The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says businesses are complaining of practices where some businesses buy goods from abroad in a fraudulent manner by using somebody else's VAT number in order to evade the tax. Nine cases are under investigation. In another story, it says gunshot residue tests were made on nine persons as part of investigations into the Sta Venera attempted hold-up.
The Malta Independent says no breathalyser test was performed on a driver involved in the recent fatal St Paul's Bay crash. It also reports that no mutations have been reported in the H1N1 virus in Malta. In another story it says a doctor was slightly injured during an assault at Gzira health centre.
MaltaToday asks if the swine flu vaccine is safe enough.
In-Nazzjon says a number of persons were arrested in connection with Monday's attempted hold-up. It also reports that bad weather in the UK affected flights to Malta yesterday, notably flights from Manchester.
l-orizzont says European countries are cutting taxes on tourism, while Malta raises them. It also says a motorcycle thought to have been used in the attempted hold-up on Monday was found in Qormi yesterday.
The international press:
US media reports an angry President Obama has warned that "potentially disastrous" intelligence failures over a Christmas Day airliner attack were deeper than first thought, and demanded immediate action. In a terse televised statement after meeting some 20 top advisers at the White House, he said it was increasingly clear the intelligence community had failed to "connect the dots", adding: "That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it."
The Washington Times says that amid continuing fears of terror attacks, the United States has revoked "additional visas" for people that were believed to have suspected ties to terrorism. Action taken was based on the risk assessment associated with specific individuals.
The Irish Times reports a furious Irish government has demanded an explanation from Slovakia after an unsuspecting electrician was allowed to carry explosives on a flight to Dublin as part of a security test. The explosives were among eight contraband items placed with passengers at Bratislava Airport last weekend.
Bild Zeitung says federal prosecutors are investigating claims that the CIA secretly plotted to assassinate a Syrian-German suspected al-Qaeda financier living in Hamburg. In its January issue, US magazine Vanity Fair reported that the American intelligence agency secretly dispatched a hit team to Hamburg in 2004 to spy on and assassinate businessman Mamoun Darkazanli, 51. The German government has denied any knowledge of the operation.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reveals that Europe in planning a massive electricity grid to run under the North Sea, connecting different EU countries with each other as well as to clean power. Representatives of the nine EU member states that signed an agreement to coordinate their national efforts would meet for the first time on February 9 to further develop a blueprint for the grid, a vital ingredient in the fight against climate change as it will allow large-scale integration of renewable electricity production.
Frettabladid says President Grimsson of Iceland has refused to sign a controversial bill to repay €3.8 billion to Britain and the Netherlands for losses incurred because of the failed bank Icesave. He said he would instead hold a referendum on the bill, following public protests that the terms of the payments would unfairly hurt Iceland and its recovery from economic crisis.
Y2K has struck, albeit a decade too late. Börzen Zeitung reports that millions of Germans have experienced problems when some 20 million debit cards and around 3.5 million credit cards were stopped as they contained software that could not process the number "2010". Withdrawals were refused, cards swallowed and customers confused. Cash machines were adjusted hours after the problem emerged.
Space News quotes Nasa saying the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope had set a new distance record by discovering the oldest galaxies ever seen, dating back 13 billion years, or 600-800 million years after the Big Bang. NASA said with the rejuvenated Hubble and its new instruments were now entering uncharted territory that was ripe for new discoveries.
The Jerusalem Post says an Israeli military delegation has called off a visit to Britain after British authorities could not guarantee none of its members would face possible war crimes charges. Last month, an arrest warrant was issued in London against Israeli politician Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during last year's Gaza war.
El Mundo reports that Madrid and Havana are at odds over Cuba's decision to refuse entry to a Spanish European parliamentarian who flew there on holiday. The dispute cams as Spain called for better relations between the island and the EU.
L'Osservatore Romano announces that Pope Benedict is expected to make at least four foreign trips in 2010. The Vatican has signalled visits to Malta in April, to the Marian shrine at Fatima in Portugal in May, to Cyprus in early June and the United Kingdom in mid-September. The pontiff will also preside over the first synod to be held on the Middle East, and make several pilgrimages in Italy, including a visit to the Shroud of Turin.
USA Today says the parents of Amanda Knox, sentenced to 26 years imprisonment in Italy for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, have hired top criminal defence lawyer Theodore "Ted" Simon to help free their daughter from jail. The appeal process is expected to begin next March.
An Italian who spat on his mother's corpse for his sad childhood has been fined by a Swiss court for "disturbing the peace of the dead''. Swiss news wire ATS reported that the man had told the court that he did it out of hate for his mother who had often hit him while he was a child.