The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta leads with how a court yesterday ruled that the human rights of the National Bank shareholders were breached in 1973.
The Malta Independent says the health minister has not ruled out an element of foreign management at Mater Dei Hospital.
In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the Opposition is still open for consensus on the citizenship scheme.
l-orizzont gives prominence to how Tony Debono filed a judicial protest against oil trader George Farrugia, claiming the conditions of the presidential pardon on the oil procurement scandal were broken when he ‘lied’ about him.
The overseas press
Russia has begun a counter terrorism operation after five bodies and an unexploded car bomb were found in four cars in the southern Stavropol area. According to RIA Novosti, one of the cars, in the Kirovsky and Predgorny districts, was full of explosives and a bomb had been placed near another car. The area is 150 kilometres north-east of Sochi, the city on the Black Sea which will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, and 500 kilometres south of Volgograd, where two terrorist attacks killed at least 34 people last month .
Granma reports former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made his first public appearance in nine months. The 87-year-old was present at the opening of the Kcho Romerillo, Laboratory for Art in Havana. He last appeared in public on last April. In December, he had a private meeting with key Cuban ally President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
An Indian diplomat, whose arrest over treatment of her servant sparked a bitter row, has left the United States. CNN says US prosecutors informed a court that New York-based Devyani Khobragade had left the country as a grand jury unveiled charges of visa fraud and making false statements.
While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever. ABC quotes weather forecasters in Australia saying some parts of the sparsely populated Pilbara region along the rugged northwest coast today were approaching 50 degrees Celsius. The record high of 50.7 degrees was set in 1960 in Oodnadatta, South Australia.
In Venezuela, El Tiempo reports all government ministers have submitted their resignations to the President Nicolas Maduro “to facilitate the renewal of the government in this new year just begun .” The announcement was made by Maduro on Twitter. It comes at a time of great national commotion caused by the recent brutal murder of former beauty queen, Monica Spear Mootz , and her husband , Thomas Henry Berry, during a robbery. The incident has reignited the spotlight on the issue of security. Executive and the opposition have decided to join forces , opening a crisis cabinet to prepare a contingency plan to tackle rampant crime .
Sole 24 Ore says the European Union has welcomed proposals to tackle record Italian unemployment from Italy's new centre-left leader Matteo Renzi, They include simplifying labour laws, cutting red tape and tax breaks for employers. Renzi also wants to ease hiring and firing rules, improve unemployment benefits and make these available to more people who are out of work. The proposals also include 10 percent cuts in energy costs for companies, breaks on labour taxes and higher taxes on financial earnings.
Il Tempo reports Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has said the new centre-right party he leads would leave the government if the centre-left Democratic Party proposes legalising gay marriage in a government pact. Premier Enrico Letta, of the PD, started talks on Tuesday with the parties supporting his left-right coalition government on a policy pact for this year. The head of the PD, Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, has proposed making the legal recognition of civil partnerships - including same-sex unions - part of the pact.
Today’s edition of the French magazine Closer reveals President François Hollande was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet, backing its claim with photographs after months of swirling rumours. The weekly tabloid features seven pages of revelations and pictures on the 59-year-old president's alleged relationship with Gayet.
Italy's supreme court has ruled that only legitimate recipients of correspondence, be it on paper or in electronic or other forms, have the right to read it in a landmark sentence that forced a woman to pay damages to her ex-husband for opening a letter sent to him and using it in a court proceeding. Ansa says the court ordered the woman to make the payment even though it admitted that the statute of limitations had run out on the crime. The woman had read a publishing contract sent to her ex-husband, a university professor, and submitted the contract in a court proceeding.
L’Equipe reports Manchester City star Yaya Toure has won a third straight African Footballer of the year award. The 31-year-old Ivory Coast international also won in 2011 and 2012. Nigeria’s John Obi Mikel was second and Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast finished third.