Press digest

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

The Times reports on claims of bribery at Malta’s Tripoli embassy for the granting of visas. It also reports that €5,000 in confiscated money has gone missing. The money were seized by customs and the police at Customs but after a court case, a smaller amount was handed back to their owner.

The Malta Independent says LGBT people are invisible in the education system, the gay rights movement has complained.

In-Nazzjon leads with a commemoration marking the 25th anniversary oft he frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil.

l-orizzont quotes Joseph Muscat as promising teachers that a Labour government would work closely with them on the national minimum curriculum. In its main story, however, the newspaper says that the daughter of a woman killed in Zebbiegh a year a ago is surrounded by love.

The overseas press

Globe and Mail says delegates  to the UN Durban conference on climate change have agreed an EU-promoted plan to extend the Kyoto Protocol and negotiate requirements for all member countries to reduce their carbon emissions. Sunday's deal, which has been dubbed the Durban Platform, calls for a 2015 pact that for the first time will hold all major carbon polluters legally responsible for cutting the greenhouse gasses believed to cause global warming. That pact would be implemented in 2020. The deal also sets up bodies to collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of euros a year for poor countries.

The Moscow Times says Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday said he disagreed with calls from protesters over the weekend to hold new legislative elections because of reports of fraud, but said he has ordered a probe into the allegations. Tens of thousands gathered in Moscow and other cities in Russia on Saturday denouncing the polls on December 4 as a farce. Several voters posted evidence online of voter intimidation and ballot stuffing, mostly in favour of the ruling United Russia party, which won a slim majority in parliament.

In the UK, The Daily Mail says Lib Dems leader Nick Clegg's warning that isolation from Europe will turn Britain into a "pygmy" nation has sparked fury amongst Conservatives. Lashing out at David Cameron's move decision to veto the new EU treaty, the Deputy Prime Minister said he feared the UK would become "isolated and marginalised" within Europe. The Independent says there was a "deep rift" in the coalition while The Times says 57 per cent of the electorate back Cameron’s move.

Caribbean News reports that former dictator Manuel Noriega is in Panama to serve more prison time on charges relating to his bloody rule from 1983 to 1989. Noriega, 77, has already served more than 20 years in American and French prisons for drug trafficking and money laundering. A Panamanian court convicted him in absentia of three cases of homicide involving 11 murders. Each conviction carries 20 years in prison, sentences which are to be served concurrently.

Le Prisien says former French premier Dominique de Villepin has revealed he would stand as an independent candidate for the French presidency, taking on bitter political rival and incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy.  Leading the latest polls is the Socialist candidate François Hollande on 31.5 per cent, followed by Sarkozy on 26 percent and then the far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen on 13.5 per cent. The opening presidential round is scheduled for April 22, with a possible second round on May 6 to be followed by parliamentary polls in June.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has told the BBC his country might continue its blocking of Nato convoys into Afghanistan. Pakistan stopped the convoys in protest at US air strikes which killed 24 of its troops at two checkpoints on the Afghan border last month. Gilani refused to rule out closing Pakistan's airspace to the US but said Pakistan and the US needed to trust each other better.

Al Jazeera reports that hundreds of army defectors in southern Syria have fought with loyalist forces in one of the biggest armed confrontations in the nine-month uprising, and a strike shut businesses in a new gesture of civil disobedience, residents and activists said. At least 26 people were killed by government troops on Sunday, including a woman and four children, activists said.  At least five Syrian soldiers, including a military officer, were also reportedly killed.

Deutche Welle announces that German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble has been awarded one of Europe's highest honours for his work towards stabilising the euro. The jury for the 2012 Charlemagne Prize said he had helped foster European unity.