The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta quotes retired judge Frank Camilleri saying the security service law needs changing. It also reports on anomalies in the petition presented by the hunters' federation.
The Malta Independent reports that the security service monitoring committee has not met since June last year.
MaltaToday reports that the political parties owe €2.5 million in water and electricity bills.
It-Torca says the German authorities are to present a formal request for missing children found in Gozo last week to be returned to Germany.
Il-Mument says relations with Libya are deteriorating with many Libyan passports held in the Maltese embassy, reported rampant smuggling and the escape to Malta of former premier Zeidan and others.
Illum reports how a €35m contract for photovoltaic units between the former government and a private company is under investigation. It also reports on a sharp rise in cosmetic surgery, saying some 10,000 women have had breast enlargement.
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The overseas press
Pope Francis has denounced organised crime groups, saying mafiosi were “excommunicated” from the Catholic Church. Avvenire reports he made the remarks – the strongest made by a pope against organised crime groups in two decades – as he visited the heartland of one of Italy’s most feared mafias, the southern Italian region of Calabria.
European centre-left leaders have held informal talks in Paris just days away from a summit which could decide who heads the next EU Commission. Euronews says French host President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi are rumoured to be pushing for a loosening of the EU’s tough budget rules in exchange for their support for European Commission centre-right candidate Jean Claude Juncker.
Voice of Russia says Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he supported the ceasefire declared on Friday by Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko, which will last till June 27, but added that it would not be effective unless “practical action” is taken to begin negotiations. Putin’s statement on Saturday represents a change in direction compared to the Kremlin’s affirmations on Friday that the ceasefire was an ultimatum and not a peace offer.
RIA Novosti quotes the Russian intelligence service FSB saying more than 80 Ukrainian border guards crossed into Russia after an attack by pro-Russian separatists on a Ukrainian checkpoint overnight. The attack was the first violation of the cease-fire announced by Kiev on Friday.
Algemeen Dagblad reports Dutch emergency workers were battling to save a sinking river cruise ship after it sprung a major leak, forcing the evacuation of 154 pensioners – mainly pensioners from Germany and Austria – and 40 crew members. The 110-metre vessel “Britannia” was on a cruise near the eastern Dutch city of Zutphen, on the Ijssel River when it started taking on water around midnight.
Voice of Nigeria says Boko Haram’s violence in two villages of the northern Nigerian state of Borno on Saturday has killed at least 10 people. The attacks occurred not far from Chibok where, two months ago, Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls.
According to Globovision TV, a student died from a bullet wound during opposition protests against President Nicolas Maduro, bringing the death toll to at least 43 people since the demonstrations began Last February. Protesters have taken to the streets to march against rampant crime, runaway inflation and shortages of basic goods in the country.
Al Ayyam reports Sunni insurgents led by an al-Qaida breakaway group expanded their offensive in a volatile western province on Saturday, capturing three strategic towns and the first border crossing with Syria to fall on the Iraqi side. It’s the latest blow against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his political life even as forces beyond his control are pushing the country toward a sectarian showdown.
Tianshan says police in China’s restive western region shot dead 13 assailants who rammed a truck into a police building and set off explosives in an attack that also wounded three officers. No civilians were hurt in the attack in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang’s south west.
An Egyptian court confirmed the death sentence for the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and 196 supporters of the Islamist group charged with the murder of a police officer and inciting violence. Al Arabiya says Badie’s case had been deferred by the same court to the highest religious authority in Egypt, the Grand Mufti, who has competence for the ratification of death sentences.
O Globo reports President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has formally launched her re-election bid, leading in opinion polls despite lingering discontent over World Cup costs. Her leftist Workers Party approved her candidacy in a voice vote of 800 members meeting at a convention in Brasilia, with the popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva backing his successor.
AFP says youngsters from a slum on the outskirts of Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport have thrown down a World Cup gauntlet: they have challenged the competition winners to play a match against them. With support from an NGO, the players from Anita Futbol Club, in the Anita Garibaldi slum, issued their cheeky invitation to whichever team lifts the trophy on July 13. They want the professionals to see for themselves their favela, or slum, whose tumbledown housing has no water supplies or connection to the electricity grid.