The following are the top stories in the local and international press today:

The local newspapers continue to focus on the parcel bomb which injured 60-year-old Philip Cini on Tuesday. Mr Cini is still in a serious condition but he is now stable.

The Times quotes an explosive expert saying that anyone with basic access to the internet could have made this bomb, which was very easy to make but very dangerous. Experts still do not know what explosive was used but it was unlikely that it was explosives of the type used for fireworks or in quarries.

In another story, The Times says that a year after the state started providing Herceptin to cancer patients, a patient is considering selling her home to buy medication costing €70,000 after her cancer reappeared.

l-Orizzont says that investigations relating to the parcel bomb sent to Mr Cini have continued. The newspaper says it was likely that the Qormi bomb was placed early on Tuesday morning. The bomb was found by Mr Cini’s wife, who took it upstairs but did not open it as it was addressed to Philip.

In another story the newspaper says that flights to Malta were affected by bad weather in Europe,

In-Nazzjon reports that Mr Cini is out of danger and that it is not excluded that the packet was sent by someone close to him.

It also has a story on the mysterious disappearance of a Ukrainian sailor.

The Malta Independent reports that Island Hotels bought the Hal Ferh complex and that Malta and Italy have strengthened their relations in the field of health. In another story, it says the GRTU is insisting that it was correct in saying that Malta now had the highest water and electricity rates in Gozo but the newspaper stood by its previous report on the rates.

The Maltese newspapers will not be published on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The international press:

China Daily reports that Beijing has imposed a tariff on European steel products, such as nails and bolts, as a trade row with Brussels escalates. A day earlier, the EU had decided to extend a levy on the import of shoes from Asia. The Chinese commerce ministry said the country would take the matter to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Al Jazeera says security forces arrested more than 50 people after clashing with crowds gathered for a memorial for Iran’s most dissident cleric today. Opposition websites said the confrontations came in the central city of Isfahan as mourners gathered to honour Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri who died on Sunday.

Kathemerini reports the Greek parliament has voted to adopt stringent economic measures designed to lower the country's high levels of debt to 9.1 per cent of overall economic output by curbing public spending and boosting revenue by cutting back on red tape. The country’s public debt currently stands at €300 billion.

El Pais says some of the 7,000 passengers stranded at airports in Spain and Latin America after Spain's Air Comet suspended all its flights are threatening to go on hunger strike. The airline's fleet was grounded this week over its failure to pay its 17-million-euro-debt to Germany's Nord Bank in lease payments.

Meanwhile, Il Sole 24 Ore reports Ryanair has threatened to stop domestic flights in Italy after it was ordered to accept fishing and hunting licenses as valid ID documents. The company claims that this would pose a security risk.

Jamaica Tribune reports a holiday jet crashed on landing in Jamaica, stopping just short of plunging into the sea. More than 40 people were injured when the American Airlines flight carrying 154 people skidded across the runway in heavy rain.

A coach driver whose vehicle overturned in icy conditions, killing two elderly women and injuring nearly 50 people, has been praised for avoiding a bigger tragedy. The coach rolled on to its side after skidding on ice on an ungritted road near Cornwall. Witnesses said the driver avoided trees while skidding, and he got people out through the vehicle's emergency exits.

Colorado Globe reports the mother and father behind a hoax that saw the world following a wayward balloon in which their son was feared trapped have both received jail sentences. Richard Heen, 48, received 90 days’ detention, including 60 days’ work release, for fabricating the story. His 45-year-old wife, Mayumi, was given 20 days for her role in the scam which was aired live on TV stations across the globe.

Jerusalem Post announces the death of Yitzhak (Ike) Aharonovitz, the skipper of the Jewish immigrant ship the Exodus, which was refused entry to British-controlled Palestine in 1947. He was 86. Israeli President Shimon Peres said the captain had made a unique contribution to the state of Israel.

Zimbabwe Independent quotes the food giant Nestle saying it has shut down its milk processing plant in Zimbabwe temporarily after staff were forced by authorities to take milk from "non-contracted suppliers." Nestle in October stopped buying milk from a farm owned by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's family, who seized it from white farmers under his controversial land reforms.

Fox News has confirmed that the Brazilian family fighting a custody battle over nine-year-old Sean Goldman will not appeal a high court ruling that the child must be returned to his biological father in the US Goldman’s mother took him on vacation to Brazil in June 2004, but instead of returning to New Jersey, she divorced his father David Goldman and remarried in Brazil. The mother died last year, but Sean's stepfather continued to raise him in Brazil.

Tiger Woods and New York show-club host Rachel Uchitel are reported to have resumed their relationship. In Touch magazine reports that Woods has been seeing Uchitel in Florida near where he docks his yacht Privacy. It was a report about Uchitel's relationship with Woods that set the stage for the firestorm which has followed.

O Globo says a new case of a boy stuck with several sewing needles as part of a black magic rite has surfaced in Brazil where another boy nearly lost his life to such a practice. The two-year-old boy in the northern state of Maranhao was apparently perforated with the slivers by his father in black magic rituals. Meanwhile, in a second operation which lasted three hours, surgeons took out 14 needles piercing the boy's liver, bladder and intestines. One further operation is still needed.

The parents of an adopted boy in the US want to return him to state care because they feared for their lives after finding knives under his mattress. Tony and Melissa Wescott told the Tulsa World they love their 11-year-old son, whose name has not been disclosed, but it was beyond their ability to help him. The boy has been diagnosed with several severe mental health issues.

Dawn says a Pakistani court has ordered two brothers should have their noses and ears cut off after they were found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them.

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