The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta and all the other newspapers except l-orizzont give prominence to yesterday’s walkout from Parliament by the Opposition. In other stories it reports how a Constitutional application has been filed over a case over a stolen cheque which has been pending in court for 23 years.
The Malta Independent leads with the calls made yesterday for the recruitment of more judges and support staff.
MaltaToday says the Attorney General refused to comment about the Dalli case.
l-orizzont reports of an allowance of €12,000 given to judges to work in the afternoons.
In-Nazzjon says a person close to Labour has been appointed Acting Prisons director.
The overseas press
VOA quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons even if it has to act alone, and dismissed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's “charm offensive” as a ruse to get relief from sanctions.
CNN reports President Obama said he would not give in to Republican blackmail for as long as he is president. Speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama said he was ready to do everything necessary to stop the shutdown, which has to do with Obamacare coming into force and was not an issue about government spending.
News 24 says more than 115,000 people have lost their lives in the 30-month conflict between rebels and forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, of this total, 6,000 victims are children, and 4,000 women. Besides civilians, tens of thousands of soldiers and rebel fighters have been killed in the conflict which began in March 2011. Of the 41,000 civilians who have been killed, 3,000 have never been identified.
Ansa reports Silvio Berlusconi's deputy Angelino Alfano and over 40 leading figures in his People of Freedom Party have defied him by urging MPs to back the coalition government in a forthcoming confidence vote. Prime Minister Enrico Letta has called a confidence vote today after Berlusconi on Saturday ordered his ministers, including Interior Minister Alfano, to quit their posts. Berlusconi has threatened to topple the government if he is expelled from the Senate after being convicted of fraud.
In the wake of a series of scandals that have hit the Catholic Church, the Vatican bank has published its accounts for the first time in a bid to improve transparency and clean up its image. Avvenire says the 125-year-old Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) reported earnings of €86.6 million in 2012 – more than four times higher than in 2011.
The world's population will rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 from the current level of 7.1 billion and India will overtake China as the world's most populous nation. France 24 reports the bi-annual report by the French Institute of Demographic Studies (Ined) projected there would be 10 to 11 billion people on the planet by the end of the century. The world's most populous nations are currently China with 1.3 billion people followed by India (1.2 billion), the United States (316.2 million), Indonesia (248.5 million) and Brazil (195.5 million).
The South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius has enlisted a team of forensic investigators from the US to help in his upcoming murder trial. Mail& Guardian quotes a spokesperson for the “Blade Runner” said they would work with his defence team against charges he murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14. Pistorius has admitted to killing Steenkamp but has denied murder. Questions have been raised about the police's handling of the case and forensic evidence, which is likely to be key given the lack of witnesses.