The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times leads with the agreement reached yesterday to transfer the Spinola big screen to the Tiguglio site. It also says that Malta must enforce its energy plans.
The Malta Independent and l-orizzont lead with the opening of the appeal case by former priests convicted of child abuse. The defence asked if the case was motivated by money. The Independent also gives prominence to the prime minister’s visit to its offices to mark its 20th anniversary.
In-Nazzjon, meanwhile, reports on a visit by Dr Gonzi to an aluminium works factory which benefited from funds for small enterprises.
The overseas press
CNN says a very busy year in elections around the world – from revolutionary political shifts in the Middle East to economic woes driving voters to polls across Europe – comes to a head this weekend. Greeks will try again to decide which party should run the debt-laden country. France will hold legislative elections that will probably determine how much François Hollande can get done during his term as the nation's new president. And there's a presidential runoff in Egypt.
Today and tomorrow, Egyptians are expected to choose between two leading presidential candidates: Muslim Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general and civil aviation official who served under Hosni Mubarak as prime minister. Al Ahram reports that some have argued that the choice was really between two men who are unlikely to bring about the kind of change protesters demanded in 2011 during the historic uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
France 24 says opinion polls in France show that the Socialist Party will likely enjoy an absolute majority in parliament as voters head to the second round of legislative elections on Sunday. A victory for the Socialists would cap a string of triumphs, notably President François Hollande’s runoff win over conservative former President Nicolas Sarkozy last month, and also the French left’s takeover of the Senate in September 2011. Besides protecting their seats in the National Assembly, centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) is also confronting internal rivalries for the party’s leadership and difficult questions about its relationship to the far-right National Front (FN) party.
Al Jazeera reports electoral officials are preparing polling stations for Greece's crucial election tomorrow, which could result in the country being forced out of the eurozone. The last published surveys showed the conservative New Democracy Party, which backs a €130-billion bailout, running neck-and-neck with the leftist Syriza, which wants to cancel the rescue deal. Greece's other main party, the Socialist Pasok party, is running third. The finance ministry has reportedly said that Greece only has money left to pay salaries and pensions until late July.
Cyprus faces the choice of asking for a bailout from its European partners in the eurozone or from Russia, and would decide where to turn after this weekend’s crucial elections in Greece. The country’s Financial Mirror says Cyprus Popular Bank, the island’s second-largest lender and the most exposed to Greek debt, needs €1.8 billion to boost its capital levels to an EU target by the end of the month. The government has vowed to put up the money if the bank, as expected, can’t raise it on its own. Unable to borrow from international markets with its credit rating reduced to junk status, Cyprus is depending on a €2.5 billion low-interest loan from Russia to see it through to the end of the year.
The New York Times reports that the head of the UN observers in Syria, Maj Gen Robert Mood, has presented a gloomy assessment of its prospects on Friday, as the government and its opposition accused each other of fomenting bloodshed around the weekly Muslim prayer services. He told reporters in Damascus that the growing violence was derailing his mission and could prompt the unarmed force to pull out. There was little support for military intervention, and several rounds of sanctions had done little to stop the bloodshed.