The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports that a body has been abandoned in a morgue for eight months, with the family not interested in burial. It also highlights comments by an EU Commission spokesman that John Dalli’s resignation was ‘political’.
The Malta Independent highlights how BirdLife yesterday condemned government plans for a derogation on bird trapping.
MaltaToday says John Dalli is accusing the European Commission of having wanted to lift the ban on snus smokeless tobacco. He insists in an interview to German media that he was pushed out of the European Commission in a case of entrapment.
In-Nazzjon reports how the emergency service given at Capua St James Hospital on weekends as contracted by the government is to be discontinued.
l-orizzont leads with the laying of flowers by a GWU delegation on the Workers' Monument in Msida yesterday. During the ceremony GWU General Secretary Tony Zarb urged employers not to be heartless by employing workers in poor conditions.
The overseas press
Euronews reports militiamen have surrounded the Justice Ministry building in Tripoli in the third consecutive day of armed demonstrations in the Libyan capital. They are calling for former aides to deposed leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to be barred from government posts. The General National Congress has postponed a decision on the issue to Sunday. The Foreign Ministry and the al-Wataiya TV stations were also surrounded by gunmen on Sunday.
Italy’s new Prime Minister Enrico Letta has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in his first state trip abroad, hours after winning his final vote of approval by the Senate in Rome. The meeting came one day after Letta's inaugural speech where he had pledged to push an agenda of growth rather than austerity to revive the recession-hit Italian economy. According to Deutsche Welle, Merkel, a strong advocate of structural reforms, spending cuts and deficit reduction across the 17-nation eurozone, said she saw no contradiction between budgetary discipline and the goal of economic growth.
A general strike against tough austerity measures has begun in Greece, with the country's trade unions calling for "mass mobilisation" of protesters. Kathemerini reports the 24-hour action is expected to severely disrupt public services, including transport and hospitals. The organisers are demanding an end to cuts and tax rises, which have led to six straight years of recession.
Cyprus Mail says parliament has voted 29-27in favour of a bailout from international lenders, finalising the terms stipulated by the EU and IMF. By approving the terms needed to secure €10 billion, depositors must help recapitalize their own banks. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside parliament, some holding signs that said "No, this homeland not for sale."
The unemployment rate in the 17-member currency union hit a record 12.1 percent in March. EU Observer reports the new Eurostat figures saw another 62,000 people join the jobless ranks, bringing the total to 19.2 million in the eurozone, up by 1.7 million from a year earlier. Youth unemployment has also reached a new record, standing at 24 per cent.
Le Soir says the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Ukraine's jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was a politically motivated violation of her rights. A Ukrainian government official stormed out of the court after the decision in a case that has strained the former Soviet state's ties with Europe and the United States. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 after being convicted of exceeding her powers as premier while negotiating a gas contract with Russia.
Globovision reports fistfights have broken out in Venezuela's parliament over the recent disputed presidential election. Several legislators were left bloodied and bruised, with both opposition and pro-government lawmakers accusing each other of starting the fight. A measure was earlier passed denying MPs the right to speak until they recognised Nicolas Maduro as president.
The Washington Post quotes President Obama saying he won't be rushed to respond to Syria's apparent use of chemical weapons. Obama said chemical weapons had been used in Syria, but added, "we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them". In his first news conference since the Boston marathon attack, Obama also defende law enforcement agencies saying they had performed in “exemplary fashion” in the hunt for the bombers. Obama also said that he wanted to try again to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The head of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has declared that Syria has real friends who will not let it fall to the US, Israel or Islamic radicals. Speaking in an address broadcast on Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar, Hassan Nasrallah said Syria's opposition was too weak to bring down Bashar al-Assad's regime militarily.
NASA will pay $424 million more to Russia for giving US astronauts a lift to the International Space Station. AFP says the hefty bill includes the training and transporting of six astronauts to and from the ISS in 2016 and the first half of 2017 in Russian Soyuz spacecraft. That comes down to $70.6 million a seat – an increase of $5.6 million from the previous price tag.
Times of India reports a girl of five has died after being raped in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The girl had suffered a brain injury when the men tried to smother her cries and was in a coma until she died. Earlier this month, another five-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and tortured by two men who then abandoned her in a locked room in New Delhi. She is still recovering in hospital. The attacks on the young girls come four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.
Tom Hanks was the big name on the nominations list last night for this year's Tony Awards, but the musicals "Kinky Boots" and "Matilda" were vying for the heaviest haul of gongs. CBS News says Hanks, is up for the best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play "Lucky Guy", which is also listed for best play and four other categories. His main rival could be between "Kinky Boots" with 13 nominations, including best musical and best director, and "Matilda" the adaptation of the beloved children's book by Roald Dahl, with 12 nominations.The awards will be presented in New York on June 9.