The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that taxis and vans are in great demand for tonight. It also reports that rivals and records were beaten in tourism this year.
The Malta Independent says a motorcyclist is in danger of dying after a crash on the Coast Road early yesterday. It also reports how Fabio Psaila was jailed for six months for jumping jail.
In-Nazzjon reports how a man was arraigned for injuring his partner, a week before she allegedly stabbed him. The newspaper also reports on the new tourism record.
l-orizzont says fuel prices will rise again tomorrow.
The overseas press
Euronews reports that the EU, the US and other European countries have criticised the new jail sentence imposed by a Russian court on Mikhail Khodorkovsky for embezzlement and money-laundering. The former Russian oligarch, who was near the end of an eight-year term for tax evasion, would stay jailed till 2017. The President of the European Union Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said the ruling was an "emblematic symbol" of Russia's failure to modernise. The US said the new sentence seemed to be an abuse of Russia's legal system.
Berliner Zeitung reveals that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would call for the euro to be strengthened in a new year’s message to be broadcast later today. In a televised address, Mrs Merkel would say that Germany needed Europe and the common European currency, which she would describe as “the foundation of prosperity”.
Kathemerini says an explosion has damaged two administrative court buildings in central Athens following a warning telephone call to a newspaper and a private TV station. The blast shattered windows, damaged cars and sent up a cloud of smoke that was visible across the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Greek militant groups have stepped up attacks in the past two years.
Aswat al-Iraq reports two people have been killed in bomb attacks in Baghdad on the home members of a minority group of the Christian community. Fourteen other people were injured in the blasts.
The Irish Independent quotes a respected rights group saying that at least 39 people have died of torture in Uzbekistan jails this year amid a growing crackdown on religious groups and government critics. The Independent Human Rights Defenders Group has said the figure was based on information from the victims' families and former inmates. It added that the actual number of such deaths could be higher, but many were not reported because the families fear official reprisals. In 2009, the group registered 20 prison deaths by torture.
El Pais says a court in Spain has jailed four civil guard police officers for torturing two members of the Basque militant group ETA. The court was told the two ETA suspects were beaten and threatened after being arrested two years ago.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been touring flood-damaged areas in the northeast of the country where more than 4,000 people have been displaced. Two entire towns have been evacuated in the state of Queensland.
Angola Observer says a 42-year-old Congolese citizen was sentenced to 24 years’ jail by a court in Luanda after the deadly attack on the Togo national football team last January. The team was travelling to the African Cup of Nations tournament when their bus came under a hail of gunfire in Angola’s Cabinda region. Three people, including a Togo team coach, were killed and eight others were wounded.
AFP reports from Nigeria that the police have arrested 92 suspected members of a radical Islamist sect following a series of attacks on Wednesday in which eight people were killed.
The Jerusalem Post says former Israeli president Moshe Katsav, 65, has been convicted of raping a former employee. He faces a minimum of four years in prison. Katsav resigned in 2007 and was replaced by Shimon Peres.
Two stories dominate Friday's UK newspapers’ front pages: the man arrested in Bristol over the murder of Jo Yeates, the 25-year-old landscape architect and the swine flu epidemic. The Daily Mail says the 65-year-old man arrested by detectives last night was her landlord Chris Jefferies, a retired public school teacher. The Daily Express and The Guardian concentrate on the fact that 12 people have died from flu in the UK over the past week, taking the death toll from the illness this winter to 39. Figures published by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) showed that 738 people – including 42 children aged under five – were now in critical care beds because of flu. The government has faced criticism for its response to the outbreak and its earlier decision not to run an advertising campaign for flu vaccinations.
The Daily Mail reports a 94-year-old farmer in India claimed he has become the world's oldest father after his 50-year-old wife gave birth to a son. Ramajit Raghav of Kharkhoda in Haryana, northern India, was confident that he would be around to see his little boy grow up and did not rule out having more children. If the story is confirmed, Raghav would beat current record holder Nanu Ram Jogi, an Indian farmer who fathered his 21st child at the age of 90 in 2007.