The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
Times of Malta says ODZ land makes the plan for a new university viable. It also reports how an exit poll put the conservatives well ahead in the UK election.
The Malta Independent says the prime minister insisted yesterday that the American University of Malta is 'not a castle in the air.'
In-Nazzjon says the prime minister has slashed the price for the sale of the Selmun Palace Hotel to just €5.2 million.
l-orizzont quotes the vice president of the European Commission saying the Maltese economy is performing much better than the EU average. In a separate story, is asks whether de la Valette's sword will be brought to Malta for an exhibition on the Great Siege.
The overseas press
Early results and exit polls in Britain’s general election suggest Conservative Party leader David Cameron will be returned to office as Prime Minister. The BBC reports his party is projected to win 316 seats – just 10 seats short of an overall majority – against Labour’s 239, and the Scottish National Party’s 58 seats. The result suggests there had been a massive very last minute swing to the Tories: voters undecided till the very end have chosen the Tories. Sky News says Ed Milliband’s leadership of the Labour Party will be on the line by noon today. The balance of power will be decided by the party that has the most number of seats after about 50 million people, who were registered to vote, were balloted for a total of 650 seats at the Westminster-based House of Commons.
The i newspaper’s front page suggests “Shock exit poll hands Cameron big lead” while The Guardian says the early exit poll was a “shocker for Labour”. According to The Independent, Cameron’s hopes of remaining Prime Minister have been bolstered by the early exit polls. In a striking black front page, the Daily Mirror asks: “Five more damned years?” while the Daily Star reports “voters were intimidated by political thugs”. The Scotsman reports that Labour is likely to be “hit hard” by the rise in support for the SNP and The Daily Express calls for a referendum on the EU.
In a first comment, Russia’s Ria Novosti says the outcome of the British general election will have a significant impact on the UK’s place in the world order. It could determine Britain’s membership of the European Union, its US-backed nuclear deterrent and its NATO membership, which will impinge on its so-called “special relationship” with the United States.
La Sicilia reports Italy’s navy says it believes it has found the wreck of a boat that sank last month killing up to 900 migrants off the coast of Libya – the Mediterranean’s most deadly migrant tragedy in living memory. Search teams based on two minesweepers and a smaller navy vessel used sonar instruments and a submersible to locate the hulk of a 25-metre, blue boat which fitted the description of the one that sank, the navy said in a statement.
France 24 quotes the SITE Intelligence Group saying Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has announced that a US air strike had killed Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi – the senior figure who issued the group’s claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. In an online video, al Qaeda said the ideologue was killed with his eldest son and other fighters in Yemen.
Fox News announces that the US military have begun training moderate Syrian rebels to help fight Islamic State militants. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said some 90 people were being trained in “a secure location”, believed to be Jordan.
The Warsaw Times reports UN Secretary-General Ban K-moon has joined Polish leaders in Gdańsk at a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Many European leaders chose to attend the late-night event in preference to Russia’s victory parade in Red Square tomorrow underling their disapproval at Russia’s role in Ukraine. The event will also be commemorations in other European states, including Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, during the weekend.
The Washington Post says a US appeals court has ruled the National Security Agency’s massive collection of phone records of Americans was illegal because it exceeded the scope of what Congress authorised. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed following disclosures about the vast surveillance programmes in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
ABC reports a team of American explorers say they have discovered a silver treasure from the infamous 17th-century Scottish pirate William Kidd in a shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar. Marine archaeologist Barry Clifford told reporters he had found a 50 kg silver bar in the wreck of Kidd’s ship the Adventure Gallery, close to the small island of Sainte Marie. Captain Kidd, who was born in Scotland in about 1645, was first employed by British authorities to hunt pirates, but he turned himself into a ruthless criminal of the high seas.
The former Brazilian football star Pele has had surgery for an enlarged prostate. O Globo reports he was stable. Pele, the only player to win three World Cup titles, is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. He was named the athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee in 1999.