The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press. The Maltese newspapers feature pictures of the Malta-Italy match on the front pages.
The Times quotes Malta Central Bank Governor Josef Bonnici insisting that the situation in Malta cannot be compared to Cyprus because circumstances are different.
The Malta Independent says sociologists have rubbished claims that 16 is too young an age for people to vote.
MaltaToday says a Libyan student's video implicates Mcast in examination fraud.
In-Nazzjon says the number of jobs increased by 5,700 between October and December last year. It also reports that Mriehel bypass is being used for Sunday morning horse races.
l-orizzont gives prominence to the disclosure that the power interconnector is to cost €26m more than projected.
The overseas press
Cypriot businesses are under increasing strain to keep running after financial authorities stretched the country’s bank closure into a second week in a bid to stop depositors rushing to drain their accounts. Cyprus Mail quotes the country’s central bank governor, Panicos Demetriades, saying “superhuman efforts are being made” to open banks tomorrow. Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said “temporary” restrictions would be imposed to stem any mass deposit withdrawal. Under the deal for a €10 billion rescue clinched in Brussels yesterday, Cyprus agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks. Sarris said authorities hope to limit job losses to a “small number”.
Europe's financial crisis is costing lives, with suicides and infectious diseases on the rise, yet politicians are not addressing the problem, health experts said on Wednesday. According to a major analysis of European health in The Lancet, deep budget cuts and growing unemployment were tipping more people into depression in many European countries with a series of negative consequences. The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, a group backed by the World Health Organisation, said the European Commission had a treaty obligation to look at the health effect of all of all the austerity measures imposed by the group of lenders responsible for a series of economic bail-outs known as “the troika” – the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
European Voice reports the European Commission has announced that Croatia would join the EU on July 1. Croatia will become the 28th EU member and only the second of six former Yugoslav republics to join the bloc. Slovenia was granted entry in 2004.The country has implemented a string of reforms requested by Brussels, but the latest report pointed to some work still outstanding.
The BBC says Pope Francis has decided to shun a grand papal apartment on the top floor of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace in favour of a modest two-room residence. His spokesman said he was "trying out this type of simple living" in a communal building with other priests. The decision reinforces the newly-elected Pope's austere reputation. As archbishop of Buenos Aires he had refused to move into the Bishop's Palace. Preferring more modest accommodation, he also often cooked his own meals.
Freak blizzards and freezing weather over the first few days of spring have hit Europe and parts of the United States, causing fatal cases of hypothermia, power outages and transport chaos. ABC reports five people have died in Poland from exposure as overnight temperatures plunged to minus 24 Celsius. Bad weather has also claimed at least two lives on the British mainland. Ukraine's capital Kiev was still feeling the effects of Monday's record-breaking snowfall and 15 centimetres of snow also blanketed Romania, shutting down schools. Deadly black ice coated roads in Croatia while ferry services on the Adriatic had to be suspended because of high winds. Both Austria and Belgium saw temperatures plunge to record lows.
The Washington Times says the Obama administration has dismissed Pyongyang's fresh threats of striking bases in the United States and the Republic of Korea, saying the US was “fully capable” of defending itself and its allies. Pyongyang said yesterday that its artillery and rocket forces are at their highest combat level in the latest threat aimed at South Korea and the United States.
Ansa reports Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has named outgoing prime minister Mario Monti as interim foreign affairs minister after the surprise resignation of Giulio Terzi over a decision to send two Italian marines back to India to stand trial on charges of homicide. Terzi said he did not agree with the government's decision to return the pair, accused of killing two fishermen while on anti-piracy duty.
US police have found an emaciated four-year-old boy in a flat with the body of his mother, who appeared to have been dead about five days. New Jersey Globe quotes the police director in Union in northern New Jersey saying the boy tried to get food from the refrigerator but couldn’t open the door. The discovery was made today after a maintenance worker reported a bad smell coming from the flat. The woman was found in a bedroom. Police do not suspect foul play. The boy was taken to a hospital for treatment.