The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Roads Minister Austin Gatt has requested experts to report on the state of Regional Road bridge from which a light truck almost crashed two days ago.
The Malta Independent says priests who face child abuse allegations have filed a constitutional case, claiming their right to a fair trial is being denied because of excessive publicity.
In-Nazzjon reports that Fabio Psaila was hit by 55 shotgun pellets. It also reports that retail trade in Malta grew faster than in the rest of the EU.
l-orizzont reports how the trade unions are demanding compensation for the rising costs of utilities and essential services.
The overseas press
Al Ahram reports that Coptic Christians in Egypt have been attending Christmas Eve services under heavy security in the wake of the New Year Day’s bombing of a church in Alexandria in which 23 people were killed and more than 75 others were injured. Tens of thousands of police were deployed to protect the worshippers.
Europe is rejecting an Israeli offer to lift the blockade of Gaza if the EU sends an anti-arms smuggling force to the coastal strip. EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton told Sky News the proposal made by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was not being taken seriously by the EU because, she said, it was just something raised at dinner and was not an issue that the EU was discussing. The blockade has been imposed on the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control of it in June 2007.
A US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks quotes American officials as saying a key Israeli cargo crossing for goods entering the Gaza Strip was rife with corruption. The 2006, cable, published by Norway's Aftenposten daily, says major American companies told US diplomats they were forced to pay hefty bribes to get goods into Gaza. The alleged corruption occurred a year before Hamas overran Gaza and Israel imposed an economic blockade.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to try to persuade the Palestinians to return to "direct, intensive and serious" negotiations where all core issues of their conflict would be raised. Meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Mubarak stressed the need for Israel "to review its positions and policies and to adopt tangible confidence-building measures with the Palestinian Authority”.
The Washington Times quotes US Defence Secretary Robert Gates saying he wanted to make cuts of nearly $80 billion in the military budget over the next five years. He said this was needed to help bring the country’s ballooning fiscal deficit under control.
Berliner Zeitung says nearly 5,000 farms in Germany, mainly in the northwest of the country, have been closed following concern about dioxin contamination, five times the number of farms previously thought to have been affected. Officials insist the levels of dioxin do not pose a risk to humans, and that the closures are only a precaution.
The International Herald Tribune reports that the government of the incumbent President of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo has expelled the British and Canadian ambassadors. Last week the two countries were among the nations who expelled ambassadors appointed by Mr Gbagbo in order to replace them with diplomats chosen by Alassane Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of last November's presidential election.
Le Matin says UNICEF has reported that a year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, children there continue to suffer through lack of clean water and healthcare. A report says that since the earthquake, more than half of Haiti’s children were not going to schoolżand many were living in crowded camps.
Environment Today reports that scientists monitoring the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have said that a large component of the pollution, methane gas, has already disappeared because of the action of microbes. The researches said naturally-occurring microbes had multiplied in number.
The People’s Daily says China was considering making it a legal duty for people to visit their aged parents. Under a draft legal amendment, elderly people could go to court to claim their right to be physically and mentally looked after by their children. China has nearly 167 million people aged over 60 and one million above 80. More than half of them live alone and the authorities were recently alarmed by stories of old people dying unnoticed in their apartments.
An Israeli bird expert has called on Saudi Arabia to release a vulture that had been captured amid suspicion that it was on a spying mission for Israel. According to a report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, the bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag from Tel Aviv University, strayed into Saudi Arabian territory. Residents and reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper the matter seemed to be linked to a "Zionist plot" and swiftly alerted security services. But the scientist has said the vulture had not come from Israel but had been fitted there with a transmitter to help track bird migration.
In cricket, The Sydney Morning Herald announces that England have won the fifth and final test in the Ashes series against Australia. They won the final test by an innings and 83 runs to wrap up the series 3-1 and secure their first win down under in 24 years.