The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta and the other newspapers report on yesterday's migrants rescue and fears that 20 migrants perished. Times of Malta also reports that Malta will benefit from quantitive easing announced by the European Central Bank yesterday.
The Malta Independent says Godwin Sant was handpicked by the Energy Minister for his private secretariat. Mr Sant, a former MRA official, was mentioned last week for his connections with oil trader George Farrugia. He has been suspended.
In-Nazzjon gives prominence to evidence given in court abut the New Year's Day traffic fatality in Gozo.
l-orizzont follows up Simon Busuttil's comment about the oil scandal revelations being a smokescreen.
The overseas press
The announcement of the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah early today dominates the international media. According to Saudi TV, the 90-year old king – a powerful United States ally who joined Washington’s fight against al Qaeda and sought to modernise the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom – is succeeded by his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.
Asharq Al-Awsat, the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, describes Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, as a veteran of the country’s top leadership, versed in diplomacy from nearly 50 years as the governor of the capital Riyadh and known as a mediator of disputes within the sprawling royal family.
Ansa reports Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has played down the supposed link between greater migration and terror risks just as a major London conference agreed on new moves against Islamic State (ISIS). Gentiloni said there was a risk that terrorists could be among the waves of thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy from North Africa every year. But the minister also stressed that confusing terrorism and migration was an “idiocy”.
After the London anti-ISIS talks between 21 coalition states, CBS News quotes US Secretary of State John Kerry saying the international coalition’s air strikes in Syria and Iraq had halted or reversed the momentum of the Islamic State. He said half of the group’s leadership had been killed since strikes began in August. The US ambassador to Iraq, Stuart Jones, told Al Arabiya TV air strikes had killed more than 6,000 militia and degraded countless weapons and materiel.
The man on track to win the Greek elections, Alexis Tsipras, has asked for a clear mandate in Sunday’s general elextion to enable him to implement his plan to end the country’s austerity policies. Kathimerini says that during his final rallying, he repeated his promise to have half of Greece’s international debt written off when the current bail-out agreement ends.
Börsen Zeitung reports Europe’s ailing economy will get a major dose of stimulus from the European Central Bank’s bond-buying programme designed to make loans and exports cheaper so companies can hire and expand. Starting in March, the ECB will buy €60 billion’s worth of government and corporate bonds each month at least through September 2016.
In a letter published by state news agency Telam, Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez saying she’s “convinced” prosecutor Alberto Nisman did not commit suicide. Her letter contrasts with the one she wrote on Monday saying she believed Nisman took his life. The 51-year-old Nisman was found slumped in the bathroom of his apartment on Sunday night with a bullet wound in his head a few days before he was to give evidence to a Congressional hearing about Fernandez’s “secretly reached a deal” to prevent prosecution of former Iranian officials accused of involvement in the 1994 car bombing of Argentina’s largest Jewish centre. Fernandez dismissed those accusations in her latest letter.
The New York Times says the first UN General Assembly meeting on anti-Semitism sparked calls for global action to combat the rising hatred of Jews and a surprising denunciation from the world’s 57 Islamic nations of all words and acts that lead “to hatred, anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia”. US Ambassador Samantha Power said the statement delivered by Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Moualimi on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was “extremely significant,” especially since the UN has often been a venue to try to de-legitimize Israel.
Al Ahram reports the blue and gold braided beard on the burial mask of famed pharaoh Tutankhamun was hastily glued back on, damaging the relic after it was knocked during cleaning. Tutankhamun’s mask, over 3,300 years old, and other contents of his tomb are the Egyptian Museum’s most treasured exhibits.
A first class British Airways passenger was so angry at the hygiene standards on his flight that he decided to post a video to YouTube highlighting the issue. The Mirror says Owen Thomas, a former BBC and CNN presenter, was travelling from London to St Lucia when he noticed grime and stains under his reclining seat. Thomas paid over €12,000 for his ticket to the Caribbean island and described the condition of his area on the plane as “disgusting”. The video has attracted close to one million views on YouTube since it was uploaded and has forced British Airways into an apology.