The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
All national newspapers today lead with follow-ups of New Year's Day double homicide in Sliema in which Duncan Zammit and Nicholas Gera ended up dead after a violent fight with knives.
The Times says that Mr Zammit and his wife were asleep in their bedroom alongside their baby twins when Mr Gera attacked Mr Zammit with a steak knife.
L-Orizzont says that it was not being excluded that even Mr Zammit’s wife Claire hit at Nicholas Gera.
In-Nazzjon says that family members of both families say the two men did not know each other. In another story it says that the people donated €4.2 million in three weeks.
The Malta Independent quotes entrepreneur Anglu Xuereb, Mr Zammit’s father-in-law, saying that his family did not know the intruder. In another story it quotes Nationalist MP Franco Debono saying that it was the split of the Home Affairs and Justice Ministry that was important and not the identity of the new minister.
The international press
Magyar Nemzet reports tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Budapest, protesting against Hungary's controversial new constitution. The country's ruling Fidesz Party pushed the law through parliament in April after winning a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections. Opponents say the new constitution, which came into force on Sunday, threatens democracy by removing checks and balances set up in 1989 when Communism fell. The EU and US had also asked for the law to be withdrawn.
The Italian Journalists’ Agency, AGI, reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to announce a Cabinet reshuffle in the next few days to include members of the opposition in the executive. It says the move, which comes in an effort to ease international pressure on Syrian authorities, was reported by sources close to the regime.
Meanwhile, al bawaba says that despite the presence of Arab League observers, the bloody crackdown on protesters has continued and, according to the activists of the Local Coordination Committee, at least 20 people were killed yesterday. Three attacks were also carried out by army deserters on as many military checkpoints in Kafr, Haya and Idlib. They are the first such attacks since the beginning of the popular revolt last March.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has urged North Korea to bring in a new era of peace following the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il. Chosun Ilbo says Lee used his new-year message to say he had high hopes for a breakthrough in the tense relationship over the North’s nuclear programme. However, he warned that the South would reply strongly to any provocations from its secretive rival.
Voice of Nigeria says the ultra-radical Islamic sect Boko Haram has threatened to attack the Nigerian army and has issued a three-day ultimatum to Christians to leave the northern Muslim-majority regions. The radio reports that tension was high in the country after a state of emergency was declared in many central and northern provinces to stop the inter-faith violence that cost 120 lives during the last week of the year. Africa's most populous country has also been shaken by the end of government petrol subsidies, which has increased the pump price by 116 per cent, putting the opposition on the warpath.
The New York Times says police were investigating four Molotov cocktails attacks in New York in an apparent wave of religious hatred against a Muslim Shiite mosque, where 75 people were praying, and a crowded Hindu temple. The double attack took place over a two-hour period.
Tunisia was ready to hand over to Tripoli, Libya's former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, a close aide to late Muammar Gaddafi, if he was guaranteed to receive a fair trial. Al Horria says Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki made the declaration during his first state visit to Tripoli.
Deutche Welle says German President Christian Wulff appears to have put massive pressure on the nation's top-selling Bild newspaper to prevent the publication of an article about a €500,000 low-interest personal loan. Two respected German newspapers – Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung – had reported the incident on Sunday and Monday. The state prosecutor's office in Hanover has said it was not going to pursue the case further because there was no evidence that a criminal offense had been committed
La Stampa reports that an envelope containing a bullet was sent to the director of the Turin office of tax collection agency Equitalia. The letter was intercepted by the staff at the Turin post sorting office. The envelope also contained a note saying “Anarchy”.
Le Monde says a witness in the so-called “Karachi affair” has testified that President Nicholas Sarkozy was involved in the payment of kickbacks for armament contracts. A senior official in the Defence Ministry told the judge that in 1994, when Budget Minister, Sarkozy allegedly authorised the creation of a company in Luxembourg, named Heine, in order to pay intermediaries for two armament contracts (until 2000 a legal practice in France). The contracts concerned the sale of a number of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia in 1994.
Some 162,000 people, almost 80 per cent of them civilians, were killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to last year's withdrawal of American forces. Metro quotes British NGO Iraq Body Count (IBC) saying the worst non-civilian group affected were the Iraqi police, with 9,019 reported deaths. Baghdad was the most dangerous city in the country, with half of the recorded deaths, equating to 2.5 times the national average. A total of 4,474 US soldiers also died in Iraq.
Paris Soir says that with 8.8 million visitors, the Louvre was the top museum in the world in 2011, with the British Museum in London second with 5.8 million visitors. The Metropolitan Museum of New York came in third with 5.2 million. There was a five per cent increase of tourists visiting France in 2011. Of the 8.8 million tourists, Americans were in the lead, followed by Brazilians, Italians, Australians and Chinese.
Metro says that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will show off some of her most precious diamonds to mark 60 years on the throne. The monarch will celebrate her diamond jubilee with a display of gemstones at Buckingham Palace late this summer. Among them will be a favourite known as ‘Granny’s tiara’ – received in 1947 as a wedding present from her grandmother Queen Mary, who had been given it in 1893. Visitors will also see the necklace and earrings worn by the Queen at her coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953.