The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times under the heading 'Debono rejected by Gonzi,' reports that the Nationalist Party has denied a claim by Franco Debono that the prime minister wants him to be a candidate for the forthcoming election. It also reports how a man was charged with trying to kill a father and his four-year-old son.
The Malta Independent says Franco Debono has denied peeking as the Dissett presenter's points, claiming it was a joke. A picture showed Debono looking at the presenter's notes before the programme.
In-Nazzjon says roaming charges for mobile phones will come down on Sunday.
l-orizzont leads with the court hearings yesterday in the case against Sandro Chetcuti, accused of assaulting Vince Farrugia, director-general of the GRTU. Philip Fenech, GRTU vice president told Farrugia in an SMS that the commissioner ‘is with us’.
The overseas press
The New York Times reports Turkey has warned the UN Security Council that Syria's shooting down of a Turkish military plane represented a "hostile act of the highest order” but says it would not go to war over the incident. Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Turkey retained the right to retaliate and might cut power supply to Damascus. The comments come as Nato's governing body prepared to hold an emergency meeting later today to discuss Friday's incident. Damascus insists the F-4 jet was shot down inside Syrian airspace. Meanwhile, the United States has said the UN Security Council had been a "colossal failure" in protecting Syrian civilians and made a new demand for sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad.
Cyprus has told the EU it intended to apply for a financial bailout – the fifth eurozone member after Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal – to do so. L’Echo says the Cypriot government issued a brief statement in Brussels saying it needed help to shore up its banks, which were heavily exposed to the Greek economy. A government spokesman said the amount of money was up for negotiation over the coming days. European Union leaders meet for their monthly summit in Brussels on Thursday. The Spanish prime minister called for Thursday's summit to "dispel doubts" about the euro.
The Financial Times says the Cypriot government announcement came on another day of nervousness about the single currency. Shares in Italy, Spain and Greece fell sharply amid concerns that an EU summit this week will again fail to produce a deal to shore up the euro. The Italian and Spanish indexes both closed about 4 per cent down. The fall on Spain's Ibex index was exacerbated by a Reuters report that the Moody's credit rating agency was planning to downgrade Spain's banks. Earlier, Spain formally requested a bailout loan for its banking sector, expected to be for up to €100 billion.
Kathimerini reports that newly-appointed Finance Minister of Greece, Vasilios Rapanos, has resigned because of ill-health. He had been rushed to hospital last week, shortly after being appointed to revive the country’s ailing economy. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was also admitted to hospital on Friday and has only just been released after undergoing major eye surgery. Ill-heath had forced both ministers to say they were unable to attend a crucial EU summit in Brussels this week.
L’Avvenire says the Vatican has again stressed that newly-ordained Catholic priests must stick to their vow of celibacy and achieve “emotional maturity”. According to new guidelines issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education, it was important that those called to the priesthood clearly understand what they were committing to, especially their vows of celibacy.
USA Today says the US Supreme Court has upheld a key part of Arizona’s immigration law which allows state police to stop and check the identity of anyone who might be in the country illegally. President Obama said he was concerned about the practical impact of the law.
Buganda Post reports at least 18 people have died in a landslide in the east of the country. At least 15 homes were buried after heavy rainfall near Mount Elgon national park – an area where deforestation is thought to contribute to the problem.. The mudslide destroyed three villages and hundreds of people were feared dead.
The number of people who died of swine flu during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic may be about 15 times higher than originally calculated. The Lancet quotes researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying in a new study they estimated that 284,500 people worldwide died of infection from the swine flu, between April 2009 and August 2010. At the time, 18,500 deaths had been laboratory-confirmed. The researchers estimated that 59 percent occurred in southeast Asia and in Africa and that 80 percent of those who died worldwide were under 65 years old.
Italian doctors have used a robot to remove a section of the liver of a living donor and transplant it to another man in a world first. Ansa says both the donor and the recipient, two brothers aged 46 and 44 respectively, did not experience any complications following the operation, which took place at the Mediterranean Institute for Transplants in Palermo. It took 10 hours using the Da Vinci robot to remove the section of the liver from the donor, who left hospital after 10 days. The recipient, who suffered from cirrhosis of the liver, returned home several weeks after the surgery.
Associated Press reports archaeologists in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-metre section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was city's main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago. The marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki's new subway system, which was due to be completed in four years. The road in the northern port city would now be raised to be put on permanent display when the metro opens in 2016.