Press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times quotes the Prime Minister saying there is no government crisis in the wake of the Franco Debono case. It also reports that officials found an illegal abattoir near Swieqi yesterday.

The Malta Independent says that according to sources, Franco Debono had wanted to make the PN ‘listen' to alternative opinions. It also reports that hopes for success at the Climate Change Conference are in limbo.

In-Nazzjon says there are intensive, crucial negotiations in the climate change summit. It also reports on the Noel Arrigo appeal. In another story, it says that the EU Budget allocation for immigration has been raised following an amendment moved by Simon Busuttil.

l-orizzont says Security Service equipment was used to locate Franco Debono (through his mobile phone) on Monday ahead of the parliamentary vote. It also says nothing has been done to reduce inefficiency at Enemalta.

The international press:

With just one day to go to reach a global climate change deal, Le Monde leads with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's warning fellow world leaders that the UN climate talks were heading for disaster unless they moved into "top gear".

In the UK, The Independent says that China is under pressure to abandon demands that could derail a Copenhagen deal. The Guardian leads on claims from a leaked UN paper that says the emission cuts offered so far at the climate change summit will still lead to catastrophic warming.

Copenhagen News reports that posing as world leaders, Greenpeace activists gatecrashed a royal banquet for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. A man and woman pulled up in a chauffeured limousine at the Danish parliament where Queen Margrethe II was to host a summit banquet and unfurled yellow banners reading "Politicians Talk, Leaders Act" before they were hustled away by security guards.

The Washington Post quotes US National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer saying the United States still aimed to sign a new accord this year with Russia on reducing the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers.

El Pais leads with the approval by184 deputies in Spain's 350-seat lower chamber of a bill to further liberlise abortion laws.

The Financial Times reports a planned 12-day strike over Christmas by British Airways cabin crew has been blocked by the High Court in London.

The New York Times reports a record 68 journalists were killed around the world in 2009, including 31 in a massacre in the Philippines.

El Tiempo says one of Mexico's most wanted drug traffickers, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a shootout with state security forces in a navy operation.

The Daily Telegraph says a man has been jailed for the so-called "honour killing" of his 15-year-old daughter more than 10 years after her murder.

The New York Post reports three family members - a father, his son and his grandson - were found shot dead and another, possibly the gunman, seriously wounded in an apartment block in Manhattan. The sole survivor, a 49-year-old female member of the family, is said to be in a critical condition in hospital after suffering a head wound. Police are still investigating.

Meanwhile, the Orange County Register reports that investigators believe a grandmother shot her daughter and two granddaughters, aged four and two, in a murder-suicide that has rocked San Clemente, California. The girls' mother had been involved in a custody dispute with her ex-husband.