The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports complaints by developers how people are being fined for allegedly ‘slashing’ property prices to avoid tax. It also highlights the passing away of Vaclav Havel, an icon of the Velvet Revolution.
The Malta Independent says the last US troops drove out of Iraq early yesterday morning.
In-Nazzjon says Alex Sceberras Trigona avoided interviews on Libya and the EU when interviewed on a PBS programme yesterday. It also reports comments by the prime minister yesterday.
l-orizzont follows up comments by Charles Muscat (il-Pips) who spoke about drug trafficking in prison in an interview with The Sunday Times yesterday. It also says the process on the installation of Smart Meters has been stopped.
The overseas press
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died. A tearful state television announcer, dressed in black, reported early today that the 69-year old had died of physical and mental over-work on a train on his way to give "field guidance". He had suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared to have recovered. Reuters said the reclusive state had begun the process of transferring power to his son Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s. Associated Press reported that Asian stock markets slid amid news of the death of the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea, raising fears of increased political instability in the region.
České Noviny reports that world leaders have been pouring tributes following the death of the former Czech President Vaclav Havel who led the revolution that overthrow Soviet-style communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The former dissident playwright and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was 75, died on Sunday morning after a prolonged period of bad health. The Czech Republic is observing a week of mourning and hundreds of candles have been lit in Wenceslas Square - once the focal point of the "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew the country's communist regime. Bloomberg says all EU sessions in Brussels will start with a minute of silence today to honour Havel
Radio Philippines confirmes that the number of people killed by floods triggered by Tropical Storm Washi has risen to 650. Soldiers and volunteers are still searching for the 800 people reported missing on southern Mindanao island. Many were trapped in their homes as the flash floods coincided with high tides. In some places entire villages are reported to have been swept away.
Moscow Times reports that four oil workers died and49 are still missing after an oil drilling platform capsized in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia’s east coast. Authorities said there were 67 people on board the platform as it was being towed off the coast of Sakhalin Island in stormy conditions. It said 14 people had been rescued.
Pravda says thousands took to the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg, braving strong winds and torrential rain for a second week of protests over Russia's fraud-tainted parliamentary vote. About 4,000 supporters of the Communist Party rallied just outside the walls of the Kremlin, demanding a re-count and the government's resignation. In St Petersburg, a rally in a central square drew about 4,000 people from various political parties.
Eurasia Net reports that a protester has been killed and 11 others wounded when police fired on rioters in a town in the tense south-west of Kazakhstan. The Prosecutor General’s office said the violence happened in the town of Shetpe, in the same region as the city of Zhanaozen where 13 people died in a clash with police on Friday. Zhanaozen has been the site of a sit-in by oil workers seeking higher wages. Many of those workers were fired over the summer.
Press TV, Iran’ state TV station, has shown a video of a man it claims is a spy for the CIA. In the video, the man says his name is Amir Mirzai Hekmati. What is described as a US identity card with his name is displayed along with photographs said to show him training with US forces in Afghanistan.
Al Ayyam says crowds of Palestinians have welcomed home 550 prisoners freed by Israel. Their release is the second and final phase of a deal to exchange a total of 1,027 prisoners which ensured the freedom of a captured Isreal soldier Gilad Schalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in June 2006. He returned home in October.
The BBC reports that the rivalries threatening Iraqi stability have intensified with the country’s most senior Sunni politicians coming under pressure from the Shite-dominated government. One of Iraq’s vice-presidents is reported to be the subject of a judicial arrest warrant, along with several of his bodyguards. The news came after the final American troop left the country and a day after the Iraqija parliamentary block, which represents most of the Sunni community, pulled out of parliament.
The New York Times says a man is being questioned over the death of a woman who was burned alive in the lift of her apartment building in Brooklyn, New York, after being doused with an accelerant and set alight with a Molotov cocktail. The 47-year-old male, who hasn't been charged, came into a police station smelling of petrol and implicated himself in the attack. Doris Gillespie, 64 was ambushed by a man laying in wait as she went to step out of the lift on the fifth floor of the building where she lived.
According to Metro, British police who found a list in the street were left stunned when it emerged the scrap of paper was dropped by a burglar noting which houses to rob. Entries included ways to get in, such as ‘kitchen window open’ and other pickings included pedal bikes, laptops and plasma TVs, with the thief taking good care of identifying items left inside people's homes, as well as outside. Greater Manchester police issued the list to warn about home security, and help warn locals about thieves during the Christmas period.