The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that the Queen of jail – an alleged drug trafficker - had four TVs in a cell. It also says that Tom Cruise is seeking a home in Malta.
The Malta Independent gives prominence to the discovery of a large world war II bomb on the Mcast campus yesterday. It also reports that an alleged heroin dealer in prison lived like a queen.
l-orizzont leads with the warning issued yesterday by Moody’s that it is planning to revisit the ratings of all EU countries early next year.
In-Nazzjon says Tecom Investments is in talks to expand in the educational sector.
The overseas press
The New York Times says the UN's top human rights official Navi Pillay has recommended to the Security Council that Syria should be referred to International Criminal Court for its suppression of anti-government protests. Pillay told reporters she believed “a widespread and systematic nature of the killings, detentions and acts of torture” constituted crimes against humanity. She said more than 5,000 people were now believed to have been killed by the Syrian authorities, 14,000 people were believed to have been detained and 12,400 fled to neighbouring countries.
Canada has become the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Ottawa Daily Times reports that Environment Minister Peter Kent said the country would face crippling fines of €10.3 billion for failing to meet its targets. The announcement came a day after the international climate talks in Durban ended without agreement on an immediate successor to the protocol, which expires at the end of next year.
The Washington Times quotes President Barack Obama confirming he had asked that Teheran to return the surveillance drone captured by Iran's military earlier this month. Iran’s state Press TV broadcast pictures of the intact RQ-170 Sentinel last week. Tehran said the aircraft was brought down using electronic warfare; Washington insisted it malfunctioned. Earlier on Monday, Iranian state TV reported that military experts were in the final stages of recovering data from the drone, which would be used to "file a lawsuit against the United States over the invasion" by the aircraft.
Moscow Times says one of Russia's richest businessmen, Mikhail Prokhorov, has announced plans to run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in March's presidential election. Prokhorov is a Russian mining tycoon and owner of the New Jersey Nets professional basketball team in the United States. He is considered by Forbes magazine to be one of the five richest men in Russia with an estimated 2010 fortune of some €13.5 billion.
Sky News reports British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended his decision to veto a new European Union treaty but his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg, who said the move was "bad for Britain", was notably absent from the Commons. His absence was branded “cowardice” by one Conservative MP, and Cameron’s statement was repeatedly interrupted by Labour shouts of “Where’s Nick?” In his Commons statement, Cameron said "satisfactory safeguards were not forthcoming on the EU treaty". However, he added, he remained committed to Britain's membership of the EU.
British nationals were in unison about Clegg’s decision, for which he was branded by the Daily Mail as "The Incredible Sulk". The Guardian says Cameron and Clegg met twice in an attempt to resolve their differences over the EU while the ‘i’ says his absence represented a widening split in the coalition. In a statement, Clegg said he had stayed away from the Commons because he did not want his presence to be a distraction. But he insisted the coalition was "here to stay" until 2015.
El Pais says the son-in-law of Spain's King Juan Carlos has agreed to step down from officials duties amid a rare corruption scandal for the royal family. Inaki Urdangarin, who married Princess Cristina in 1999, is being investigated over claims he misused public funds given to a foundation he ran. He has denied wrong-doing but has said he regrets the "damage" caused. The royal family has said it will now make its accounts publicly available.
Manchester Evening News reports that Coleen Rooney was subjected to a £5,000 (€5,900) blackmail plot involving hundreds of personal family photos on her stolen camera. Jennifer Green, 25, and Steven Malcolm, 42, both from Manchester, were accused of demanding the cash from the celebrity wife of Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney. Both defendants, who deny the charges, were arrested after Coleen Rooney’s mobile phone went missing while at a concert at the MEN Arena in Manchester in May 2010.
The London-based newspaper, al-Hayat, quotes Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry saying a woman has been executed for practising "witchcraft and sorcery". The woman, who was beheaded on Monday in the northern province of Jawf, was in her 60s and was aid to have tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses. She was the second person to be executed for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia this year. A Sudanese man was executed in September.