The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.

In Times of Malta, Former Police Commissioner John Rizzo strongly denies that police officers under his watch ever took foreign cadets to swim using official police boats. The newspaper also reports a prosecutor telling the court that Matthew Zahra, who went missing in August last year, was murdered after demanding €500,000 in interest on some €6,000 he had lent his killer.

In-Nazzjon says that not only did the Labour government present ministers’ declarations of assets two months late in breach of the Code of Ethics, some were kept under wraps for more than three weeks. In another story it says that the PN executive approved eight candidates for the next European Parliament elections.

The Malta Independent says that a radical reform of the legal aid system and hiving off some of the Attorney General’s responsibilities are among the 293 proposals included in the second document issued by the Justice Reform Commission.

L-Orizzont says that shortcomings included in a Management Efficiency Unit report on the Family Park in Marsascala included several cost variations and additional costs, as well as direct orders which were not always necessary and which could have led to abuse.

International news

NBC News reports that Pope Francis’ comments about gays triggered welcome world reactions – though most observers said his remarks merely reflected a tone of openness that he has set for his papacy and not a change in policy.  The Inquisitor‎ says the comments made international headlines and were called “a positive step toward inclusion”.

According to the Catholic news agency Zenit, journalists also asked questions that peaked the world’s curiosity. Many were taken aback when the Pope boarded his plane going and returning from Brazil carrying his own bag. When asked what was in his bag, the Pope answered: “My razor, a breviary, my diary and a book to read; I brought a book on Saint Therese, who I am very devoted to.”

Declaring child prostitution a “persistent threat” in America, the FBI has said that authorities had rescued 105 young people and arrested 150 alleged pimps in a three-day sweep in 76 cities. The Associated Press quotes the agency saying it had been monitoring areas such as truck stops, casinos, street “tracks” and websites that advertise dating and escort services.

A Mass has been held in Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain for the 79 people who died in a train crash last week.

Swiss police have told Swiss Radio and Television SRF that 44 people have been injured – five of them seriously – in a head-on train collision at Granges-près-Marnand in the Vaud region. Eyewitnesses told 20 Minuten, a Swiss newspaper, the impact was so violent that the trains wedged into each other and windows exploded.

Investigators are still trying to work out why a bus careered out of control into slow-moving traffic then plunged nearly 30 metres down a steep ravine in southern Italy, killing 38 people and injuring 16. Corriere della Sera said one theory was the left rear tyre had blown and that the driver had tried desperately to stay in control of the vehicle.

USA Today says Bradley Manning will learn this evening whether he would be convicted of aiding the enemy – punishable by life in prison without parole – for sending more than 700,000 classified government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

Akhbar El Yom reports the European Union's senior diplomat returned to Cairo on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to keep Egypt from descending into civil war after the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

CNN reports a 12-year-old girl in Arkansas is in critical condition after being infected by a rare but deadly brain-eating parasite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wearing a scarf to mask his face, a gunman sneaked into a posh Cannes hotel and held up a diamond show as three security guards looked on, then fled on foot about a minute later. Euronews says that in the end, the thief made off with a breathtaking €102.5 million worth of valuables – the biggest jewelry heist in years, maybe ever.

Metro quotes the London Fire Brigade saying the popularity of erotic fiction like the bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey could be to blame for the dozens of incidents of people being trapped in handcuffs firefighters have been called out to over the past three years.