The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the GRTU’s objections to retailers opening on Good Friday after plans to do so by Lidl.
The Malta Independent says Europol has warned of terrorist threats to Europe from migrants. It also highlights the emergency landing of two French air force jets in Malta yesterday.
In-Nazzjon says five local councils have received €2m in European funds to improve their infrastructure.
l-orizzont gives prominence to the GWU national council resolution calling the government ‘insensitive and heartless’ for refusing to give compensation for fuel price increases.
The local newspapers will not be issued tomorrow, Good Friday.
The overseas press
feb17voices, the Libyan opposition website, reports that the Transitional National Council in Benghazi has rejected the latest offer of a ceasefire from Col. Gaddafi’s government. A spokesman for the council, Abdul Hafeez Ghoga, said there was no longer military stalemate in Libya because increased Nato airstrikes against government forces had improved the situation for the opposition. A suggestion that there could be a political solution which would allow Gaddafi and his family to remain "on the scene" was an impossibility, he said.
Details have emerged of an attack in Misurata in which an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and an acclaimed photojopurnalist were killed. CNN said Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were in a group of journalists who were pulling back from near the front line during a lull in the fighting when they were fired on.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mohammed El Senussi, the exiled crown prince of Libya, told an audience at the European Parliament in Brussels he was eager to play a role in rebuilding his country, no matter whether people wanted a constitutional monarchy or a republic. El Senussi, 48, who has been in London since his family went from house arrest into exile in 1988, has been in touch with the Transitional National Council. He not yet been formally asked to lead Libya as king.
L’Echo reports that the European Commission has asked for a budget of €132.7 billion – a 4.9 per cent increase which was well above three per cent EU inflation. EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski insisted the Commission needed to meet spending commitments already made – though he said he expected "tough negotiations" with member states. Last year Britain, France and Germany proposed that the EU budget be frozen until 2020, with any increases linked to inflation.
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph says British Prime Minister David Cameron was under pressure to block a demand from Brussels for British taxpayers to contribute an extra £682 million (€770 million) next year to the EU budget – the equivalent of £400 (€452) for every household. Downing Street called the request “ludicrous” and George Osborne, the Chancellor, accused EU officials of having lost touch with reality.
Al Motamar quotes Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejecting opposition calls to resign as at least four more people died in anti-government protests. He accused his opponents of conspiracies and coups and urged them to take part in elections. The Yemeni leader, who has been in power for more than three decades, has said he is willing to hand over power, but only to "safe hands".
Haiti’s Le Matin says President-elect Michel Martelly has criticised “the desperately slow pace of reconstruction” in his country. More than 600,000 still live in camps after last year’s devastating earthquake.
The Daily Champion reports the defeated candidate for president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has given details of “rigging” at the election. He said he had evidence that the electoral commission’s computers were programmed to disadvantage his party in at least two states.
USA Today says President Obama has again warned that the US could plunge back into recession if government spending cuts were too deep. Speaking in California to employees of the social network Facebook, he said wasteful expenditure must be curbed but using a machete instead of a scalpel could harm job creation.
MSNBC reports the US Federal Aviation Administration has ruled that flights carrying Michelle Obama or Vice President Joe Biden would be handled by an air traffic supervisor rather than a controller. The decision follows the aborted landing of a plane, carrying Mrs Obama this week, which came dangerously close to a 200-ton military jet. The episode has become another embarrassment for the FAA which has been struggling to calm public jitters about flying raised by nine suspensions of air traffic controllers and supervisors around the country in recent weeks, including five for sleeping on the job.
The Valley Morning Star of Harlingen says a swarm of bees killed an elderly couple and injured their son at their South Texas ranch. Ninety-year-old William T. Steele was spraying insecticide on a bees’ nest when the bees attacked him, his 92-year-old wife and their 67-year-old son. The older man was pronounced dead at the scene and the wife died in hospital. The son had to drive several miles to the nearest phone to get help because there was no cell service at the ranch.