The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta says UK fighter jets will be based in Italy to beef up security over Malta during the forthcoming Valletta summit and CHOGM. It also says the prime minister has avoided questions on whether he will fire Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon.
MaltaToday reports that Etihad Airlines is in talks about a strategic partnership with Air Malta. It also says e-mails show how oil trader George Farrugia had insider information on the Transport Authority.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says the Algeria consulate visa scam is 'multi-layered'. It also reports how the EU microscope is on Malta following the €11m Coast Road debacle.
Il-Mument says the political future of Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon is in the prime minister's hands following the Gaffarena scandal. It also says Algerians paid €5,000 to get a visa from Malta.
It-Torca leads with abuses by a driver who works for the Ombudsman. It says the abuses were first flagged two years ago, but have continued.
KullHadd says the PN wants the Gaffarena petrol station permit in Qormi withdrawn despite having voted in favour of a policy that would have allowed this petrol station.
Illum under the heading Bankrupt, says the new owner of the Gozo hospital previously ran a company and a hotel which folded.
The overseas press
Egyptian authorities have launched an investigation into every worker at Sharm el Sheikh Airport who had contact with the ill-fated Russian aircraft before take-off. Security officials at Sharm El Sheikh told the Reuters they were looking through airport cameras for “unusual activity among policemen or staff” amid news an explosion could be heard on the black box of the plane.
The weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) reports the German government is convinced the Russian Metrojet airliner was bombed by the Islamic State terrorist group. A senior German security official told the paper, “All available information points to this conclusion.” He added that the aircraft’s sudden drop in altitude, without any irregularities having been recorded in the cockpit, make a bomb theory “very plausible.”
According to The Sunday Telegraph, European ministers meeting in Malta this week are planning to offer incentives to African countries to take back some of the 800,000 asylum seekers who have come across the Mediterranean to start a new life in Europe. In return, the proposed deal will give thousands of African students, doctors and entrepreneurs an open door to move into the European Union.
Die Welt reports clashes in Berlin between the police and members of Alternative for Germany, the eurosceptic party and who took to the streets in protest against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s asylum policies. Some 40 people were arrested. A policed officer was injured.
The German weekly Der Spiegel reports Italy and the Vatican were among the allied countries bugged by the BND, the German secret services. The information, which adds details relevant to the findings last month, reveals the BND monitored the Italian and Vatican embassies’ e-mail addresses and phone and fax numbers.
al bawaba reveals Islamic militants have released 37 Syrian Christians, 10 men and 27 women, who were part of a group of more than 200 people kidnapped last February. The Assyrian Network for Human Rights, in a statement posted on Facebook, noted that negotiations are still going on to free the other 124 people still in the hands of the jihadist militants. Another group is due to be released next Monday.
The leaders of China and Taiwan have met for talks for the first time in 66 years. Channel News Asia quotes Chinese President Xi Jinping saying Chinese people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had the ability and wisdom to solve their own problems. In response, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said he was determined to promote peace across the Taiwan Strait and that relations should be based on sincerity, wisdom and patience.
World Tribune reports US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has warned that land reclamation efforts and a military build-up in the South China Sea could lead to conflict between nations in the region. Speaking at a forum in California, the Pentagon chief also said America was adapting its military posture to counter increased Russian “aggression.”
The people of Myanmar are heading to the polls in a historic election that, according to Irrawaddy, could thrust Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party into power and pull the country away from the grip of the military. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to make big gains, though she is barred from the presidency. President Thein Sein has said he would respect poll results.
Vecernji says Croatia’s ruling centre-left coalition faces a challenge to stay in power, with the migrant crisis one of the main issues facing voters in today’s general election. Polls indicate the government and the nationalist opposition are neck-and-neck.
Espresso reports three left-of-centre parties in Portugal – the Socialists, the Communists and the Left Bloc – have announced they had reached a deal to form a government after last month’s inconclusive general election. Socialist Party leader Antonio Costa fought the election promising to ease back on austerity.
El Mundo says tens of thousands of people have marched in Madrid to condemn violence against women. Activists dressed in black lay on the ground to remember hundreds of women murdered over the years in what they described as “sexist terrorism”. They said laws against domestic abuse should be extended to include all violence against women.
ABC News reports a pair of licence plates from the car that drove John F Kennedy when he was killed have sold at auction for $100,000 (€93,000). The plates had been discarded when the limousine was sent for upgrades after President Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas in November 1963.
The BBC says music from The Lord of the Rings has been voted the best soundtrack of all time for the sixth year running. The Oscar-winning trilogy’s soundtrack triumphed over Schindler’s List and Gladiator in the Classic FM poll. John Williams’s compositions for Star Wars and John Barry’s Out of Africa rounded out the top five.