The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the daughter of murdered lawyer Margaret Mifsud blamed her sister for the death, for having revealed her mother's whereabouts when threatened. It also says that the cost of living increase this year will be €4.08.
The Malta Independent leads with how the Libyan man accused of murdering Margaret Mifsud had threatened their young daughter to reveal her mother's whereabouts.
In-Nazzjon says that according to Charles Mangion, the MLP will not reduce taxes.
l-orizzont gives prominence to the evidence given in court yesterday by the mother of murder victim Margaret Mifsud. The mother also called the accused ‘vile’.
The overseas press:
A day after British Prime Minister David Cameron’s own party defied him over not enforcing EU budget cuts, Deutsche Welle quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowing to find a deal in the divisive EU budget talks. She made the pledge during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny in Berlin. The EU's pending long-term budget is part of the agenda of a major EU summit later this month. Merkel said she would hold talks with Cameron on the issue next week. The European Commission is calling for a budget of nearly one trillion euros for the seven-year period starting in 2014 – an increase of five percent on the previous budget. Britain is not the only country to have called on the EU to reduce spending amid domestic austerity measures in several member states. German and French officials have said the bloc should make do with less, though they disagree on where to cut.
Libya’s General National Congress was forced to suspend its sessions yesterday due to repeated incursions by militias. Libya Herald says the demonstrators had continued their overnight protest in opposition to some members of Prime Minister Zeidan’s newly-approved government. At some stages on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday those charged with securing the GNC building seemed to lose control and shots were fired in the air. Six members of the government were yesterday referred to the Integrity Commission, with protesters demanding the removal of all of them, claiming that they had unacceptable links with the former Gaddafi regime.
Almost 25 years later, Israel has admitted that it was behind the assassination of Palestinian deputy leader Abu Jihad, who was gunned down in a 1988 seaborne raid in Tunisia. Military censors have allowed the country’s top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot to publish a detailed account of the assassination. Nahum Lev, who commanded the operation, spoke about the assassination before his death in 2000 in an interview that was never published. He is quoted as saying: “Abu Jihad was connected to horrific acts against civilians. He was marked for death. I shot him with no hesitation.”
The New York Times says Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he was backing President Barack Obama for re-election following the violent storm that wreaked havoc along America’s northeast coast. A former Republican-turned-independent, Bloomberg had been critical of Obama but has now said he was the best candidate to tackle global climate change.
Meanwhile, the USA Today reports that the death toll from Sandy is continuing to rise. At least 90 people are now known to have died in the US, 38 in New York City alone. Others are missing. About 4.5 million people in 12 states are still without power, and chronic fuel shortages persist. The Press Association quotes meteorologists forecasting the US east coast could be hit by another storm after the presidential election next Tuesday.
Kathimerini says the editor-publisher of Hot Doc magazine, Costas Vaxevanis, has been acquitted of charges that he breached privacy laws by printing a list allegedly naming 2,000 Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland. The list, which included a former minister, has touched off a fierce debate in the nearly bankrupt country after governments failed to use it to check for possible tax evasion by rich depositors.
The Boston Herald reports a Boston Court has jailed an American Muslim for 17-years for attempting to attack the Pentagon and the US Capitol with mode aircraft laden with explosives. Rezwan Ferdaus, 27, pleaded guilty after he was caught in a sting operation by FBI agents posing as members of al Qaeda.
A video which shows a Spanish woman being ejected from a Ryanair plane moments before take-off has gone viral and prompted Twitter users in Spain to call for a boycott of the airline. The woman, who carried a book and a scroll on board, was ejected because they would not fit in her suitcase, according to the dailymailonline. The website picks up on an original report in the Spanish newspaper ABC which revealed how Ryanair staff instructed Spanish police at the Valencian airport of Manises to remove the passenger from its aircraft minutes before take-off because she had the wrong type of hand luggage. Ryanair has defended its actions by claiming the woman was in breach of airport security regulations, had become disruptive and had "pushed past" its gate agents without showing any ID or her boarding card.