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

The Sunday Times carries an interview with the prime minister, who says the government needs to better explore its initiatives. The paper also quotes a lawyer who said that body strip searches could be abuse of police power.

The Malta Independent says that records show that parliamentary pay rises were far from stealthy and MPs knew about them.

MaltaToday under the heading ‘Gonzi’s big con’ says MPs honoraria was paid as allowances from ministry budgets instead of from parliamentary funds.

It-Torca reports that medicine prices have remained high despite promises to the contrary. It also says that half of fuel prices are actually taxes.

Il-Mument says the Labour Parliamentary group is split on the issue of MPs honoraria. It also reports comments by the prime minister said MPs’ honoraria will only be revised with unanimous agreement within the parliamentary select committee which will discuss the issue.

Illum says John Dalli intends to stand for the next general elections. He recently had a number of meetings with PN backbenchers.

KullHadd says Selmun Palace Hotel will be handed to Zaren Vassallo without another call for tenders.

The overseas press

Protests have continued in Algeria and Yemen amid simmering unrest in the Arab word. In Tunis, the national TV station showed films of thousands of protesters calling on their new government to quit because of its inclusion of old regime figures in key posts. They include Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi as well as the defence, interior and foreign ministers. Demonstrators in Tunis were joined by hundreds of police officers.

El Watan says the police clashed with pro-democracy protesters in the Algerian capital Algiers, as they blocked a march on parliament. The opposition said at least 42 people had been injured, two seriously. The Interior Ministry put the number of injured at 19. Nine demonstrators have been arrested.

Al Motamar reports hundreds of Yemeni students held protests at Sanaa University, some calling for the President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, and others for him to stay in office. Saleh was reelected in 2006 for a seven-year mandate. A draft amendment of the constitution, under discussion in parliament despite opposition protests, could further stretch his tenure by allowing a lifelong mandate.

In Egypt, a national day of action is scheduled for next Tuesday by opponents of President Hosni Mubarak. Mohammed El Baradei, a leading opposition figure and 2005 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, told German news magazine Der Spiegel for an interview to be published Monday that "if the Tunisians have done it, Egyptians should get there too". On Tuesday, a 25-year-old unemployed Egyptian died after setting himself on fire in Alexandria, while three other people survived setting themselves on fire on the streets of the capital, Cairo.

There have been several acts of self-immolation in the Arab world, mimicking the suicide of a man in Tunisia which provoked the anti-government uprising. Gulf News says a man has died after setting himself on fire in Saudi Arabia's south-western region of Jizan. The man, who was in his 60s, set himself on fire using a petroleum product in the town of Samitah, and died later in hospital.

Africa Time reports that a Mauritanian man who set himself on fire also died in hospital on Saturday. Yacoub Ould Dahoud, a 43-year-old businessman, was transferred to a clinic in Morocco with 90 per cent burns after his act of self-immolation in protest at Mauritanian government on Monday in the capital, Nouakchott.

Al Jazeera says talks between Iran and Western powers over Tehran's nuclear plans have ended without any progress. EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said no new date had been set and blamed what the six consider unrealistic demands by Iran – an end to UN sanctions and agreement that Iran could continue to enrich – for the disappointing results. The West accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, although Iran insists its atomic energy programme is peaceful.

Dublin Post reports Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has stepped down as leader of his Fianna Fail party but would remain as premier until March. He said he felt his continued leadership of the party was distracting from the issues facing Ireland in the run-up to the election on March 11. Former foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Minister for Social Protection Eamon Ó Cúiv have officially confirmed they would contest the leadership of Fianna Fáil.

The phone hacking scandal that led to the resignation of David Cameron’s communications chief widened as a media lawyer revealed it now involves newspapers other than the News of the World. Mark Lewis, who acted for Gordon Taylor of the Professional Footballers’ Association in a damages claim against the NOTW, told Sky News he was representing four people who believed they had been targeted by other newspapers.

Moscow Times reports two people have been killed and eight others were injured in a massive fire at a shopping mall in the city of Ufa in central Russia. Officials said the fire started during construction in the mall and quickly engulfed the five-story building.

Asia Times says a Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station has successfully lifted off from a remote island. The unmanned rocket is carrying nearly six tonnes of food, water, clothing and experimental equipment to the astronauts in orbit in the space station. The rocket is also carrying cargo for Nasa.

Nearly a third of Zimbabwe’s 5.5 million registered voters are dead, 40 per cent had moved without updating their voting information and others appear to be up to 120 years old – vastly exceeding the average life expectancy there of 44. The Zimbabwean quotes that the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network calling for the list to be updated before elections scheduled for this year. The group says such problems open the way for “double voting and other rigging intentions”.

London’s Sunday Express says detectives investigating the death of Joanna Yeates have charged her 32-year-old neighbour Vincent Tabak with murder. The Dutch engineer, who was arrested on Thursday, will appear at Bristol Magistrates' Court accused of killing the 25-year-old. The landscape architect's body was found abandoned in a country lane three miles from her rented Bristol flat on Christmas Day after being reported missing six day earlier.

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