The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Sunday Times of Malta says the completion date of the City Gate project has been postponed by almost a year and it is running over budget by at least €6 million. In another story, it says that former Gozo Channel chairman Joseph Grech, who had been forced to resign has been engaged as the minister’s consultant on the company.
Kullhadd interviews Joseph Falzan, the chairman of Enemalta’s Fuel Procurement Advisory Committee in the years before the scandal, who says that former minister Austin Gatt had refused him the technical assistance of two university graduates he needed for the job.
Illum leads with an interview with Mona Camilleri, wife of the late Mario Camilleri, l-Imniehru, who was murdered a few days ago together with their 21-year-old-son.
It-Torca says that Maghtab residents claim that the Zwejra landfill had never gone through the process to become an engineered landfill. In another story it says that a project studying local cheeselets had to be postponed because the samples presented for the study had hygiene or production problems.
Il-Mument says that Minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca failed to say that she had been a civil servant in her declaration of assets, even though she had kept received the wages. In another story it says people close to the Prime Minister were saying that the Mater Dei Hospital was not being administered in a professional manner.
MaltaToday says that over 5 million euros in traffic fines were issued illegally. In another story it says that Rakhat Aliyev is now being accused of money laundering by lawyers across Austria, Germany and Lichtenstein.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says that the late Prime Minister Dom Mintoff’s resident in Delimara has been put on the market.
International news
According to O Globo, Pope Francis drew an estimated two million flag-waving faithful to Rio's Copacabana beach yesterday for the final evening of World Youth Day, hours after he chastised the Brazilian church for failing to stem the "exodus" of Catholics to evangelical congregations.
The New York Times reports from Cairo that the Egyptian authorities unleashed a ferocious attack on Islamist protesters, killing at least 72 people in the second mass killing of demonstrators in three weeks and the deadliest attack by the security services since Egypt’s uprising in early 2011.
Press TV says Tunisian police forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of angry protesters who had gathered near constituent assembly to protest the recent assassination of a leading opposition figure Mohamed Brahmi.
Libya Herald says more than a thousand inmates have escaped from prison as protesters stormed political party offices across the country – signs of the simmering unrest gripping a nation overrun by militias and awash in weaponry.
AFP quotes official results released early today which show Kuwait's Shiite minority lost more than half of their seats and liberals made slight gains in the Gulf state's second polls in eight months.
Economic Times quotes the European Commission saying it had reached “an amicable solution” with Beijing in a row over imports of Chinese solar panels.
USA Today says a gunman who barricaded himself with hostages inside a South Florida apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team.
Asia Times reports a man has been arrested in China following an unprovoked attack on a toddler in Beijing city centre.