The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says plans for CCTV in white taxis have been ditched. It also says that Israel will get a few hours notice of any raid on Syria.
The Malta Independent quotes the prime minister saying the precise details of the Malta-Libya deal are yet to be thrashed out.
In-Nazzjon features comments by Simon Busuttil who accused the prime minister of breaking his own electoral promises, such as to immediately stop using heavy fuel oil in the power station.
l-orizzont highlights comments by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that he was not happy with the level of street cleanliness and matters had to improve, particularly in tourist areas
The overseas press
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people and said evidence was not conclusive that there had been such an attack. In an interview conducted in Damascus by CBS veteran correspondent Charlie Rose for its news programme “Face the Nation”, Assad said, “There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people.”
Reuters reports that speaking in London, US Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed Assad's claim that there was no evidence of his use of chemical weapons on fellow Syrians. “The evidence speaks for itself,” he told reporters. Obama administration officials gave public testimony and daily closed-door briefings on Syria last week to members of Congress, including video coverage of victims of the attack.
USA Today survey of senators and representatives finds the Obama administration faces a daunting and uphill battle to win congressional authorisation for a military strike on Syria. The comprehensive poll of Congress finds that only a small fraction of the 533 lawmakers – 22 senators and 22 House members – are willing to say they will support the use of force in response to the reported use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. Far more overall – 19 senators and 130 House members – say they will oppose a resolution that would authorise military strikes. The largest group of lawmakers remains undecided, including a majority of the Senate and the House.
Europe Quotidiano reports Pope Francis told worshipers during the Angelus in St Peter's Square yesterday that “we are all praying hard for peace.” The faithful who went to hear the pope ask whether this is “a war based on real reasons or is it a war sparked by illegal trade to sell more weapons”. The pope said: “These are enemies we must fight against, united and coherently, following no interests if not those of peace and the common good.”
Fox News says Syrian rebels led by al-Qaida-linked fighters have seized control of a predominantly Christian village northeast of Damascus. The battle over Maaloula, an ancient village that is home to two of the oldest surviving monasteries in Syria, has thrown a spotlight on the deep-seated fears that many of Syria's religious minorities harbour about the growing role of Islamic extremists on the rebel side in the civil war against President Bashar Assad's regime.
Italian journalist Domenico Quirico and Belgian national Pierre Piccinin, both kidnapped in Syria in early April, have been released and are back in Rome. The website of Turin-based daily newspaper La Stampa, for which Quirico is a correspondent, said they are now in Rome. Quirico, 62, is a well-known war correspondent who worked from African hot spots including Libya, Sudan, Darfur and Mali. He had been kidnapped before, along with three other journalists working for the Corriere della Sera and Avvenire, when he tried to reach the Libyan capital Tripoli in August 2011. The Italian government gave no immediate information about Piccinin, a historian and teacher who speaks Arabic.
Norwegians go to the polls today as the popularity of its Conservative Party, led by “Iron Erna” Solberg, continued to gained momentum in the final days of the election campaign, likely spelling the end to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's tenure. According to Aftenposten, latest polls give the Conservative Party a three percentage point lead over Stoltenberg's Labour Party. Solberg's party aims to build a four-party coalition that does not include Labour. The trend reflects a swell of discontent with Stoltenberg's policies.
RIA Novosti reports Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny swept up far more votes than expected while finishing second in Moscow's mayoral election. Partial results released early today showed Navalny with about 27 percent of the vote, while the Kremlin-backed incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, held a clear lead with about 52 percent. Exit polls, however, predicted Navalny would get as much as 32 percent.
The Daily Mirror leads with a picture appearing to show that British Prime Minister David Cameron left his official ministerial red box on a train – with the key still in it and no security within touching distance. One astonished passenger told how he stopped to take a picture of the red case and said nobody intervened. Downing Street insisted the box was being watched at all times, but the Mirror’s source said he could easily have snatched it. Absent-minded Cameron once left his eight-year-old daughter Nancy at a pub after lunch.
Clarin announces that wrestling has regained its place on the Olympic Games sports roster after a vote by International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Wrestling, which is one of the rare sports to have transcended the ancient and modern Olympics, won in the first round of voting with 49 of the 95 votes cast. The joint bid of baseball/softball was second with 24 votes and squash received 22. The result sees wrestling assured of appearing at both the 2020 and the 2024 Summer Olympics.