The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that an audit of local councils found serious failings. It also says many abused women are living in denial.
The Malta Independent highlights the speeches made in parliament yesterday by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.
In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying the Maltese should take courage from the way Malta performed in a difficult year. It also reports how the ‘queen of prison’ Josette Bickle was convicted of prison drug trafficking.
l-orizzont reports that Tonio Borg, then Minister of Home Affairs, said he was not informed what was happening at the time when Josette Bickle was trafficking drugs in prison.
The overseas press
The BBC quotes Ernst & Young predicting the eurozone was facing a "bleak" winter. According to the audit firm, a "mild" recession was likely in the first half of next year, leading to economic growth of just 0.1 per cent for the whole of 2012. Ernst & Young also said unemployment in the eurozone was unlikely to fall below 10 per cent until 2015. The audit firm predicts that eurozone growth would recover to between 1.5 per cent and two per cent in 2013.
Meanwhile, Börzen Zeitung reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told German MPs that the UK would remain a strong EU partner despite its decision not to sign up to an EU summit deal. Addressing the Bundestag, she said she very much regretted that British Prime Minister David Cameron had been "unable to join us" on the path to fiscal union. Merkel was speaking after the euro fell below $1.30 and £0.84 – an 11-month low.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti came under fire when he addressed parliament yesterday, despite changing his austerity package to soften its effect on the poorest. Ansa reports that the Senate speaker had to temporarily suspend the session after Northern League lawmakers jeered the premier and held up banners reading 'No More Taxes' and 'This is not a budget, It's a Robbery'. Italy's political class, meanwhile, moved to fend off claims it was not doing its bit to fight the debt crisis on Wednesday, when the House started examining proposed changes to the pension system for former MPs.
The New York Times says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on all countries to cut carbon emissions following the recent agreement on a timeline to set a new course to combat climate change. Ban praised the international community for reaching a deal Sunday at climate talks in Durban, South Africa to ratify a new legally binding agreement to tackle global warming by 2020. He said there must be agreement before then – possibly by 2015 – to allow time for ratification.
AFP reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would hold his last summit with EU leaders today, amid divergences over energy, Syria and Iran, and set against European demands for clean elections. Ahead of tomorrow's signing in Geneva of Russia's World Trade Organization accession, an EU official said the focus would now move to opening negotiations on an EU-Russia agreement covering trade and political cooperation.
According to USA Today, President Obama marked the end the war in Iraq by celebrating the 1 troops who served in the conflict and welcoming them into their place in American history. He spoke to 3,000 US troops and their families in an airplane hangar, thanking them for their service in the nine-year war that “connected to them to past generations that fought for the United States”. The last US troops are expected to return home by the end of the year. Of the 1.5 million Americans that served in Iraq, nearly 4,500 had died and 30,000 had been wounded.
Time magazine has named "The Protester" as its Person of the Year for 2011, citing a worldwide outburst of people-power from Tunisia to Moscow to Wall Street. "A year after a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself ablaze, dissent has spread across the Middle East, to Europe and the U.S., reshaping global politics and redefining people power," the magazine says.
Al Ahram reports Egyptians have began voting in the second of three rounds of parliamentary polls in nine of Egypt's 27 governorates. High turnout and few irregularities were reported during the first day of the second round. The third voting round ends in January. Analysts and voters said they expected Islamist political parties, led by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the ultraconservative Nour Party, to dominate as they did in last month's first polling.
Up to eight “very important” leads in the hunt for Madeleine McCann have been handed to Scotland Yard by a leading firm of private detectives. The Daily Express says that in a second confidential visit to Spain in three weeks, officers from the Yard’s McCann squad held detailed discussions with the Barcelona-based investigators of the firm Metodo 3. Speaking on Spanish television, Francisco Marco, the agency’s director, insisted every new piece of important information had been previously passed to the Portuguese police but claimed it was ignored.