The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times says the hospital superbug MRSA has spread to the community, possibly because of abusive use of antibiotics. It also interviews Charles Muscat -Il-Pips -who insists he was not given preferential treatment when he was released early from prison on remission, where he served time for murder.
The Malta Independent says teachers are making some €70 per private tuition lesson and not issuing VAT receipts. It also says that a priest is threatening to sue over sex abuse allegations.
Malta Today says a survey shows, for the first time, that the PL is just ahead of the PN in Gozo, with 25% to 23.6%.
Sister newspaper Illum says the survey still shows Giovanna Debono as the most popular politician in Gozo. Illum also says that police surveillance on Joseph Muscat has increased after his comments on Il-Pips.
KullHadd points to ‘strange’ statistics from the Central Bank which show the export of oil products from Malta exceeding imports.
It-Torca carries an interview with former St Joseph Home resident Dominic Vella who defends the home and the hospitality it gave him. It also says there is ‘playing with words’ on the presence of Nato weapons in a Customs warehouse in Malta.
Il-Mument reports on a €50m investment by the Water Services Corporation on the distribution network and sewage treatment. It also focuses on the history of the Berlin Wall, whose building started 50 years ago.
The overseas press
Germany has commemorated the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall with a memorial service and a minute of silence in the capital in memory of those who died trying to flee to the West. Deutsche Welle says German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in the East, led a commemoration in the capital, followed by a church service at a chapel built where the Wall stood for almost three decades. The Wall finally fell in 1989 in a bloodless uprising. At least 136 would-be refugees are known to have died at the Wall trying to escape to the West but historians say this number may have been as high at 700.
A doctor in the Syrian city of Hama has told the BBC that medical services there have been severely affected by recent government attacks. The doctor, who cannot be named for his safety, said people were refusing to go to one of the main hospitals because security forces were present and had killed some of the wounded. The doctor said there was a lack of medicines and blood for transfusions.
Al Jamahariya quotes a Libyan government spokesman dismissing suggestions that rebels had taken control of the centre of the strategically-important coastal town of Zawija in the west of the country. There had been serious clashes around the town, 30km to the capital's west on the strategic road to Tunisia, with the rebels reporting that the government troops were fleeing.
In the UK, The Sunday Telegraph leads with an interview with Prime Minister David Cameron and how he had told police to take a "zero tolerance" approach to street crime in the wake of the worst rioting to hit Britain in 30 years. And The People shows armed police pointing a gun at youth in Manchester as they take control after the riots. The number of those arrested in connection with the trouble across England has exceeded the 2,000-mark with more than 700 people being charged in London alone.
Meanwhile, The Independent on Sunday has an interview with the front-runner to take over at Scotland Yard, Sir Hugh Orde, in which he ridiculed the Prime Minister for appointing a former New York police chief to advise him on how to combat gangs and prevent a repeat of the past week's riots. Observers said the criticism underscored deep tensions between police and Cameron's coalition government over who was most to blame for the failure to stop the four-day rioting that raged in parts of London and other English cities until Wednesday.
Reuters reports that a Cuban gay rights activist has married his transgender partner in what has been described as “the first gay wedding on the island”. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Cuba but the wedding was allowed because the bride is officially recognised as a woman after undergoing state-sponsored sex-change therapy.
Merkur says a helicopter has rescued 20 people who were stranded overnight in a cable car in southern Germany after a paraglider collided with the cables. The 19 passengers and the conductor were brought to safety after spending 18 hours suspended 18 metres above the ground.
Bild reports that women clad in stockings and miniskirts have been out in force on the streets of Germany. Participants in the worldwide "Slut Walk" movement stress that skimpy clothing is not a justification for violence. The walks are part of a worldwide wave of protest that began in Toronto as a global response to remarks made by a Canadian police chief who said women should not dress as "sluts" if they did not want to be attacked. Walks have already taken place in cities as widespread as London, Mexico City, Sydney and Washington.