The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times of Malta says Eddie Fenech Adami is expected to make a full recovery. It also quotes former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech saying he did not badmouth Malta but defended it in a meeting with an IMF delegation.
The Malta Independent also leads with Fenech Adami's hospitalisation. It also says the victims of sexual abuse by priests will file a claim for compensation today.
In-Nazzon says the yardstick of meritocracy has been broken into a thousand bits by the government.
l-orizzont says some road works at the Cospicua Dock One project have to be redone because of shabby workmanship.
The overseas press
President Obama says he has drawn up new guidelines on the controversial use of unmanned aircraft to hit militant targets abroad. Fox News says he stressed the so-called “drones” should be used only when faced by imminent threats and reports was near certainty that no civilians would be affected. Obama also outlined measures aimed at closing centre in Guantanamo.
British security sources said the two men who hacked and British soldier to death on a London street on Wednesday had been investigated over terrorist suspicion bit were no longer under surveillance. The two had been identified as British men of African origin who converted to Islam. The Daily Telegraph says one of the suspects was arrested at an extremist protest in 2006.
CNN reports the national council of the Boy Scouts of America has voted to end the ban openly-gay youth scouts into its ranks. The organisation had been facing mounting pressure on its exclusion policy. The change takes effect next January.
Le Parisien says IMF chief Christine Lagarde faced questions at a special Paris court over her role in the €400 million pay-off to a controversial businessman when she was France’s finance minister. Prosecutors say the payment was made to well-connected entrepreneur Bernard Tapie as part of a private arbitration process to settle a dispute with state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over the botched sale of Adidas in the 1990s. Ms Lagarde has denied wrongdoing.
O Globo says scientists in the Brazilian Amazon have identified 15 previously-unknown bird species in what they say is the biggest ornithological discovery in well over a century. Among the discoveries is a hitherto unknown type of raven. Experts say the latest discoveries underline the importance of the Amazon’s contribution to global bio-diversity.
Archaeologists have found nearly 5,000 cave paintings made by hunter-gatherers in a northeast Mexico mountain range where pre-Hispanic groups were not known to have existed. El Universal says the yellow, red, white and black paintings depict humans, deer, lizards and centipedes, suggesting that the groups hunted, fished and gathered food. They also painted religious, astronomical and abstract scenes and most of the images are very well preserved.
Ansa quotes former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi azying that the motivations released by a Milan appeals court on yesterday for why his four-year tax-fraud sentence was not overturned were "surreal". Explaining why they upheld his four-year prison term in a ruling earlier this month, the judges said he played a central role in “massive” fraud by his media group. Berlusconi had appealed against the four-year conviction and a five-year ban from politics for tax fraud in a film-rights case involving his Mediaset television company.
Meanwhile, Corriere della Sera reports that two bullets and written threats were mailed to magistrate Ilda Boccassini, prosecutor in Berlusconi's sex trial. In a statement, Milan's chief public prosecutor vowed they would not be intimidated by such threats. Last week, Boccassini asked a Milan court to jail Berlusconi for five years for corruption and a further year for paying an underage Moroccan nightclub dancer for sex in his so-called Ruby trial.
Il Tempo reports Italian olive oil producers reacted angrily to a decision Thursday by the European Union which once again permits unlabeled olive oil to be used in restaurants and cafes. Producers said the latest decision struck a blow against quality oil by allowing business to put all sorts of inferior products before customers. The Italian Farmers Confederation said Europe had chosen to reject a rule supported by as many as 15 countries, including major producers.
Metro says a British family doctor who used a secret camera inside a James Bond-style wristwatch to record himself abusing female patients has been jailed for 12 years. Dr Davinder Jeet Bains admitted a string of sex charges against more than 24 women at his medical practice near Swindon. Bains filmed the attacks on his HD Spy Watch DVR, which can be bought on the internet for less than €100. Police later recovered 361 high-quality video clips from the watch and the doctor's home computer.
Le Figaro reports tributes have been paid to French singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki who has died aged 79. Known for simple, romantic songs which he often sang himself, Moustaki wrote for French singers including Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco and Pia Colomba. He also sang his own compositions in French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, English and Arabic. The Paris newspaper called Moustaki "an extraordinary artist."
A new study published in BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association, shows many diners are gobbling far more calories in their fast-food meals than they realise. Teens underestimated the calories in fast-food meals by 34 per cent, parents of school-age children by 23 per cent and adults by 20 per cent. One-fourth of participants underestimated the calories in their meals by at least 500 calories.
France 24 says French children aged between eight and12 have trouble identifying basic fruits and vegetables and have “no idea what they are eating”. A survey, commissioned by the French Association of Environment and Health (ASEF) out of concern at rising levels of child obesity, revealed that a significant number of children could not name beetroot, courgettes or figs when shown pictures of these items. Some thought pasta was a vegetable that “grows on trees”.