The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press –
The Times says a man has vanished after being released from police custody following the discovery of drugs.
The Malta Independent says the EU has fallen short of its IMF loan target. It also says Christmas is not that merry for Christmas businesses.
MaltaToday says the property sector is braced for a tough 2012. It also gives front-page coverage to the news that Air Malta chairman Louis Farrugia has been appointed a director at The Times.
l-orizzont says fishermen have complained of being ‘without a future’ because of EU restrictions on various forms of fishing.
In-Nazzjon places emphasis on the fact that nearly all the government’s debt is domestic and not with foreign banks. It also says the PL is being inconsistent, with Labour MEPs having voted in favour of an EU-proposed financial transactions tax despite opposition by Joseph Muscat.
The overseas press
Deutsche Welle reports that France, Germany, Portugal and the UK – all members of the European Union and current members of the Security Council –have called on Israel to immediately cease all settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. They said the Israeli government’s actions had jeopardized peace negotiations. In the past 12 months, plans for nearly 4,000 new houses for settlers in East Jerusalem have been approved – the highest number in five years. Israel also announced plans to accelerate construction of another 2,000 houses in the West Bank in November.
Reuters says Asian stocks and the euro rose today after upbeat US and German data and strong demand for Spanish debt, with investors' focus turning to a European Central Bank's tender as a gauge for eurozone funding strains. The Associated Press had earlier reported that the Dow Jones industrial average rose up more than 300 points – the best day for stocks this month. The dollar fell against the euro and US government bond prices dropped as traders shifted money out of the safest assets. European Union leaders will meet on January 30 to negotiate the intergovernmental agreement to tighten fiscal controls and sanctions in the euro zone.
The Times reports British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne suffered a big setback when Moody’s warned Britain faced “formidable and rising challenges” and could lose its prized AAA credit rating. Any downgrade to Britain would undermine the credibility of the Chancellor’s plan for restoring the nation’s finances and also add to the cost of government borrowing. A one-notch downgrade would add tens of millions of pounds to the annual interest bill.
Reports from opposition sources in Syria speak of further heavy bloodshed with large numbers of defecting soldiers being killed by troops in the northwestern province of Idlib. A human rights activist told the BBC that more tan 150 deserters and civilians were mowed down after being trapped in a valley by security forces. Meanwhile video has emerged of a young boy, whose body was apparently torn in half by shelling in the city of Homs.
Al Ahram reports that some 10,000 women marched through central Cairo demanding Egypt's ruling military step down. The women were outraged at soldiers who dragged women by the hair and stomped on them, and stripped one half-naked in the street during a fierce crackdown on activists the past week.
The Washington Times says US Vice-President Joe Biden has urged Iraq’s Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to work with other parties to avert renewed sectarian strife. It followed a warning by the country’s most senior Sunni Moslem, Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak who said Iraq was facing "chaos and disaster". It comes after an arrest warrant was issued for Iraq's Sunni Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, on terror charges.
In the UK, The Independent says up to 50,000 British women with defective breast implants have been warned about their safety, as France prepared to order the products removed from some 30,000 women who had them fitted. The i newspaper says that the breast insert manufacturer has been accused of using silicone intended for mattresses in the products for beauty enhancement. Since last year, over 2,000 French women have filed suit against PIP – once the world's third-largest producer of breast implants. According to French newspaper Liberation, some 300,000 women around the world have received breast augmentations using PIP products.
Le Soir says the European Commission has imposed though new export controls on drugs which can be used to execute people in the United States. The new restrictions mean that European firms which produce certain drugs would have to provide assurances that they would not be used in executions.