What the Sunday papers say...

MaltaToday leads with news that former magistrate Carol Peralta, already outed as a freemason back in 1990 upon his appointment as a magistrate, had reappeared on a list of masons embarking on a trip to Paris to sign a masonic treaty with the Grand Orient de France, raising questions as to whether Peralta had stayed a freemason before his retirement from the bench in August 2015.

The Malta Independent says police have opened up a new line of investigation into the assassination of lawyer Carmel Chircop, 51, and that they are looking into one particular property transaction in Mgarr as they search fo a motive. The newspaper claims Chircop allegedly under-delcaraed the value of property transactions in order to reudce the amount of tax payable.

The Sunday Times reports that police are investigating allegations by a 29-year-old Chinese man that he was physically abused and not paid his wages while he worked as a kitchen assistant at a local restaurant. The man, identified as Mr Xiaom acquired a visa, residence permit and work permit in Malta and paid 50,000 Yuan (€6,900) to the Chinese agency. He claimed he received just €752 for the hours he worked between April and October 8, with no extra pay for overtime and public holidays. An exercise carried out by the Employment Relations Department showed he should have been paid a minimum of €12,038. The department is investigating the claim.

Illum quotes reports that Norwegian interests are interested in building the tunnel between Malta and Gozo, linking ta-Xhjma below Nadur to Ic-Cumnija close to Paradise Bay. 

Il-Mument reports "informed sources" claim that Algerian terrorists representing the Islamic State have used Malta to enter the European Union and goes on to state that neither police nor army intelligence is aware of these movements.

It-Torca leads with news that the Maltese passport is considered to be the seventh most valuable in the world, based on the number of countries which can be accessed with the document.

KullHadd carries an interview with Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on the performance of the economy.