The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and the Independent lead with the €320 million Chinese investment deal in Enemalta.
MaltaToday says the deal means Shanghai Power Electric has purchased the BWSC power plant.
l-orizzont reports that the deal with a Chinese company signed yesterday means an injection of €320 million in Enemalta.
In-Nazzjon leads with yesterday's press conference by Simon Busuttil to mark the year since the general election.
The overseas press
Fox News reports CIA director John Brennan has denied accusations that his agency spied on the US Congress. At an event organised by the Council on Foreign Relations, Brennan said “nothing could be further from the truth”. He was reacting to accusations by the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, that the CIA had improperly searched the computers of Congressional staff who were investigating allegations that it had tortured suspects during the Bush administration. The matter had been referred to the Justice Department for further investigation.
Libya Herald reports the Libyan state prosecutor has banned ousted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from travelling abroad while he is under investigation for alleged financial irregularities. Zeidan was dismissed by parliament on after MPs said a tanker, laden with oil from a rebel-held terminal in eastern Libya broke through a naval blockade and escaped to sea despite his government’s threats to block it by force if necessary. Defence Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni has been appointed caretaker Prime Minister for a period of two weeks while a replacement is found.
Malaysia’s Berita Harian newspaper says the search for the missing Malaysia Ailrines jet has shifted to a wider area including land on the Malaysian peninsula, the Strait of Malacca and an area north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, following information gained from military radar that it changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. An unnamed senior Malaysian military officer who had been briefed on investigations told the Reuters the plane had made it to the Malacca Strait.
Obozrevatel says Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksander Tuchynov, has called for the creation of a national guard to help defend the country amid rising tensions with Russia over the status of Crimea. He said the new force of volunteers with military experience should be partially mobilised alongside the army. In an exclusive interview, Tuchynov also told AFP, Ukraine would not attempt a military move to prevent the southern Crimean peninsula’s breakaway in order not to expose its eastern border.
More than 500 Roman Catholics have been killed and 20 churches and parish houses destroyed by the Islamist sect Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The figures were given in an article published by the Catholic News Service of Nigeria, the news agency promoted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, signed by Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, Bishop of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State. The Islamist group was was founded in Borno State in 2009.
The number of Syrian children affected by the civil war in their homeland has doubled in the past year to at least 5.5 million – more than half the country’s children – with devastating effects on the health, education and psychological well-being of an entire generation. The New York Times quotes UNICEF saying the Syrian conflict, which enters its fourth year this month, malnutrition and illness had stunted their growth, a lack of learning opportunities had derailed their education, and the bloody trauma of war had left deep psychological scars.
Chilevision reports Michelle Bachelet, 62, has been sworn in as the president of Chile – her second time in office after her election win in December over conservative rival Evelyn Matthei. President of the Senate Isabel Allende placed the presidential sash around Bachelet's neck – the first time it was passed from one woman to another in Chile's history. Bachelet is the first Chilean president in over half a century to return for a second term.