The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times reports that sparks flew in Parliament yesterday with the PN objecting to the nomination of the Speaker and remarks made in the President’s speech. It also quotes Mario de Marco saying the PN cannot continue to be seen as a conservative party.
The Malta Independent says the President's remarks at the inauguration of Parliament raised eyebrows.
MaltaToday says the former Cabinet paid €5m to Shell days after the oil procurement scandal broke.
It-Torca reports that the government is investigating promotions and transfers made before the general election It also says that Mepa is €25m in the red.
Il-Mument says the Gozo Minister’s wife is working in the ministry’s customer care department.
Illum says PN district committees have been asked to collect money door to door to pay for PN workers’ salaries.
KullHadd leads with the President’s speech yesterday at the inauguration of parliament.
The overseas press
Expresso quotes President Anibal Cavaco Silva of Portugal saying the government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho should remain in office to tackle the country’s budget crisis. The decision came after an urgent meeting following Coelho’s strong criticism of a court ruling which described part of the government’s stern austerity plan as unconstitutional. On Friday, the court ruled some budget measures unlawful, including the reduction of salary for civil servants and retirees, and cuts to unemployment and sickness benefits. The ruling could compromise tough measures to meet the terms of a €78-billion EU-IMF bailout.
Amid mounting tensions with North Korea, the Unites States has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for next week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A senior defence official told The Associated Press US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had decided to put off the long-planned Minuteman-3 test until sometime next month because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis.
Eurasia reports Iran and the so-called P5+1 – the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany – have failed to reach agreement on a common approach to reduce fears that Tehran might misuse its nuclear technology to make weapons. EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the end of the two-day talks that the two sides “remain far apart on substance”. She said negotiators would now consult with their capitals and made no mention of plans for a new meeting.
Sunday World says former South African president Nelson Mandela has spent his first night back at his residence in Johannesburg after being discharged from hospital, where he had been for 10 days being treated for pneumonia. The 94-year-old former leader is said to have made “a sustained and virtual improvement”.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Brazil has ordered the police to investigate allegations of corruption against the former president, Luis Inàcio Lula de Silva. O Globo reports a businessman at the centre of a long-running corruption scandal told prosecutors that the former president received money from an illegal scheme to pay for political support. Lula has strongly denied any knowledge of the scheme.
Deutsche Welle says the German government has urged the country’s leading media organisations in to hand over data it had acquired on the widespread use of tax havens for possible tax evasion. German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler stressed tax evasion was a “criminal act”. On Saturday, the management of the weekly news magazine Focus said it would not hand over the confidential information because it was unwilling to break data protection legislation. RIA Novosti reports the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists did not plan to give state bodies information about the wide offshore network. ICIJ director Jerald Ryle said the Consortium’s long-time practice was not to give such materials.
Dhaka Courier says tens of thousands of members of a hardline Muslim group have rallied in Bangladesh’s capital to demand authorities enact an anti-blasphemy law punishing people who insult Islam. The rally took place amid heightened security in Dhaka and elsewhere after the Hifazat-e-Islam members targeted a group of bloggers who they say are atheists. The bloggers, who deny they are atheists, are seeking capital punishment for those found guilty of war crimes during the nation’s 1971 independence war. They also want a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party.
According to The Egyptian Gazette, five people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians outside Cairo. Investigators say the clashes started when young Muslims drew upside down crosses on an Islamic institute. Christian onlookers began quarrelling with Muslims nearby and soon residents wielding guns began firing on one another. A fire also broke out near a church in the Khosoos neighbourhood where the clashes took place before dawn.
Lebanon's official news agency NMA announces that President Michel Sleiman has asked Tammam Salam to form a new government. The 67-year-old Sunni scion, one of Lebanon's grand political families, is close to the opposition, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, France and the US. He said his priority would be national security.
The Italian government has approved a Bill to pay back €40 billion in debts owed to the private sector in a bid to boost businesses and stimulate growth as the country endures its longest post-war recession. Ansa quotes Prime Minister Mario Monti saying total debts were €80 billion at the end of 2011 and that banks estimated they had since risen to more than €100 billion. “This means costs for businesses and for the whole country,” Monti said, adding that this was “an unacceptable situation that has taken on ever greater dimensions”. Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli told news channel Sky TG 24 that payments could begin as early as Monday and that the oldest debts would be repaid first.