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

The Sunday Times features an interview with the Prime Minister under the heading -  Gonzi: I will not be blackmailed.

The Malta Independent carries a comment by the prime minister that Franco Debono should resign.  It also carries a front page picture of the funeral of Duncan Zammit, one of the victims of the New Year's Day stabbings.

MaltaToday also focuses on the current political turmoil, calling it the Final Countdown. It also says that emotions ran high at Zammit's funeral.

It-Torca says the 'war' between Franco Debono and the prime minister has got worse.

Il-Mument says the Franco Debono case will be tackled within the PN.

Illum carries comments by Debono that this is a Constitutional issue and not one for the PN.

KullHadd says the Gonzi government is at the edge.

The overseas press

ABC News reports that the United States has urged the government of Bahrain to investigate allegations that a prominent Bahraini rights activist was beaten by security forces on Friday. A senior US official said the facts of the case involving Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, were in dispute, but Washington was generally concerned about frequent reports Bahraini police use excessive force against protesters.

Kabul Times says an Afghan investigative commission has accused the US military of abusing detainees at its largest prison and said those held without evidence should be freed. Commission head Gul Rahman Qazi said that prisoners complained of freezing cold, humiliating strip searches and being deprived of light. Commission members repeated a demand made by President Hamid Karzai that the US turned over all detainees to Afghan custody.

Arab League foreign ministers meet in Cairo today to discuss whether to ask the UN to help their mission in Syria, which has failed to end a 10-month-old crackdown on unrest that has killed thousands. Reuters report that Qatar proposes inviting UN technicians and human rights experts to help Arab monitors judge whether Syria was honouring its pledge to stop its repression. There has been no slackening of violence since monitors began work in Syria on December 26, with scores reported killed.

Voice of Nigeria reports that hundreds of people have been fleeing north-eastern areas  of the country, after a 24-hour wave of violence targeting Christian communities. At least 29 people have died in four attacks in Adamawa state, prompting the state governor to impose a curfew. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” was responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone targeting churches in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has urged the government to listen to protesters demanding free elections. In an interview broadcast on 1TV on the day Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas, Patriarch Kirill warned both sides that Russia could not afford another revolution. The patriarch, whose church has close ties to the Kremlin, spoke of the need to preserve a strong state. He warned the protesters against being used by those fighting for political power.

Tripoli Post says Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, wanted internationally for genocide and war crimes, has used a trip to Libya to denounce slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi for causing great suffering among the Sudanese people. Bashir's trip to Tripoli faced strong criticism from New York-based Human Rights Watch, which said that hosting such an "international fugitive" sent troubling signals about the commitment of Libya's new rulers to human rights. The Sudanese president is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

The British Royal Navy has dispatched its most advanced and sophisticated destroyer to the Arabian Gulf. EU Times says the destroyer would join the British presence in the region. The vessel has been fitted with new technology in order to shoot down any missile in Iran’s armoury. Last week, Iran’s navy wrapped up massive 10-day military drills in the strategic Strait of Hormuz to show that the country was ready to defend itself against any attack.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to give shareholders the right to veto executive pay packages, amid mounting political pressure and public anger over huge salaries and bonuses. He told The Sunday Telegraph that the market for top people wasn’t working and that it needed to be sorted out. Despite repeated controversies over bosses being handed huge pay-offs even in cases where companies have failed, currently shareholders can only express their disapproval through an advisory vote.

The Dominion Post reports a cargo ship which ran aground off the coast of New Zealand three months ago has broken in two, spilling containers and other debris into the sea.. Clean-up teams have been alerted amid fears the ship could leak some of the remaining oil on board. The accident has been described as New Zealand's worse maritime disaster.

President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina's has been found not to have cancer after all. Clarin quotes her spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro saying an examination of the thyroid removed in a 3.5-hour operation “ruled out the presence of cancer cells, thus modifying the initial diagnosis”. He said Ms Kirchner, 58, had left the private Austral hospital in Pilar, 50 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, and was convalescing at her official residence in the northern suburb of Olivos.

Egypt's two main Islamist parties have claimed to have together won 62.2 per cent of the vote in the third stage of a general election. albawaba quotes the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood saying on its website that it had garnered 35.2 per cent of the party list vote in the polling in the final nine governorates on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Salafi Al-Nur party said it received 27 per cent. According to AFP, the two parties gained 65 per cent in the first two phases of Egypt's first general election.

The Italian Farmers association, Coldiretti, has launched an “agro-piracy” alert as fake made-in-Italy food products sold €60 billion abroad last year. Three out of four products sold as typical Italian were fake. Coldiretti said the excellent performance of exports (an increase of nine per cent) in 2011 may further improve with "more effective monitoring against international “agro-piracy”..

Sri Lanka has lifted a moratorium on killing stray dogs as it tries to reduce the more than 2,000 cases of hospitalisation due to dog bites every month. Health minister Maithripala Sirisena told the Swarnavahini TV that the government had decided to revert to destroying strays, a practice suspended five years ago, because of rabies concerns. Sri Lankan law allows the authorities to catch and kill stray animals, but a presidential order suspended the practice in 2006 following lobbying by animal rights groups.

 

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