The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how Lawrence Gonzi will quit politics in the coming weeks. It also says that big names have submitted bids for the Delimara power station.
The Malta Independent says Beppe Fenech Adami will contest the post for PN deputy leader for party affairs. Mario de Marco is keeping his options open.
l-orizzont says blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was fined €15 for disobeying police orders by not taking her car to a police station after an alleged incident.
In-Nazzjon, quoting Simon Busuttil, says the PN Opposition will be strong and constructive. Dr Busuttil will be sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on Monday.
The overseas press
Dhaka Courier reports a woman has been pulled alive from the ruins of an eight-storey building that collapsed in a suburb of Bangladesh's capital 17 days ago. Rescuers said the seamstress, now in hospital, survived thanks to water and food rations that had been introduced among the debris in the early days when they pulled alive hundreds of people. More than 1,000 are now confirmed to have died, most of them women working in clothes factories. About 2,500 people have been rescued.
Los Angeles Times reports Ohio state officials announced that DNA testing had established that Ariel Castro, the man being held on kidnapping and rape charges of three women in Cleveland, was the father of the six-year-old girl born to one of the imprisoned women. The news came as Michelle Knight, the longest held of three women, was discharged from the hospital where she had been cared for after her ordeal. She is reported to have told police that during her captivity she endured five miscarriages caused by Castro beating her. Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said the “horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade was beyond comprehension” and wants to add charges of aggravated murder, which is a capital crime under Ohio law.
According to Voice of Nigeria, 17 pregnant teenage girls and 11 babies have been rescued from a house in Nigeria's south-eastern Imo state. The police are looking for a woman suspected of planning to sell the babies. The rescued girls said they had all been made pregnant by a 23-year-old man, who has been arrested. The EU says Nigeria, along with China, is one of the biggest sources of people trafficked into Europe, where they are often forced into prostitution.
The Italian news agency AGI says Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has called for the European Union summit in June to adopt a strategy to combat youth unemployment with concrete measures to be implemented immediately. In a meeting with European Parliament president Martin Schulz in Rome, Letta said Europe must find answers for growth and unemployment that was at absolutely unsustainable levels.
Ansa says the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference has declared his support for automatic citizenship rights for migrants' children born in Italy. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said this was “a fundamental human right of the person” and one that needed to be “safeguarded”. His comments come in the wake of a proposal made by Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge to grant Italian citizenship automatically to all children born in Italy to migrant parents. Kyenge is Italy's first black minister and her appointment has triggered a series of racist attacks. Meanwhile, the Radical Party has presented a request for a referendum abolishing the status of illegality for immigrants.
Dawn reports that polls have opened in Pakistan’s landmark general election after a particularly bloody campaign that saw more than 130 people killed, but which failed to curb the election fever in this resilient nation. More than 86 million are eligible to vote to elect representatives to the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies. The Taliban, who consider the elections as being contrary to Islam, have threatened to disrupt the poll with suicide bomb attacks.
Tribune de Genève says Iran's Vice-President Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh has welcomed US-backed Russian proposals for an international conference in Geneva to end the Syrian conflict. He said his country “would be more than happy and pleased to assist” in the process to restore peace in Syria. Meanwhile, President Putin discussed possible joint measures to resolve the Syrian crisis with Prime Minister Cameron in Moscow. The developments came as 25 have been killed after a Syrian government artillery attack on Halfaya.
Libya Herald reports militiamen who have been besieging the Libyan Foreign Ministry in Tripoli fled when hundreds of pro-democracy supporters arrived at the building to demonstrate their support for the government. Armed groups seized control of two government ministries press demands on parliament and have refused to leave until Prime Minister Ali Zeidan steps down. As bombs exploded outside two police stations in Benghazi, the British and American embassies have announced downsizing staff because security issues relating the present political crisis. Italy has joined the US in advising its citizens travelling to Benghazi.
Centrafrique Presse says poachers have slaughtered at least 26 elephants inside a famed park in the volatile Central African Republic. WWF officials said local residents had already started taking meat from the carcasses, which included four calves. Earlier this week, 17 armed fighters who identified themselves being with the Seleka rebel movement entered the Dzanga Bai. The rebels who overthrew Central African Republic’s president in March have been accused of involvement in elephant poaching. The population of the region’s forest elephants has plummeted in recent years from poaching.