The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times says an opinion survey it commissioned shows Labour currently holding a lead of 5% over the PN. The PL stands at 52%. Trust in the two political leaders is about equal.
The Malta Independent on Sunday, KullHadd and MaltaToday all report how Franco Debono is still holding his ground against the government. It is also reported by Malta Today that Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil will not contest the national election.
KullHadd also reports reports that Archbishop Gonzi had objected to Fr Prospero Grech being made a bishop after his mediation in the Church-PL political dispute of the 1960s. Fr Grech is to be made a cardinal in the coming days.
Il-Mument highlights a press conference by the Minister of Finance and says Malta is taking measures to face the international economic problems. It also says it is not true that the Opposition moved its no-confidence motion because the prime minister was going abroad.
Illum quotes former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon saying the current crisis is the result of Gonzi’s style of leadership, which makes backbenchers feel excluded.
It-Torca says the next five years will be decisive for the government. It also says that former PN treasurer Peter Darmanin has written that Franco Debono’s name will go down in the dustbin of political history.
The overseas press
Many of the papers around the word lead with the saga of the capsized Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia that ran aground off the coast of Italy. Most carry survivor stories on their front pages, quoting one saying it was “just like Titanic”.
The Italian news agency Ansa reports a South Korean honeymooning couple were rescued early this morning from the ship, 30 hours after it ran aground off Italy’s west coast. They were found in an inaccessible part of the half-submerged ship. Rescue teams are working round the clock searching for survivors. Three people – two tourists and a crewman – are known to have died while some 40 passengers are still unaccounted for. The captain has been arrested on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and ship desertion. The first officer was also being questioned over claims they both abandoned the ship while passengers were still in danger.
European leaders, reacting to the Standard & Poor's credit downgrade of nine eurozone members on Friday, yesterday continued with their criticism, saying the decision was "inconsistent" and "incomprehensible". Deutsche Welle reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed faster eurozone reform. In a televised news conference Merkel said S&P’s downgrade underlined the fact that Europe had a “long road” in front of it to win back investors’ confidence. Germany was now the only member of the single currency to enjoy both a top-notch AAA credit rating and a "stable" outlook.
Tageblatt quotes Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and the head of the eurozone group, saying the EU had taken note of the S&P announcement and was doing everything to combat the debt crisis.
In Vienna, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann told ORF the move to strip his country of its AAA status was "incomprehensible". He stressed Austria was working on a plan to restructure the budget while parliament had passed a Bill to limit spending.
AGI news agency quotes President Napolitano of Italy reiterating the urgent need for the EU to work towards political and economic unity. He stressed the urgent need for Europe to pull together and move steadfastly along the path of political unity and effective economic union.
Voice of Nigeria says the government and trade union leaders have failed to reach a compromise over the removal of fuel subsidies. The unions had warned that if no deal was reached it would start taking workers off oil platforms.
Canal 3 TV reports that the new president of Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina, has been sworn into office after his election victory in November. The 61-year-old is the first military figure to lead Guatemala since the return to democracy in 1986. He has promised tough action to combat soaring levels violent crime, drug trafficking, poverty and child malnutrition.
The Emir of Qatar says that Arab troops should be sent to Syria to stop a deadly crackdown that has claimed the lives of thousands of people in the past 10 months.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s comments to CBS’s '60 Minutes' programme in the United States, which will be aired today, are the first statements by an Arab leader calling for the deployment of troops inside Syria. Qatar, which once had close relations with Damascus, has been a harsh critic of the crackdown by President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Al Ahram reports Egypt’s reform leader Mohamed El Baradei was pulling out of the country’s presidential race to protest at the military’s failure to put the country on the path to democracy. The 69-year-old Nobel laureate, who has been seen as a driving force behind the movement that forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down, said in a statement that the conditions for a fair presidential election are not in place.
Metro says around 60 women marched to Harley Street in London calling for private clinics to replace PIP breast implants for free. The noisy group met in London with placards which read “Toxic Time Bombs” and “Health Before Wealth”. Their first target was The Harley Medical Group, which fitted the implants in almost 14,000 British women, and has said it will not replace them free of charge.