The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and most newspapers lead with yesterday's March of Unity in Paris. It also reports a warning by an immigration officer of gaps in the Schengen visa-free system.
The Malta Independent says comments by the prime minister in favour of spring hunting have been described as unethical. It also says that people over 50 and former ministers are being sidelined by the parties.
l-orizzont says a hunters' boycott of the spring hunting referendum is an option for the FKNK.
In-Nazzjon leads with comments by a mother about her former partner Silvio Scerri, former chief of staff of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The overseas press
As expected, most of the international press today leads with the Paris march of unity against terrorism, hailed as “the largest of French history” and “unprecedented”. According to Le Monde, four million people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds paraded throughout France, of whom 1.5 million marched in Paris led by some 40 world leaders, headed by French President François Hollande, linking arms as they walked.
Le Parisien reports French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has reiterated a call for the European sharing of airline passenger data which was backed last Friday by the new Polish EU president Donald Tusk. Cazeneuve said the EU, US and Canadian ministers who met at Paris’s Elysee Palace yesterday, also called for a strengthening of controls at the EU’s external to trace extremists returning to Europe from the Middle East.
Israel’s Channel 1 TV has disclosed American intelligence services have warned the Holy See that the Vatican was “in the sights of Islamic terrorism and Isis. The station did not provide further details.
Sky News reports the Golden Globes – the first major event in Hollywood’s awards season – kicked off in Hollywood with the organisers pledging support for freedom of expression. Theo Kingma, head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association brought the audience of Hollywood's finest to its feet with a standing ovation when he declared: “Together we will stand united against anyone who will repress free speech, anywhere, from North Korea to Paris.”
Al Jazeera says Indonesian divers have found the crucial black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea two weeks ago with 162 people aboard. But they failed to retrieve it immediately from the seabed because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane.
RTL Televizija reports Croatia has its first female president as Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, a member of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, defeated Social Democrat and current President Ivo Josipovic. She won 50.54 percent of the vote.
Voice of Nigeria says four people were killed and 21 others wounded in the northeastern Nigerian city of Potiskum on Sunday when explosives attached to two young women, one of them about 15 years old, were detonated in a crowded market. The blasts came just a day after a bomb strapped to a girl about 10 years old also exploded in a market killing as many as 20 people and wounding at least 18.
Hollywood Reporter announces the death in Rome of Anita Ekberg, star of “La Dolce Vita”. She was 83. A former Miss Sweden, she was branded a “sex goddess” for her performance in Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie. He wading through Rome’s Trevi Fountain in a strapless dress is considered one of cinema's most iconic scenes.
USA Today says a North Carolina man who planned to treat his wife to breakfast in bed was himself surprised when she mistook him for an intruder and opened fire. Tiffany Segule, 27, inadvertently shot Zia Segule, 28, in the chest at their home. She fired through a closed bedroom door after the burglar alarm sounded. The husband was discharged from hospital after receiving medical treatment.
Dawn reports at least 57 people have died in Pakistan after a head-on collision between a bus and an oil tanker. The bus immediately caught fire following the crash. Around 60 people were on board the bus as well as some passengers travelling on the roof, who were able to jump for their lives. Reports suggest the tanker was speeding and on the wrong side of the road. One man told AP nine people from his family had died. The driver of the oil tanker fled the incident but it is not clear what caused the crash.
Wall Street Journal says the former wife of an oil billionaire has cashed one of the largest divorce awards in US history – a cheque for $975 million (€822 million). Sue Ann Arnall’s deposit is expected to draw a line under her 30-month divorce battle with Harold Hamm, chief executive of oil driller Continental Resources. Ms Arnall is a lawyer and former Continental executive who was married to Mr Hamm for 26 years.
According to Radio Mozambique, three days oif national mourning have been declared in the country after contaminated traditional beer killed 56 people attending a funeral. Two hundred others were admitted to hospitals to be examined for signs of poisoning, believed to be crocodile bile.
Three fourth grade students have been caught in the United States plotting to kill their female teacher with hand sanitiser, to which she is highly allergic. The plot was foiled when concerned parents and a school board member became aware of the plan reported WGRZ. Word initially got out when the students told their classmates they were going to cover the classroom with antibacterial products.