The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how the PN admitted the reasons for is electoral defeat. It also says the Salina flamingo was likely shot while it slept.
The Malta Independent says the government has announced an amnesty for prisoners. It also says there is a long shortlist of bidders for the gas power station contract.
MaltaToday says over €500,000 were spent on the unrealised White Rocks project.
l-orizzont highlights the short list of companies in contention for the provision of the gas-fired power station.
In-Nazzjon says the PN viewed the reasons for its electoral defeat with humility while being optimistic for the future. It also says prisoners greeted the amnesty with cries of Taghna Lkoll.
The overseas press
France has said it was certain that chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria. Le Monde quotes French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius saying tests in Paris have detected the poisonous nerve gas sarin from samples recovered from the country.
According to The Independent, a British attempt to blacklist the military wing of Hezbollah has run into opposition at the European Union, in part because of the mystery that continues to shroud a key investigation linking the Lebanese group to an attack in Bulgaria last year.
Sky Turk reports that police forces used tear gas and water cannons early today to disperse hundreds of protesters in Istanbul and the capital Ankara on the sixth day of nationwide anti-government unrest.
Meanwhile, EurasiaNet says Turkey’s deputy prime minister has offered an apology for a violent crackdown on an environmental protest, in a bid to appease days of anti-government rallies across the country. Bulent Arinc, who is standing in for Erdogan while he is visiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, said the crackdown was “wrong and unjust”.
Eurosnews reports 11 people have been killed and thousands forced from their homes as flooding continues in parts of Europe. Shops and schools have been shut and road and rail transport have been disrupted across the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany following torrential rain.
Oklahoma Today says the deadly tornado that ploughed through an area near Oklahoma City last week was even larger and more powerful than previously estimated – a record 2.6 miles wide with winds that reached nearly 300 mph, just shy of the strongest winds ever measured.
Huffington Post reports a computer hacker who told authorities that a US soldier was giving information to WikiLeaks has testified that the Army private never said he wanted to help the enemy during their online chats. Bradley Manning is on trial for giving hundreds of thousands of documents to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks – by far the biggest release of classified material in US history.
USA Today says senators dressed down senior military leaders, led by female lawmakers, combat veterans and former prosecutors who insisted that sexual assault in the ranks has cost the services the trust and respect of the American people as well as the nation's men and women in uniform. Summoned to Capitol Hill, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the four-star chiefs of the service branches conceded in an extraordinary hearing that they had faltered in dealing with sexual assault. One said assaults were “like a cancer” in the military.
Mail & Guardian reports a South African magistrate has warned against “trial by media” of Oscar Pistorius as the athlete appeared in court for the first time since being freed on bail over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Magistrate Daniel Thulare said he was “worried” by aspects of reporting about the killing after prosecutor Andrea Johnson asked for a postponement of the hearing to allow for further investigation of the case.
al bawaba says two Saudi Arabian citizens have been beheaded after being convicted of murder. The newspaper says these cases bring the total number of executions in Saudi Arabia since the start of the year to 49. Last year, 76 people were executed for crimes – such as rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, sorcery and witchcraft –punishable by death under the country’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.