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

The Times of Malta reports how residency will be included in the citizenship scheme in a deal with the EU. 

The Malta Independent says this was the first such scheme sanctioned by the European Union.

In-Nazzjon says Joseph Muscat surrendered on the citizenship scheme.

l-orizzont also reports how agreement was reached with the European Commission on the Individual Investor Programme.

The overseas press

Euronews reports a cold spell and snowstorms have swept across parts of central and eastern Europe, disrupting power supplies, travel and schools and leaving at least four people dead in Bulgaria.

Ansa says “the expected polar weather will hit north and central Italy and Sardegna bringing 36 hours of snow”.  Rain will cover the whole of Italy and SiciLy during the weekend. The Daily Telegraph has the latest on the flooding in the UK, reporting that troops were being sent to some of the worst-affected areas.

Bloomberg says rare and unusual snow and ice in the US have led to three states calling a state of emergency. Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina have been hardest hit by the arctic vortex. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad's adviser has rejected the opposition's call for a transitional governing body and suggested for the first time that a presidential election scheduled to be held later this year may not take place amid the raging violence. The comments by Bouthaina Shaaban, in an interview with The Associated Press, came as UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi announced that the first phase of the Syria peace talks in Geneva will end on today.

Kyiv Post says Ukraine's parliament has approved a measure offering amnesty to those arrested in two months of protests, but only if demonstrators vacate most of the buildings they occupy. 

Dagbladet says two Norwegian politicians have nominated fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize. Socialists Baard Vegar Solhjell and Snorre Valen said they did not condone all of Snowden's disclosures, and they acknowledge he may have damaged the national security of several countries. But they said they are convinced that his whistleblowing sparked a public debate and changes in policy. They say those changes have contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order.

The Washington Post says that for the first time, US spy chiefs have told Congress that insiders like Edward Snowden who leak secrets about sensitive US intelligence programmes posed a potentially greater danger to national security than terrorists. Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, urged Snowden to return the material, saying he made “the nation less safe and its people less secure”.

Toronto Star announces singer Justin Bieber has turned himself in to Toronto police for an expected assault charge. The baby-faced 19-year-old arrived yesterday evening at a police station to a crush of media and screaming fans. A police official said the charge has to do with an alleged assault on a limo driver in December.

Times of India says a 32-year-old man has been arrested in Goa accused of raping a four-year-old Iranian girl who was on vacation with her mother. The attack took place in the village of Arpora. The man attempted to run away when approached by police.

California Chronicle reports William Buchman, a 53-year-old schoolteacher was arrested after at least 300 living and dead pythons were found in plastic bins inside his stench-filled suburban home. Officers found the snakes as well as mice and rats while searching the house after neighbours complained about the smell of something rotten. The pythons were kept throughout the five-bedroom house.

South China Morning Post reports the lesbian daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon who publicly offered millions of euros to any man who could woo her into marriage has appealed to her father in an open letter to accept her for who she is. Cecil Chao made world headlines in 2012 when he tried to find a man who could successfully win his daughter Gigi Chao away from her partner by offering 500 million Hong Kong dollars (€46m), an offer that a Malaysian newspaper who interviewed him last week said he has doubled.

 

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