The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the Gay jibe sentence may be appealed. It also carries comments by a father who says his son’s mother deserved to be jailed for not giving him access to the boy.
The Malta Independent says Maltese barmen would not use liquid nitrogen in drinks, according to the Malta Bartenders Guild. In the UK a young woman needed to have her stomach removed after drinking a cocktail which included liquid nitrogen.
In-Nazzjon says the government has given church schools €44m this year in line with its commitment to assure choice for parents.
l-orizzont says workers in Safi were sent home for handing out fliers - during council office hours - to help a young boy suffering a serious illness, while no action was taken against abusive mayors.
The overseas press
Turkish fighter planes have forced a Syrian passenger aircraft to land at Ankara airport amid suspicions it was carrying heavy weapons to Damascus. The intervention follows tensions on the countries’ border. Turkish state-run television TRT said the Airbus A320, coming from Moscow, had been intercepted by F-16 jets upon entering Turkish airspace. It was later allowed to resume its flight after a search but Turkish officials said they had confiscated some of the cargo it was carrying for further examination.
Hague News reports Saif al-Islam’s Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor has told International Criminal Court that the only son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in custody would be hanged if he was tried in Libya. Taylor, a member of the ICC's defence office, also said Saif's right to a fair trial was being violated while he was being held in isolation in the north-western Libyan hill town of Zintan, where he has been in custody since his arrest on November 19.While the ICC wants Saif to be tried in The Hague, Libya's post-revolutionary authorities insist he should stand trial in his home country.
CNN says President Obama has condemned the Taliban for shooting a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl in the head, calling it “a barbaric and disgusting act”. Dawn reports Malala Yousafzai, who had campaigned for education for girls, was recovering from surgery after being shot on Tuesday. Her father said the next 48 hours would be crucial. Pakistani officials have offered a 10 million rupee (€81,500) reward for information leading to the arrest of her attackers.
The New York Times quotes a US anti-doping agency report showing that as many as 11 of top cyclist Lance Armstrong’s former team mates have testified against him revealing “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful drugs programme the sport had even seen”. Armstrong's lawyer has described Usada's 1,000-page report as a "one-sided hatchet job".
Montreal Gazette says a former Canadian naval intelligence officer has pleaded guilty to spying for Russia. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, who worked at a top secret military facility, admitted selling sensitive Canadian and Nato intelligence.
Al Ahram reports that a court has controversially acquitted senior Mubarak-era figures of orchestrating a deadly attack, led by men on camels, against protesters during last year’s uprising. The court found all 24 defendants not guilty.
The Financial Times says aerospace and defence firms BAE Systems and EADS have decided to cancel their planned merger, after talks were thwarted by political deadlock. It followed days of talks between the UK, French and German governments to overcome political objections. The BBC says the UK wanted its counterparts to agree to limit their influence in the merged firm in order to maintain BAE's strong working relations with the US Pentagon. It understands that Germany was fundamentally opposed to the deal.
ABC says the Catholic Church in Australia has rejected Victoria police allegations that it protected suspected paedophile priests by moving them to different parishes. The police told a parliamentary inquiry the Melbourne Archdiocese hindered police investigations and endangered the prosecution of suspects, and that it moved suspected or known offenders between parishes. Catholic Church spokesman Fr Shane MacKinlay said if suspects were moved, it was only in an attempt to solve the problem and not to protect them from police.
Sky News reports claims that Jimmy Savile molested a disabled hospital patient while working as a volunteer porter in the 70s. A former nurse who was recovering from an operation at Leeds General Infirmary has said that she saw him sexually assault a brain-damaged young girl. It comes as the BBC gave further details of its inquiry into the allegations, some of which relate to the period when Savile was employed by the BBC and are alleged to have taken place on the corporation's premises. The Daily Mail says BBC chairman Lord Patten has described as “a cesspit” the alleged sex-abuse scandal. The Sun splashes a front-page picture of the headstone of Jimmy Savile lying smashed in a skip after it was removed by his family.
An independent Irish parliamentarian has mistakenly referred to Prime Minister Enda Kenny appearing on the "front page of Playboy magazine" instead of Time magazine. The Irish Examiner says that speaking in the Dáil, Mattie McGrath appeared to get confused as to what magazine the prime minister appeared on the cover of last week. "To see our Taoiseach, on this front page of Playboy magazine, I wish him well, I voted him as Taoiseach, but I expected a lot different of him," he said. However, he was quick to correct himself. "Sorry what magazine did I say? [Pause] Oh sorry. I meant to say … sorry, sorry … I'll correct that - I meant to say like a playboy on Time magazine."