The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta draws the contrasts between victory and defeat in the EP elections.
The Malta Independent says the Labour Party celebrated a massive victory.
l-orizzont says the PL recorded another big victory
In-Nazzjon says the PL won a majority of votes, and the third seat for the PN depends on how the votes of the small parties are inherited.
The overseas press
Euronews says eurosceptic and far-right parties have seized ground in elections to the European parliament, in what France’s Prime Minister called a “political earthquake”. While the French National Front and UK Independence Party both appear headed for first place, the three big centrist blocs in parliament all lost seats. The outcome means a greater say for those who want to cut back the EU’s powers, or abolish it completely.
AFP reports European Commission head Josè Manuel Barroso has called on pro-EU groups to come together, after eurosceptic and radical parties made huge gains in European Parliament elections.
Al Ayyam says Pope Francis invited Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, to join him at the Vatican to pray for peace after talks aimed at ending the Middle East conflict collapsed.
Baltic Times reports Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite has been re-elected as Head of State as a result of the election runoff. With nearly all votes counted she had won 58 per cent with her Social Democrat rival Zigmantas Balcytis trailing on 42 per cent.
Cairo Radio says Egyptians head to the ballot boxes today and tomorrow for the second presidential elections since the 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Some 54 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the two-horse race between former army chief Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, who led the army last July to remove elected Mohamed Morsi following protests, and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi who came third in the 2012 elections which brought Morsi to power.
Le Soir reports Belgian police are appealing to the public to help identify a suspect in the fatal shooting of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
Libya Herald says the country’s new Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq won a vote of confidence from parliament in defiance of a renegade former army general who has challenged the assembly’s legitimacy.
Radio Tunis reports Tunisian authorities have arrested suspected Islamist militants from Libya and Tunisia who were allegedly plotting attacks against tourist and industrial sites. Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou told reporters the suspects had infiltrated Tunisia from Libya and their targets were tourism and industrial zones.
Kyiv Post reports Pyotr Poroshenko, a business tycoon and member of Ukraine’s parliament, is winning the presidential elections in Ukraine with 55.9 per cent of the vote. His closes rival, Yulia Timoshenko, the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, received over 12 per cent.
The Washington Times says US President Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan yesterday for a surprise Memorial Day weekend visit with US troops to thank forces who are preparing to withdraw after nearly 13 years of war.
Polskie Radio announces the death of Wojciech Jaruzelski, the communist leader and army general who imposed martial law in Poland to suppress the Solidarity movement in 1981 before ceding power eight years later as his regime collapsed. He was 90.
The state-run Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency reports Iranian film star Leila Hatami has apologised for kissing the cheek of the president of the Cannes Film Festival, after activists called for her flogging.