The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Times says that the Commission for the Administration of Justice is unlikely to reach a decision on the impeachment of Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco before Parliament is dissolved on Monday so the House may need to be recalled on the case. It also reports on the release of the Medavia bosses.
L-Orizzont reports on the hold-up at Scotts Supermarket in Burmarrad yesterday afternoon. In another story it says that the General Workers’ Union has been granted sole recognition at Casa Antonia.
In-Nazzjon says that more direct air routes to Malta are to be launched next year. It also reports the New Year Greetings of the Diplomatic Corps.
The New Year greetings were also a main story in The Independent, which also reported on a protest by gas distributors who were promised a timely decision when they met the Prime Minister yesterday.
The international news
Footage of an Indian politician being stripped and slapped by a group of women was broadcast on Indian television yesterday as a court in New Delhi charged five men with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old – charges that could lead to them being sentenced to death. According to a local police official quoted by AP news agency, the politician – Congress party member Bikram Singh Brahma – was captured by villagers earlier in the day after he allegedly entered a woman’s home and raped her.
A Franco-Lebanese businessman implicated in some of France’s biggest arms scandals has claimed he has proof that former French President Nicolas Sarkozy received €50 million in funding from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. According to a report in Le Parisien, Ziad Takieddine told a French judge that Sarkozy received the money from the former dictator during his 2007 presidential campaign and after the election. Similar claims, all denied by Sarkozy, have been made by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the deposed leader’s sons, as well as a French investigative website.
Natural catastrophes killed some 9,500 people and caused $160 billion worth of damage in 2012. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quotes the world's leading reinsurer, Munich Re, saying about 67 per cent of overall losses and 90 per cent of insured losses were attributable to the United States, with the year's highest insured loss caused by Hurricane Sandy. In addition, the US was also hit by severe droughts, as well as tornadoes. In 2011, overall losses came to $400 billion and fatalities totalled 27,200.
The Times says an alleged Al Qaeda operative accused of plotting to blow up New York's subway has been extradited from Britain to face terrorism charges in the United States. London's high court has heard Abid Naseer, 26, is also accused of heading an Al Qaeda plot to set off bombs in Manchester in 2009. If convicted he faces a possible life sentence in a supermax prison.
The Washington Post leads with the re-election of John Boehner as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, beating Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by 220 votes to 192 on the first day of a new Congress. He will lead Republicans as they take on the White House over federal spending. New fights loom over spending cuts for military and domestic programmes as well as the "debt ceiling" limit of how much the federal government could borrow.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Transocean, the Swiss company that operated the oil rig involved in BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, has agreed to pay a $1.4 billion settlement. In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burned and sank after a BP-owned well exploded. The explosion killed 11 people and sent millions of barrels of oil into the gulf in the largest offshore oil spill in American history.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has dismissed a call by the President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina for Britain to hand back the Falkland Islands, saying that that the future of the islands was up to the people who live there, not Argentina. The demand was made in an open letter published in The Guardian and The Independent asking that the prime minister abided by UN resolutions to "negotiate a solution" to the row. Cameron suggested Kirchner should "listen" to the result of a referendum due to be held in March. And he vowed that Falklands residents would have his full backing if they choose to remain British.
Il Tempo reports tourists to the Vatican have been told they could only pay cash after card payments for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services were blocked by Italy's central bank as the Holy See has not complied with EU safeguards against money laundering. As a result, Deutsche Bank Italia, which had provided the Vatican with the electronic payment services for 15 years, had its authorisation halted on December 31. The Vatican says it is working to rectify the situation.
The Irish Independent says an early manual on sex and pregnancy, banned from sale in the UK for more than 200 years, will go under the hammer next week. Aristotle's Compleat Master-Piece first appeared around 1680 and sets out various ideas on sexual relationships and how to conceive. It was banned in the mid-18th century and remained a forbidden text until the prohibition was lifted in the 1960s. An edition printed in the 1760s is expected to fetch up to £400 when it goes on sale at Edinburgh auction house Lyon and Turnbull.
Corriere della Sera reports that anti-racism campaigners have praised AC Milan Ghanaian midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng after he walked off the field in protest at racist abuse during a friendly – followed by his team-mates. Milan’s match against fourth-tier side Pro Patria was abandoned. Italian Football Association president Giancarlo Abete branded the incident “unspeakable and intolerable” and an offence to Italian football. He announced an immediate inquiry. Piara Powar, executive director of European anti-discrimination group FARE, demanded strong action from the Italian FA.