The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times carries the heading "I want to die like Scarface" based on the chilling evidence given by a woman in a trial by jury.
The Malta Independent says alternative procedures have resulted in a drop in major amputations. It also reports comments by an EU commissioner that the coming days are crucial for the euro’s survival.
In-Nazzjon says the EU member countries are committed to saving the euro. It also reports that Malta remains on line for a tourist record this year.
l-orizzont says the surface of the new multi-million euro road to Xlendi looks like a piano after Tuesday’s rain. In its main story, however, it highlights a report issued yesterday calling for controls over mixtures used in fireworks manufacture.
The overseas press
The Wall Street Journal reports Asian stocks have gained after a group of the world's biggest central banks unveiled plans to support the global financial system. The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the central banks of the UK, Canada, Japan and Switzerland launched coordinated action to improve lending. Yesterday, US and European markets rose on the news. The move by the central banks is aimed at making it easier and cheaper for businesses and households to get access to finance.
Ansa says Italian Premier Mario Monti will launch "structural" reforms to start solving Italy's debt crisis on Monday. He told reporters after a meeting of EU finance ministers that the measures would be "designed to cut the deficit in the short term". Monti said unless Italy did what was needed, the consequences would be serious for all.
Sky News reports that trade unions in Britain have hailed the nationwide strike by public sector workers over pension reforms as "historic" – and rejected Prime Minister David Cameron’s claim it was a "damp squib". Officials from 30 unions involved in the action reported around two million of their members joined in protests against reforms that might lead to later retirement and higher contributions. Many thousands of protester marched in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Espresso announces Portugal’s parliament has approved the 2012 budget with the main opposition Socialist party’s abtaining – a move aimed at showing political cohesion behind the bill’s sweeping austerity measures, even as it promises the deepest recession in decades. Under the terms of the €78-billion bailout by the EU and the IMF, Portugal must drastically reduce its deficit. That means tax hikes and a suspension of holiday and end of year bonuses for civil servants, among other deeply unpopular measures.
Deutsche Welle reports that figures published by Eurostat show that eurozone unemployment rose to an all-time high of 10.3 per cent in October, pushing up the total number of people out of work in the 17-member states by 126,000 to a record of more than 16.29 million. The jobless rate in the 27-member EU also crept up in October, rising by 130,000 to 23.55 million during the month, or 9.8 percent, compared to 9.7 percent in September. Eurostat also announced that inflation in the 17-nation eurozone remained at three per cent for the third consecutive month in November.
According to London’s Daily Telegraph, the EU was taking the toughest negotiating stand it has ever adopted on global warming. At the UN climate talks in Durban, the bloc was insisting stiff conditions must be met by China and other developing countries if a global climate treaty was to be arranged. On Wednesday, China's leading climate negotiator, Su Wei, told China Daily that he regarded Kyoto as a cornerstone of the climate talks.
The Times says Britain has ordered the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and told all Iranian diplomats to leave. The action follows the storming by protesters of the British embassy in Teheran on Tuesday. France and Germany have recalled their ambassadors from Teheran for consultations and Italy and Sweden have summoned the Iranian ambassadors in Rome and Stockholm to protest against the attack.
Al Ahram reports that preliminary results suggest that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party could win as many 40 per cent of the 498-seat lower house of parliament. It is leading in partial results but faces stiff competition from the more hard-line Nour Party, made up of ultra-conservative Islamic Salafis, and an alliance of liberal-secular parties known as the Egyptian Bloc.
The BBC says that the London School of Economics has denied selling a doctorate to Saif Gaddafi, a son of the former Libyan leader Col. Gaddafi. The LSE’s interim director, Professor Judith Rees, was responding to the results of an independent inquiry which heavily criticised the university’s links with the Gaddafi regime.
Actress Meryl Streep was so intent at playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron lady” that she reduced her fee to a meagre $1 million so that the producers could have enough funds to invest in the film. According to The New York Post, the actress has donated her share to America’s National Women’s History Museum, adding that she would have worked for free to secure the part. The film is being released in New York and Los Angeles on December 30, in time to make it for the Oscar nominations deadline.