The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times says an investigation has been launched into the prison tuck shop.
The Malta Independent reports that local second hand car importers are feeling the pinch.
In-Nazzjon reports that psychologists are still waiting for their appointment by the government after passing their exams. It also says that Paul Bonello is to become chairman of Malita Investments.
l-orizzont reports that Tonio Portughese is set to become chairman of PBS. It also says that the regulations for the Star Scholarship scheme was tailored to benefit St Martin’s Institute.
The overseas press
The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is reportedly awake and responding in writing to questions from authorities. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is unable to speak after being shot in the throat during a gunfight with police, and is currently in intensive care in a Boston hospital. This morning America's ABC and NBC networks reported that he was responding in writing to questions from law enforcement officials. Earlier Boston mayor Tom Menino said he feared authorities may never be able to question Tsarnaev because of the nature of his injuries. The 19-year-old was captured after hiding in a boat in a backyard following a gunfight with police which killed his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan.
Asia Today says Chinese rescue workers are using explosives to clear mounds of rock blocking roads as emergency teams try to reach isolated earthquake-hit towns in the south-western province of Sichuan. The death toll in China's worst earthquake in three years stands at more than 200, with almost 12,000 people injured. Thousands of people are being treated in temporary trauma hospitals that have been set up to handle the waves of injured.
Authorities in China say the death toll from a new strain of bird flu has reached 20, with the deaths of two more people. Xinhua news agency reports the H7N9 virus has been detected in 102 people, mostly in eastern China. Seventy of those infected remain in hospital, while 12 have been discharged.
According to France 24, thousands of people took to the streets of Paris on Sunday in a final effort to stop France from approving a controversial bill legalising same-sex marriage and adoption. The mass protest comes just two days ahead of a decisive parliamentary vote Tuesday on the Bill that would make France the 14th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.
Times of India reports anti-rape protesters have staged fresh rallies against the brutal rape of an abducted five-year-old Indian girl in New Delhi, as doctors said the victim was showing signs of "improvement" and was in "stable condition". The five-year-old victim was being treated for serious internal injuries sustained during a more than 40-hour ordeal, allegedly at the hands of a 22-year-old neighbour, a male garment worker who was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
Al Jazeera says Syrian forces and militiamen loyal to president Bashar al-Assad have been blamed for a "massacre" of at least 85 people, including women and children, in a Damascus suburb. Both government and rebel sources confirmed that Syrian forces had mounted a major offensive against Jdaidet al-Fadl, and both sources said government troops had won the battle. But opposition activists have described a "massacre" in the area and some say the death toll could be higher than 250. There was no immediate confirmation of the activists' account.
Voice of Nigeria reports fighting between the country’s military and Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in a fishing community in the nation's far northeast. Officials said the attack marks a significant escalation in the long-running insurgency Nigeria faces in its predominantly Muslim north, with Boko Haram extremists mounting a coordinated assault on soldiers using military-grade weaponry.
Ultima Hora announces Horacio Cartes, a tobacco magnate, has won a five-year term as president of Paraguay. After most votes were counted, the electoral commission declared Cartes of the Colorado Party the winner. He had 46 per cent of the vote over 37 per cent for Efrain Alegre of the Radical Liberal Party Court. Speaking after being declared the winner, Cartes said poverty, the lack of jobs for young people and international issues awaited him. The UN estimates more than half of Paraguayans live in poverty.
Avvenire reports Pope Francis said he was worried about the political unrest in Venezuela. Speaking to a crowd in St Peter's Square, the pontiff urged politicians to reject any kind of violence and establish dialogue towards a reconciliation following the election of the new Socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, in the first ballot after the death of Hugo Chávez. Pope Francis said he was following the events closely, with concern and with hope that Venezuelans can find "the just and peaceful ways to overcome a moment of grave difficulty".
O Globo says 23 Brazilian police officers have been sentenced to 156 years in jail each for their role in the killing of 111 inmates in 1992 during Brazil's deadliest-ever prison uprising. The policemen, most of them now retired, were accused of killing 15 prisoners in Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison during the operation to quell the revolt on October 2, 1992, which came to be known as the "Carandiru massacre" Survivors had described scenes of chaos, accusing police of firing on inmates who had already surrendered or were hiding in their cells.