The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta says 80 per cent of people are against gay adoptions. It also says that a record 1,200 marriage separations took place last year.
The Malta Independent on Sunday quotes Arnold Cassola saying the European Parliament elections are the most fertile ground for AD.
Malta Today reports that the head of the European Socialists, Hannes Swoboda, has described the sale of citizenship as undermining European values.
KullHadd says Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola was involved in the writing of a resolution against Malta which will be debated in the European Parliament.
Il-Mument reports that the Health Ministry admitted that the decision to set up a tent for patients outside Mater Dei Hospital lacked sensitivity to patients.
Illum features an interview with Transport Minister Joe Mizzi where he says the new bus routes will be based on the old ones amended to reflect current needs and also covering areas that were not well serviced.
It-Torca says the losses made by the former Malta Shipyards on the Fairmount ship conversion contract were the result of major management shortcomings.
The overseas press
Libya Herald reports Libyan Deputy Minister of Industry Hassan Al-Darole was shot dead in central Sirte after Isha prayers. He was also the Sirte representative for the National Transitional Council after the revolution. There was speculation that the killers were from the self-styled Abu Bakr Unis Jabr brigade, supporters of the firmer regime.
Meanwhile, Tripoli Post says violent clashes have erupted between Tebu tribesmen and members of the Awlad Sulieman clan leaving at least 19 dead and 45 wounded. Fighting erupted in Sebha last night following the assassination of one of the city’s revolutionary commanders, Mansour Al-Aswad, by Tebu gunmen in Traghen. The killing was said to have been in revenge for the deaths of over 40 Tebus during clashes in Sebha nearly two years ago. Sebha Airport has been closed due to the fighting and all flights have been cancelled.
The Jerusalem Post reports Israeli leaders have paid glowing tributes to the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, one of the most senior figures from Israel’s founding generation. He died at the age of 85 after eight years in a coma. The current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said the memory of Sharon would forever remain in the nation’s heart.
Al Ayyam quotes leading Palestinian political figure, Mustafa Barghouti, saying Sharon had followed a path of war and aggression and had left Palestinians with no good memories. People in the Gaza Strip celebrated by handing out sweets to children.
Parliament must be given the power to veto every aspect of EU law, 95 Conservative MPs demand in a letter to David Cameron. The Sunday Telegraph says such powers would enable the Government to reverse the spread of human rights law, relieve businesses of red tape from Brussels and regain control over immigration.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has proposed that European Union migrants should be banned from claiming welfare payments for up to two years after arriving in Britain to stop them exploiting the benefits system. Duncan Smith told The Sunday Times that he had begun building an alliance of countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Finland to attack “benefits tourism”. He wants the group to bring pressure on Brussels to change EU laws so that individual countries are allowed to make their own laws stricter.
El Mundo reports tens of thousands of protesters have marched through the streets of the Basque city of Bilbao in northern Spain in support of jailed members of the separatist group ETA, defying a court ban from Madrid. The march was said originally to have been organised by prisoners’ supporters to call for the inmates to be moved to jails within the Basque region.
El Tiempo says Venezuela’s Interior Minister has given out his personal mobile phone number during on live television, and urged police officers to call him directly to report cases of corruption within the force. Miguel Rodriguez said rooting out corruption was the only way for the police to regain public trust. His comments come amid public anger after the murder of former Miss Venezuela, Monica Spear, and ex-husband, Thomas Berry, in their car in front of their five-year-old daughter, who was wounded. A recent report by an NGO, the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, estimates that 24,000 people were murdered in 2013 alone, a 14 per cent rise on 2012, with nine out of 10 homicides going unsolved.
Al Ahram reports the head of the army, General Abdul Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said he would run for president if the people demanded it and the military supported him. The paper quoted him as saying at a meeting with Egyptian officials, “If I nominate myself, there must be a popular demand, and a mandate from my army.” Observer say Sisi is easily the most popular leader in Egypt after toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July. The presidential election is scheduled to take place by the autumn of 2014.