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

The local media is dominated by analyses of the Dalli report on Mater Dei Hospital.

The Times of Malta says that hospital CEO Joseph Caruana said his hands were tied by political diktat. The Malta Independent quotes doctors saying the Dalli report was negative and confrontational. l-orizzont reports that nurses were replaced half way through operations. 

In other stories In-Nazzjon focuses on an increase in unemployment.  The Times of Malta reports on yesterday's stabbing outside Duke's shopping complex in Gozo.

The overseas press

Libya Herald reports Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has had emergency talks in Benghazi with local security heads, following yesterday’s violent clashes between Benghazi Special Forces and Ansar Al-Sharia. 

Avvenire records President Putin had a busy first day in Rome yesterday, going from the Pope to a “Pussy Riot” protest to dinner at the palazzo of his old friend, Silvio Berlusconi.  

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced that Syria's government and opposition would meet on January 22 in Geneva. The UN, the US and Russia have been trying for months to get both sides to agree a political solution to the conflict.

Euractiv says the European Union has told Ukraine that a historic pact is still on offer this week, as street protests continued against the government’s decision to postpone an EU deal and repair relations with traditional ally Russia. 

Corriere della Sera says that in a last-ditch bid to stave off a vote that could keep him out of public office for years, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has begged senators not to kick him out of parliament, claiming new evidence proves he did not commit tax fraud.

VOA News reports President Obama has defended his administration's Iran policy but said “huge challenges” remained to successfully implement a landmark deal on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

USA Today says Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the US delivered blunt messages to each other that gave no indication of a resolution of their disagreements over a pact that governs the future of the American troop presence in the country. 

Al Hayat reports a Saudi court has sentenced a man to death and jailed 19 other people for up to 25 years over the deadly 2004 assault on the US Consulate in Jeddah.

Tribune de Genève says the WTO ruled in favour of the European Union in its bitter battle with Canada and Norway over its ban on the import and sale of seal products.

The Lancet quotes the World Health Organisation saying more than two million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years are living with HIV – a 33 per cent rise since 2001.  

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