor value for money’. It also pictures Tom Hanks walking at St Julian’s and reports that a banned driver has been jailed for six years for repeatedly driving without a licence.
The Malta Independent reports that Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker and former Nato chief Javier Solana head the list of witnesses to give testimony in the Cachia Caruana hearings in parliament. It also says that the EU is set to make the banking sector more resilient.
MaltaToday quotes a geologist who says that the Gozo tunnel proposal cuts into a rock fault. It also says that the Inland Revenue Department has been ordered to pay €30,000 compensation to a taxpayer who objected to a tax-assessment 30 years ago.
l-orizzont leads with disagreement between the government and the opposition on the order of witnesses in the Cachia Caruana hearings in parliament. It also reports an appeal by Tony Zarb for construction workers to join the GWU in order to be able to give more importance to health and safety.
In-Nazzjon reports on attempts by the Labour Party to show unity between Jason Micallef and Joseph Muscat. It also says that 60 new jobs have been created in Bay Street thanks to the opening of new shops.
The overseas press
Berliner Zeitung reports that during their first official meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and newly-inaugurated French President François Hollande have agreed to work closely on increasing growth in Europe. After talks with Hollande in Berlin, Merkel said Germany and France understood their joint responsibility for Europe and must offer joint ideas at an EU summit next month on reviving economic growth. Hollande said it was the duty of the EU to ensure that Greece remained in the eurozone, adding that the people of Greece needed to know that the EU would help them pull out of recession
Kathimerini announces that a new general election in Greece would be held next month as President Papoulias confirmed that three days of talks had failed to produce a new coalition government. He has summoned the leaders of the country's political parties to a meeting today aimed at putting an interim administration in place to run the country until the next election, likely to be held on either June 10 or 17.
Börzen Zeitung says the political turmoil in Greece has kept pressure on financial markets, causing all of the main European stock exchanges to slump. The Athens Stock Exchange plunged on the news, diving 4.86 per cent minutes after the announcement before recovering slightly. The euro was less than 0.1 percent from the lowest level in almost four months. Official figures released yesterday showed the eurozone narrowly avoided a recession after recording zero growth in the first three months of the year. The result, which was better than expected, was largely due to growth of 0.5 per cent in the German economy.
According to The Chicago Tribune, the police have arrested four NATO protesters at a rally ahead of the weekend summit. Television crews captured protesters confronting police on bicycles positioned outside a Chicago immigration court. Thousands of protesters are expected to descend upon Chicago as the leaders of 50 countries gather for a NATO summit on Sunday and Monday. Fears that the protests could turn violent have put the city on edge, with some downtown businesses even telling office workers to ditch their suits and ties and dress down to avoid being hassled or targeted on the streets.
Iran has executed a man convicted of killing a nuclear scientist in 2010 and for spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. The official IRNA news agency says Majid Jamali Fashi was hanged at Tehran’s Evin Prison. The Iranian state prosecutor said the man had confessed to assassinating Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. Iran has blamed Israeli and American intelligence for assassinating at least four nuclear scientists.
Aftenposten reports a man has set himself on fire outside the Oslo court where right-wing extremist Anders Breivik is being tried for his bombing and shooting massacre. Police posted outside the building quickly put out the flames. The man suffered burns and was taken to Oslo University Hospital.
El Tiempo says a bomb exploded in a crowded area of Bogota yesterday, killing five people and wounding 17 others. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said it was an attempt to assassinate a former interior minister, Fernando Londono. The attack came shortly after the police announced they had dismantled a car-bomb that leftist FARC rebels planned to use in an attack on the Bogota police headquarters.
The Mirror says Rebekah Brooks came out fighting yesterday as she became one of the first suspects to be prosecuted over the phone-hacking scandal. The former News International chief executive, her racehorse trainer husband Charlie and four others will appear in court accused of plotting to hide evidence. The couple branded the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision as “weak and unjust”.
TV Azteca announces the death of Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, one of the leading exponents of Spanish language literature. He was 83 years. Fuentes wrote more than 20 novels and several collections of short stories. His best-known works include “The Death of Artemio Cruz,” “The Old Gringo” and “The Crystal Frontier.” “The Old Gringo” was the first U.S. bestseller by a Mexican author and was made into a movie in 1989 starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. His work was translated into two dozen languages.
The Los Angeles Times says former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has made a $1million (€777,000) counter-claim against the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault. The disgraced French politician said in court papers that the Guinean-born Nafissatou Diallo made a “malicious and wanton false accusation” when she said he attacked her a year ago after she arrived to clean his hotel suite. Married Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, says whatever happened was consensual, and he has denied doing anything violent.
Adnkronos reports that the Vatican has dropped its suit against Benetton after the Italian fashion house donated money to a Catholic charity and apologised for a November ad image manipulated to show Pope Benedict kissing Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, the imam who heads Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, on the mouth. The advert, labelled blasphemous by the Church, was withdrawn from the Italian fashion giant’s global anti-hate campaign, Unhate. The Vatican had objected that it was a "totally unacceptable use" of the pope's image.