The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times leads with a quote from Joseph Muscat that Labour will not fail to deliver. It also quotes Tonio Fenech saying that renewed protests by Ragusa council will not stop the interconnector project.
The Malta Independent leads with the political speeches about Gozo over the weekend/
In-Nazzjon says the prime minister yesterday made concrete proposals for job creation in Gozo.
l-orizzont devotes the whole of its front page and the back page to a picture of yesterday’s Labour mass meeting under the heading Change from Gozo.
The overseas press
Le Monde reports that France has called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council this evening to discuss ongoing conflict in Mali. The meeting will come as French jets pound Islamist strongholds in the north of the African country, forcing insurgents to flee on the third day of their intervention. President François Hollande said that the intervention had halted the southward rebel advance seen as threatening the capital Bamako, but stressed that France's mission was not over.
Jordan is in the process of consolidating an international coalition to kick-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. King Abdullah of Jordan has told Le Nouvel Observateur he was working with European countries, including France, to put “some effective and workable ideas on the table that would enable the US to engage and play a leading role in the peace process soon after the start of the second term of President Obama”. Abdullah expressed hope that Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE would participate in the efforts.
Moscow Times says thousands of people have marched through Moscow to protest against Russia’s new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children. Those opposed to the law say its main victims are not Americans but the Russian orphans, including some with disabilities, who otherwise would get new families in the United States.
Le Parisien reports that some 340,000 people have protested against French plans to legalise gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children. The opposition to President Hollande’s plan has underscored divisions among the secular-but-Catholic French. But while polls show the majority of French still support legalising gay marriage, that backing gets more lukewarm when the issue of conceiving and raising children comes into play.
Meanwhile, Il Tempo reports that four women have gone topless in St Peter’s Square to protest against the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage and what they called “homophobia”. Police quickly took the women away, and Pope Benedict appeared not to have been disturbed as he delivered his traditional prayer from his studio window overlooking the piazza. On their bare backs, the women had painted slogans “In Gay We Trust,” and “Shut Up”.
USA Today announces that actor Ben Affleck rebounded from the mother of all snubs at the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony in the early hours of this morning (Malta Time) in Beverly Hills, Les Miserables nabbed three honours, and Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway all garnered important wins on the road to next month's Oscars. Argo won for best drama and, after being a favourite to earn an Academy Award nomination last week and then not getting one, Affleck picked up a best director Golden Globe for the political thriller, beating a field that included Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Quentin Tarantino (Django). Les Miserables picked up three wins – best musical or comedy, best actor (Hugh Jackman) and best supporting actress for Hathaway. Its total tied for the most of the night with the HBO TV movie Game Change and Showtime drama Homeland. Jessica Chastain won best actress in a drama for her performance in Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden
Al Ahram says an Egyptian court has granted Hosni Mubarak’s appeal of his life sentence, ordering a retrial of the ousted president. Mubarak was convicted and sentenced to life in June for failing to prevent the killing of some 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 29-year rule. No date has been set for the retrial.
The Times of India reports six men have been arrested after a woman travelling on a bus in India was gang-raped – just weeks after a similar attack provoked outrage. The latest victim had boarded the bus to her village when she was abducted and taken on a motorbike to a house, where the driver and conductor were joined by five other men and they took it in turns to rape her before she was dropped off at her village in the morning. A seventh suspect was being hunted.
Beijing residents have been told to stay indoors as pollution described as the worst on record – 30 to 45 times above recommended safety levels – left the city shrouded in dense smog. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre issued an alert advising the elderly, children, and those suffering respiratory or cardiovascular illness to avoid going out or doing strenuous exercise, state news agency Xinhua reported. Those who did venture out wore facemasks for protection, with visibility low, the skyline shrouded, and the sun hidden in the smog.