The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta reports how hazardous water is sold from bowsers as safe to drink.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says battle lines have been drawn for tomorrow's LNG permit hearing. The two political parties will hold rallies today.
MaltaToday reports that Edward Scicluna is expected to be appointed EU Commissioner when Tonio Borg's term expires. It also says that concerns about migration are on the rise among voters.
It-Torca says that in 2013, only 44% of new jobs went to Maltese workers.
Il-Mument leads with another call for gas not to be stored on a tanker in Marsaxlokk. It also says that China has imposed conditions on Enemalta and workers will be given new contracts of work.
KullHadd asks what the PN ever did to benefit the people of the south.
Illum says the person accused of the Mosta cat killings used to send sensitive material about Enemalta to Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The overseas press
Radio Svoboda reports Russian forces in Crimea have seized one of the last big military bases there still under the control of Ukraine. The Russian troops used armoured vehicles and stun grenades to force their into the large Belbek air base, near Sevastopol.
AFP says Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has demanded Ukraine pay back $11 billion (€8 billion) that he said Kiev had saved through discounted gas prices in return for hosting a Russian naval base in Crimea.
NRC Handelsblad reports Chinese President Xi Jinping is in The Netherlands for his first visit to Europe as leader. His tour, ending on April 1, will also include France, Germany and Belgium. Xi will participate in tomorrow’s Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague where he is expected to hold talks with President Obama on the sidelines of the meeting.
There have been clashes between Spanish police and protesters in Madrid as thousands of people trekked across Spain to protest austerity which they claim was destroying their country. El Mundo says at least 29 protesters have been arrested and 88 people, 55 of them police, were injured. The protesters threw stones, bottles and firecrackers at police who then used tear gas to disperse them.
Municipal elections are being held in France today. France 24 quotes observers as saying they were being seen as an important test for President Françoise Hollande’s Socialist government. Voters will be choosing councillors and mayors across the country, including Paris which will have its first female mayor as both the leading candidates for the post are women.
There is still no firm sign of the Malaysian airlines that went missing two weeks ago despite an intensified se4arch operation in the southern Indian Ocean. ABC TV quotes Australian officials saying although weather conditions had improved there were no sightings of an object about 22 metres long seen on newly-released Chinese satellite pictures.
Meanwhile, CCTV reports Chinese police has to intervene when relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 expressed their anger at the airline’s officials during a briefing in Beijing. The plane went missing on March 8 while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Many relatives have not given up hope that the passengers will be found alive.
An Irish woman who was abused by a priest when she was 13, Mary Collins, has been named as a member of a commission which will advise Pope Francis on how to tackle the child sex abuse scandal in the Church. She told the BBC that while progress had been made by removing abusive priests, the Church needed to do far more to ensure that bishops who had covered up abuses were held accountable.
Le Jour reports the provisional death toll from the Ebola epidemic that broke out in Guinea a month ago has risen to at least 59. The country’s health minister confirmed 80 cases in the prefectures of Gueckedou and Macenta have been flagged up. The area in question is a large swathe of forest on the border with Sierra Leone and there are fears that the virus could spread.
Ansa reports the risk of social deprivation in Italy involves 30 per cent of the Italian population. Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told a forum organised by trade association Confcommercio the risk involved 25.3 per cent of the population in 2008 and the current average in Europe is less than 25 per cent. Even with improvements in the second quarter of 2013, the economic situation is still vulnerable and exposed to many risks. GDP has dropped by 9 percentage points.
The Guardian quotes Nigerian police saying they had raided a home near Lagos where eight pregnant girls were staying with plans to sell each of their newborns for nearly €1,300. In a so-called “baby factory”, they found the suspected operator and eight pregnant girls, most of them under the age of 20. The latest raid brings to about 125 the number of girls the police have rescued since. Southeast Nigeria is grappling with a human trafficking epidemic, with a series of black market maternity homes discovered in the last two years. In most cases, young women have run to such homes to avoid the stigma attached to pregnancies conceived outside marriage.