The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that buses are to be given priority during the rush hour.
The Malta Independent says Italy is ‘on the brink’ as the debt crisis gets worse.
In-Nazzjon highlights the reduction in the prices of 15 medicines announced yesterday. It also reports on its front page the students’ protests in London yesterday.
l-orizzont says the government is keeping wraps on a case where a Malta Communications Authority board member was dismissed after a company in which he has a stake submitted a bid for a MCA tender.
The overseas press
Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors after another earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 struck near the city of Van in eastern Turkey. There are fears of large-scale casualties after at least 20 buildings collapsed, including a six-storey hotel. Up to 100 aid workers and journalists were believed to have been staying there. Some of the rapped journalists have been sending SMS’s asking for help. Sky Turk TV said at least three people have been killed and more than 50 were trapped in the rubble. Eleven people had been rescued from the debris. The quake hit the province little more than two weeks after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in the same region killed around 600 people. Reports said the buildings which collapsed had been damaged in the previous earthquake.
Sole 24 Ore quotes President Giorgio Napolitano announcing that Italy would adopt the economic reforms promised to the EU "within days" and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would then resign. He made the announcement as the Italian bond market collapsed and borrowing costs soared to more than seven per cent. The high interest rate means that if Italy were to borrow money today, with the aim of paying it back in 10 years, it would have to pay an interest of 7 per cent. Analysts fear this could make it impossible for Rome to keep financing its €1.9 trillion debt as Europe warned Italy needed "extra measures" to meet its targets.
Bloomberg reports that Asian stock markets opened sharply lower this morning as a result of renewed fears over the eurozone crisis. Japan's Nikkei index fell 2.3 per cent, Australia's ASX was down 2.8 per cent while South Korea's Kospi opened 2.6 per cent lower. The falls in Asian markets follow losses in US markets.
The president of the European Commission has issued a new call for the EU to “unite or face irrelevance” in the face of the mounting economic crisis in Italy. Börzen Zeitung reports that Jose Manuel Barroso said the world was facing fundamental changes to the economic order and European countries had to stand together. He warned that a split EU would not work. He used a speech in Berlin to challenge “responsible” EU leaders to “make the case for Europe”. Barroso said that if the eurozone broke apart, the estimated initial cost was up to 50 per cent of EU GDP, with ongoing threats to the prosperity of the next generation.
Kathimerini says critical power sharing talks in Greece have collapsed, with a new prime minister yet to be named. Political leaders will enter a fourth day of negotiations with the country's president later today. Earlier Prime Minister George Papandreou officially stepped down to make way for a new coalition government. Sources from the two major parties said earlier on Wednesday that party leaders had agreed on house speaker Filippos Petsalnikos to head the country's new coalition government. But Giorgos Karatzaferis, the head of a small right-wing party, reportedly stormed out of a top-level meeting, accusing the two main parties of "trickery," but not giving any details.
USA Today reports that a Saudi-born man, the main suspect in the bombing of the American warship the USS Cole, has appeared before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, is alleged to have organised the attack in 2000, which killed 17 US sailors. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner has confirmed that the Mean Girls actress Lindsay Lohan would be the cover-girl for the January edition of the magazine. He said her shoot was inspired by the famous nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe, which was in the original issue of Playboy. A spokesperson for Lohan said that the full frontal nudity shots were “very tasteful,” and that readers would see a very different side to Lohan in the accompanying interview. The troubled actress is looking for some positive coverage after her five-hour stint in jail this week for breaking the terms of her probation again.
Forget the bingo, the whole world will experience "all the ones" tomorrow – 11/11/11 – on a day brimming with passionate promise. The Independent reports that romance would be in the air as a higher-than-usual number of couples pick the memorable date to marry across the UK. According to numerologists, even the number 11 signified "inspiration and passion". Sonia Ducie, a based at the Connaissance School of Numerology in Hertfordshire, said: "I think the 11th is a very good day for negotiation and making peace. Great things could happen in Europe, creating more stability."