The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports that the PN leader vote is set for May 4. It also reports that the OLAF boss is under fire over the John Dalli inquiry.
The Malta Independent says panic has spread in Cyprus amid rumours of a big bank folding. It also says that Maltese bank assets top European league.
In-Nazzjon reports how the PN announced last night that the election for its leader will take place on May 4. It also reports how Baxter is to sack 94 workers.
l-orizzont reports that Malta is to be taken to the European Court over deductions to service pensions.
The overseas press
Cyprus Mail reports that as politicians raced to find a new financial rescue plan ahead of a Monday deadline, tensions built in the streets of Nicosia as residents withdrew what money they could from ATMs amid fears the banks could collapse. The European Central Bank has warned it would pull the plug on the country’s troubled banks at the start of next week if a bailout package for Cyprus was not approved by then. The ECB is keeping the Cypriot banks alive by allowing them to draw on emergency support from the local central bank. The plan must please both Parliament and the potential rescue creditors – the other 16 countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund. In Brussels, the head of the 17-nation eurozone’s finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said the ECB was doing “as much as they can within their mandate”.
Associated Press says President Obama on Thursday prodded both Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations with few, if any, pre-conditions, softening his earlier demands that Israel stop building settlements in disputed territory. The president made his appeal just hours after rockets fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza landed in a southern Israeli border town, a fresh reminder of the severe security risks and tensions that have stymied peace efforts for decades.
According to al-bawaba, a suicide bomb ripped through a mosque in the heart of the Syrian capital, killing Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti – a top Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken supporter of President Basha Al Assad. At least 41 others were killed and more than 84 wounded. Buti, who was 84, was killed as he was giving religious lessons at the mosque. His grandson was also reportedly killed.
Hurriyet reports that the jailed leader of Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey, has called for a truce after years of war. In a message read out to cheers during Kurdish New Year celebrations in the city of Diyarbakir. Abdullah Ocalan also urged the fighters of his PKK organisation to withdraw from Turkey. More than 40,000 people have died in the 30-year fight for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in Turkey's south-east.
According to Le Matin, members of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's family who fled to Algeria during the 2011 revolt that toppled him from power have left the country. The report did not say where Gaddafis' widow Safia and three of his sons – Acha, Hannibal and Mohamed – had gone or when they left Algeria. Saad Gaddafi is in Niger, while the ousted dictator's anointed heir Saif al-Islam is detained in Libya. Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, a cousin and close aide of Gaddafi was arrested in Cairo on Tuesday after a siege which lasted several hours in Zamalek. Gaddaf al-Dam is wanted by Libya's authorities, who accuse him of crimes against humanity and had issued an Interpol warrant for his arrest.
Le Parisien says French president Nicolas Sarkozy is under formal investigation over claims he took illegal donations to fund his 2007 election campaign from France's richest woman. It is claimed Sarkozy took€150,000 in cash-stuffed envelopes from elderly billionaire L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt – well above the €4,600-legal limit on individual campaign contributions. Sarkozy, 58, is accused of taking advantage of a vulnerable person. His lawyer said he will appeal.
Il Tempo reports two Italian marines on trial for murder in India would return to the country. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, granted special leave last month by an Indian court to return to Italy to vote in elections, had skipped bail. The Italian government said it had received “ample assurances” from Indian authorities “on the treatment that the marines will receive and the defence of their fundamental rights”.
The Times leads with the enthronement yesterday of Justin Welby, the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, to serve as head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the world's 77 million-strong Anglican Communion. In a colourful ceremony, Welby was enthroned by Archdeacon of Canterbury Sheila Watson, the first woman priest to do so in the church's history. In his sermon, Welby said he wanted to foster closer ties with other Christians and heal splits within the Anglican Communion.
Il Messaggero reports Pope Francis was still living in the Vatican hotel and has not decided if he would move into the papal apartments. The pontiff reportedly loves life at the hotel, where he lodged with other cardinals during the conclave that elected him pope last week. Francis eats meals with its guests – usually papal envoys, prelates and officers of the papal court – and has made friends with all its staff. Vatican officials have expressed concern about his security at the hotel. Meanwhile, the Vatican announced.Pope Francis will hold a pre-Easter mass at a youth detention centre in Rome next week and wash inmates' feet, as he used to do in Argentina when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.