The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta reports how a man is in a critical condition after a car bomb explosion in Marsaxlokk yesterday.
The Malta Independent quotes Joseph Muscat saying Labour is aiming for a Labour majority in the North.
In-Nazzjon says the PN is working to be closer to the people.
l-orizzont asks whether a man was targeted for elimination in yesterday’s car bomb.
The overseas press
Former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has described British Prime Minister David Cameron’s campaign to block him from taking the European Union’s top job in Brussels as “blackmail”. Juncker told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag that “Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed”.
The Daily Star says a Libyan warplane under the command of a renegade former general Khalifa Haftar targeted a militia base in the eastern city of Benghazi but instead hit a university engineering faculty building, wounding two people.
Kabul Times says the Afghan government has reacted angrily to a US deal that freed an American soldier in exchange for five senior Talaban militants from Guantanamo Bay. The five prisoners were put into the custody of Qatar.
Sudan Vision says Sudan’s foreign ministry has denied published reports that Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, the 27-year-old woman sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, was expected to be released. A spokesman said only Sudan’s courts could decide on her fate.
VOA quotes cancer researchers gathered at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Illinois, saying major progress was being made against a malady that kills more than seven million people worldwide each year, but funding is short and many challenges remain.
The Los Angeles Times says police are searching for a couple of burglars who broke into Miley Cyrus‘ San Fernando Valley home and got away with an unspecified amount jewellery and a her 2014 Maserati luxury sedan. The LAPD says a man and a woman scaled a fence and got inside the house and garage while no one was home.
ABC quotes the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children saying at least 500 people have reported abuse by the late entertainer Jimmy Savile, with the youngest alleged victim just two years old. The most common age group for victims was 13 to 15. Last year, a police investigation concluded that Savile’s abuse spanned half a century and included at least 214 offences, most against victims under 18. The NSPCC researched Savile’s crimes as part of a BBC documentary to be aired this evening.
Japan Times reports sports fans bid an emotional farewell to Tokyo’s National Stadium with a lavish ceremony to close the venue before demolition begins next month. The stadium, built to host the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, will be dismantled over 15 months and replaced on the same site with a new $1.6 billion venue to stage the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics.
Al Watan says Qatar has strongly denied new allegations of wrongdoing in connection with its successful bid to host the 2022 football world cup. The Sunday Times alleged that a Qatari former member of FIFA’s executive committee, Mohamed Hammam paid several million dollars to football officials to back his country’s bid. Qatar’s organising committee it would “take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar’s bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter”.