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

The Times says the political parties have squabbled over campaign finances. It also says that the possible pardon in the oil procurement scandal is still under consideration.

The Malta Independent reports that the PM has said the PN will publish its campaign accounts but he evaded questions on bartering agreements.

MaltaToday quotes former Health Minister Louis Deguara saying the parties’ health proposals are a recipe for bankruptcy.  

l-orizzont highlights Labour's proposals for Gozo. It also says that recently-introduced dementia pills are already out of stock in government dispensaries.

In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying the Cancer Hospital will open at the end of the year.

The overseas press

The Guardian predicts Britain and France are heading for a frontal battle at tomorrow’s European summit in Brussels on the EU's trillion-euro budget after President François Hollande singled out the UK as the biggest obstacle to a breakthrough agreement. In his first address to the European parliament, the French leader also indirectly criticised British Prime Minister David Cameron's recent speech on Europe pledging a referendum on UK membership. Hollande said there could be no “à la carte Europe”. His speech came as Downing Street indicated that Cameron would join forces with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to demand cuts in the EU’s seven-year budget.

Most of the British nationals lead with the news that members of parliament have voted to back marriage between same sex couples in England and Wales. The Independent says the vote, the first hurdle on the path to becoming law, passed by a large majority:  400 votes to 175 votes. Figures suggest up to half of MPs from the governing Conservative Party either voted against the Bill or abstained. The legislation would allow gay couples to convert current "civil partnerships" into marriages and would legalise same-sex marriages from 2014 at civil and religious ceremonies.

Preparations for Scotland’s “Independence Day” have been published with more than a year to go before the referendum. Euronews says a Scottish government paper, with a foreword from Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, outlines what she hopes will be a smooth transition in March 2016 followed by elections to an independent parliament in May. The paper sets out plans for a written constitution, to be devised by the first parliament and the public.

The Irish Examiner says a report by an expert panel in Ireland has concluded that state sent thousands of women – many of them unmarried mothers – to work unpaid in industrial laundries run by the Catholic Church. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny apologised for the conditions in what were known as the Magdalene laundries. The investigation committee reported that the four religious orders in charge of workhouses regret any pain caused to women routinely stripped of their identities when locked up. In their defence the report repeated claims from nuns involved that they did the best they could to care for the residents.

Lebanese pan-Arabic Mayadeen TV reports Islamic leaders at their two-day summit opening Wednesday in Cairo would pressure Syria's President Assad to engage in a “serious dialogue” with Syria's opposition to end nearly two years of warfare. Reuters said on Tuesday said a draft discussed by foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation did not mention Assad by name but it did pin most blame for violence in Syria on his government. Inside Syria, intense fighting was reported near a border crossing with Jordan. Officials said 17 civilians were injured.

Tuesday's focus in Cairo was also on Syria's ally Iran and the first visit to Egypt in more than three decades by an Iranian leader. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was given a red-carpet airport welcome by Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Egyptian state media said both leaders discussed ways to boost relations “without resorting to military intervention”. Ahmadinejad's visit follows Morsi's visit to Iran last August for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Focus News Agency quotes the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry saying the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah was behind a bomb attack last July that killed five Israeli tourists and a local bus driver. Two of the attackers had entered the country on Canadian and Australian passports. Hezbollah has previously denied any involvement.

Copenhagen’s TV 2 reports a prominent Danish critic of Islam escaped an assassination attempt on his own doorstep. Lars Hedegaard, who heads a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam, said the gunman missed and fled after a scuffle. Hedegaard heads the Free Press Society in Denmark and its international offshoot, the International Free Press Society. He is also among the publishers of a weekly anti-Islam newsletter. He was also on tour with Lars Vilks, who had drawn the Prophet Mohammed.

Deutsche Welle says the University of Düsseldorf has revoked German Education Minister Annette Schavan's doctorate based on evidence of plagiarism in her 1980 dissertation. The council said it had found proof that in her dissertation, submitted more than 30 years ago, the minister had “systematically and deliberately” presented intellectual efforts that she herself had not generated. The plagiarism charges also included her failure to properly cite sources.

Campaigners in India claim tens of thousands of women have had their uteruses removed unnecessarily by unscrupulous doctors who want to profit financially from the operations. Some women who have had hysterectomy told the BBC that they had been told by private clinics that they could get cancer if they did not have the procedure.

Huffington Post says a New York policeman charged with plotting to kill and eat women hinted in an online chat that his wife might have been on the menu. Federal prosecutors said that Gilberto Valle engaged in a grisly internet chat with a man who said he was in India. They said Valle told the other man that his “girlfriend” and his wife were both 25 years old, 5 feet 7 inches and 10 stones. According to prosecutors, the other man asked if the wife was vegetarian and Valle said yes. Prosecutors said the man told Valle her meat would be lower quality. Valle, 28, is charged with planning to kidnap, rape, kill and eat women. His lawyers say he was merely fantasising and intended no violence.

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