The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how the father of a boy injured in a fall in Chadwick Lakes has called for a safety fence. It also says that Malta still tops the EU state aid list.
The Malta Independent reports that 20 tested positive for HIV last year. It also reports the arraignment of a driver accused of having caused Saturday’s fatal accident on the Coast Road.
In-Nazzjon says that Joseph Muscat was not transparent about his party’s reported links with Israeli company Bateman. It also reports on the growth in tourist arrivals in October.
l-orizzont also features the arraignment of the driver accused of Saturday’s fatal accident on the Coast Road. It also quotes Prof Edwin Grech as saying that the government never checked what motive there was for the letter bomb which killed Karin Grech.
The overseas press
The International Herald Tribune reports freezing temperatures and snow have affected much of Europe, claiming at least 10 lives in Poland, the UK and Austria and disrupting air, sea and land travel. The mercury plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius in some areas forcing airports to close or restrict flights and creating land transport chaos. On the southern extremes of mainland Europe, Spain and southern Italy enjoying milder temperatures but both were still struggling with unseasonably heavy rainfall. Rome's river Tiber, swelled by days of heavy rains, was close to overflowing in some areas.
The Wall Street Journal announces that the US undersecretary for international affairs Lael Brainard was flying to Europe to discuss the debt crisis facing the eurozone. He would have talks in Madrid, Berlin and Paris to discuss economic developments.
Börzen Zeitung says the bailout deal for Ireland and public reassurances from European politicians had failed to reassure investors, with new record highs recorded in Spanish and Italian bonds yesterday. Markets across Europe rose somewhat yesterday amid speculation that the European Central Bank could unveil new anti-crisis steps at a meeting today.
El Mundo reports that Spain has unveiled plans to sell parts of its national lottery and the country’s airports to raisesome €8.5 billion and avoid an Irish-style bailout. Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told parliament taxes would be cut for small businesses from February while a €417 monthly payout for jobless people, whose benefits expire, would also be dropped.
New disclosures of classified material by Wikileaks, published in The Guardian show, show that a senior Spanish prosecutor had told the US Embassy in Madrid that Russia, Belarus and Chechnya had become virtual "mafia states". A cable also questions whether Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was implicated in the Russian mafia. Yesterday, the US online shopping giant Amazon reportedly blocked Wikileaks from its servers – a move welcomed by US officials.
Times of Central Asia reports world leaders have called for a stronger Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as the body's first summit since 1999 got underway in the Kazakh capital, Astana. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the 56-member group still had some way to go before becoming a "cooperative security forum on the basis of democracy and freedom".
According to Tribune de Genéve, more than 80 landmarks across 13 countries turned red to mark World Aids Day. Sydney’s Opera House and Harbour Bridge, along with the London Eye, Table Mountain and the Empire State Building were all bathed in red light. World Aids Day 2010 focused on an end to mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015, creating the first generation of babies born HIV-free in 30 years. The UN estimates some 370,000 children were infected with the disease in 2009. Without treatment, as many as half will die by the age of two.
Many cannot live without their mobile, and it seemes some want to take their obsession further by being buried with their phone. Metro publishes the results of a new study in the UK, suggesting that rather than taking a Bible or rosary beads to the grave with them, 1.5 million people would opt for their mobile phone. Cuddly toys and photos of a family pet were among the things women want to take with them to the afterlife, while men were more likely to opt for an alcoholic drink, a national flag and a packet of cigarettes. The most popular item for both men and women to take to the grave with them was a photo of their loved ones.
The New York Post reveals that one in five American divorces now involve Facebook. Research has also uncovered a rise in lawyers' use of social media for evidence of cheating. Twitter and MySpace were also found to play a role in a growing number of divorce cases. The survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers showed 80 per cent of divorce lawyers reported a spike in the number of cases where social media are used to prove infidelity in the form of flirtatious messages and photos.