The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times reports how Joseph Muscat has admitted mistakes in the Safi Club drug case.
The Malta Independent says bunkering ship purchases are the second line of corruption investigations. It also says the PN has questioned links between Joseph Muscat and Joe Cordina.
MaltaToday says the head of the Security Service is to face criminal charges after its probe about a traffic accident. It also says Labour is 11 points ahead of the PN in election opinion polls.
It-Torca says a PN government would set up an incinerator in Delimara. It also questions how a Pieta’ residence was transferred to a canvasser of minister Jason Azzopardi by encroachment.
Il-Mument says Joseph Muscat worked with Joe Cordina before he was appointed PL financial administrator. It also says the PL is continuing to have meetings with contractors.
KullHadd quotes Joseph Muscat saying the government should be honest with the people.
The overseas press
Voting has started in more than 61,000 polling stations across Italy in a general election the outcome of which is highly uncertain. Just over 47 million people can cast their ballots in the election which ends on Monday at 3.00p.m. Ansa says several polls indicate that centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani may score only a half-victory by winning a majority in the Chamber of Deputies but failing to get one in the Senate. An average of the most recent polls gave Bersani 34 per cent of the vote, Silvio Berlusconi 30 per cent, Beppe Grillo 17 per cent and Mario Monti around 11 per cent.
The Italian elections have also attracted the attention of the European media. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Stuttgarter Zeitung that it was “in Italy's interests” to continue with Monti's reform agenda. Belgium’s Le Soir carried an editorial titled "Italian Elections, European Stakes" underling that “the real danger that threatens Italy, and therefore all of Europe, is instability”. Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza said the election was "A Fight Between Clowns" – Berlusconi and Grillo.
The elections received an unexpected boost on Saturday from Pope Benedict, who met Italian President Giorgio Napolitano – the last world leader he will meet before resigning on Thursday. “I will pray for Italy especially in these days and this time of difficult choices,” the pope said at the talks. L’Osservatore Romano described the farewell meeting as “especially intense and cordial, given the great mutual respect and the now long-time familiarity between the two distinguished speakers”. President Napolitano expressed to the Pope the gratitude of the Italian people for his closeness through many crucial moments and for his great religious and moral teaching, and the affection that will accompany him in the years to come.
Tens of thousands of angry Spaniards have protested in cities across the country in a “citizens' tide” of protests. El Mundo says a multitude of nurses, doctors, teachers, firemen, miners and numerous other groups converged in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and A Coruna and other cities to the din of drums and whistles and yells of "Resign!" directed at Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his government. They were protesting at “unemployment, corrupt politicians and the young people who have no future”.
El Pais reports Inaki Urdangarin, husband to King Juan Carlos's youngest daughter Cristina, has appeared in court in Majorca for closed-door questioning over allegations that he embezzled millions of euros of public money paid to a a charitable body which Urdangarin chaired from 2004 to 2006. He denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime. A crowd of protestors massed nearby yelling in anger at the perceived corruption.
Al Ahram reports Egypt’s Opposition Leader Mohamed El Baradei has called for a boycott of the country’s upcoming legislative elections, as Islamist President Mohamed Morsi rescheduled the first round after Copts complained it would clash with a Christian holiday. Many Copts fear that Morsi and his Islamist allies seek to marginalise the minority community which represents six to 10 per cent of Egypt's 83-million-population of mostly Sunni Muslims.
The Associated Press reported the battle for Syria's second-largest airport intensified Saturday as government troops tried to reverse recent strategic gains the rebels have made in the northeast in their quest to topple President Bashar Assad. The government forces have been locked in a stalemate with rebels in Aleppo since July when the city, the largest in Syria, became a major battlefield in the two-year-old conflict the United Nations says has killed at least 70,000 people. For months, rebels have been trying to capture the international airport, which is closed because of the fighting.
O Globo says a shortage of hotel rooms has led Rio authorities to invest millions of Brazilian reals to convert raunchy motels to accommodate the legions of tourists expected for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics. More than €100 million have been earmarked to convert 3,500 of Rio's 6,500 motel rooms, with local authorities providing tax incentives. Rio de Janeiro, which is home to six million people, currently has 32,436 rooms. The goal is to bring the total to 47,788 by 2015. Traditionally, local sex motels are full during the high season – carnival or the New Year – or during high-profile events such as the 1992 Earth Summit and the visit by the late Pope John Paul II in 1997.