The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says an architect in Reno Piano's office has hit out at the way the Valletta open market is to be set up.
The Malta Independent says there is still no sign of the flamingos missing from Ghadira nature reserve.
In-Nazzjon reports that the Opposition will meet the MCESD to discuss fuel prices today.
l-orizzont says the government will not accept excuses on precarious work.
The overseas press
Kathimerini reports Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has announced Athens would no longer cooperate with the auditors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also known as the “troika”. They would not even be allowed entry into the country. Speaking after a meeting with Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem in Athens, Varoufakis rejected the next and final tranche, worth €7.2 billion, of Greece’s international bailout, which began in 2010 and is due to end in February.
Meanwhile, Ta’ Nea says the new Greek Deputy Minister of Finance Nadia Valav has sacked the head of the state agency that was supposed to carry on the privatisation plan agreed with the ‘troika’. She said the plan will be abolished.
Le Monde reports French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European President Martin Schulz had an informal meeting at a restaurant in Strasbourg to discuss the Greek stand. The meeting followed a meeting between Schulz and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Athens.
According to Times of India, the police have rescued 120 child slaves as young as six during raids on workshops in the central city of Hyderabad. A senior officer has said the children – some of them sick, underweight and traumatised – complained of being forced to work 16 hours a day without breaks, and were threatened with violence and no food if they disobeyed orders. Many were transported from the impoverished northern state of Bihar last year after their parents sold them to traffickers for sums ranging between €71 and €150.
Kyiv Post reports at least 12 civilians were killed in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Friday. Five were killed when a mortar shell hit nearby as they stood in line waiting for humanitarian aid near a community centre, two others died when a shell landed near a trolleybus, while five others were hit by artillery fire. Meanwhile, a fresh round of peace talks meant to be held Minsk on Friday, was called off.
Voice of Nigeria says African nations have opened up a new international front in the war on terror through the formation yesterday of a five-nation force of 7,500 troops to confront the looming regional threat from Boko Haram. The decision came despite the fact that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had warned Nigeria’s neighbours not to intervene.
Dawn reports a bomb blast at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan has killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens more, in the deadliest sectarian attack to hit the country in more than a year. The bomb exploded as worshippers attended Friday prayers in the town of Shikarpur in Sindh province, about 470 kilometres north of Karachi.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has labelled young British jihadists as “misfits obsessed with pornography” that turn to Islam when they fail in their attempts to approach women. Metro says Johnson was quoting an MI5 report that said terrorists who became part of the Islamic State were sexually frustrated. He called on Muslim communities to speak out against terrorist attacks such as the one committed against the seat of Charlie Hebdo.
Il Tempo says that a joint session of the Italian House of Representatives and the Senate is this morning (9.30 a.m.) expected to vote in Constitutional Court judge Sergio Mattarella as president. At the fourth vote, he is expected to garner 563 votes, 58 more than the 505 required.
Avvenire reports the personal charm, homespun wisdom and liberal overtures of Pope Francis have boosted the popularity of the Catholic Church among Italians to a record high. A poll by Eurispes issued yesterday shows his personal rating is a sky-high 89.6 per cent – far outstripping his predecessors. This has propelled the Church up to 62.6 per cent approval rate – a massive 13.6 percentgae points increase over last year’s rating of 49 per cent.
The Boston Globe announces US Secretary of State John Kerry has been fined $50 after being found guilty of not having shovelled snow from the sidewalk on the side of his home in Boston during last week’s blizzard. At the time, Kerry was in Saudi Arabia with President Obama to pay his last farewell to King Abdullah and meet the new King Salman. His spokesman said he would “gladly pay the fine”.
Las Vegas Sun News reports a Delta Airlines flight with 168 people on board had to make an emergency landing because its pilot had been closed out of the cabin due to a faulty door and the co-pilot had to take over. An airport spokesman admitted that the incident could have had the serious consequences, although the Delta Airlines has assured that the modern passenger aircraft are equipped for touchdowns by a single pilot.
Eleven engineers have managed to find the lost voicemail of woman, recorded 14 years before she died. Stan Beaton told BBC Radio Leeds he was devastated after a voicemail was deleted following upgrades by Virgin Media. Stan had kept the message, recorded by his wife Ruby, and would listen to it when he felt down. Virgin’s executive director of engineering said it was like searching “for a needle in a haystack” and they found it after three days. “It’s just a wonderful, wonderful sound that I thought was lost forever,” said Beaton.