The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the Sliema double stabbing case, saying that the wife may have defended her husband.
Similarly, l-orizzont, reporting on the same case, says the ‘aggressor’ received the final blow from the victim’s wife.
The Malta Independent says health authorities are recommending breast implant monitoring, nor removal.
Malta Today says that the aggressor in the Sliema stabbing case may have held both knives in one hand.
In-Nazzjon says that a record 3.5 million passengers used MIA last year.
The overseas press
CNN reports that preliminary results from the Iowa caucuses show Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney locked in a tie, with Ron Paul settling into third.
The Greek government has warned it might have to leave the eurozone and return to its old currency, the drachma, if it failed to finalize the details of its second international bailout. Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis has told Kathemerini that negotiations in the next three or four months with international debt monitors – the EU, the IMF and bankers – would "determine everything", including whether Greece escapes a disastrous bankruptcy. Greece is being kept afloat by an initial €110 billion bailout fund agreed after investors, shocked by the country's huge budget deficit, demanded sky-high interest rates to continue buying Greek bonds.
French presidential candidate Francois Hollande opened the new year with an attack on rival Nicolas Sarkozy over the economy. In an open letter published in Liberation, Hollande accuses Sarkozy, who is seeking re-election this spring, of failing to do enough to help his people during his term in office. The 57-year-old Socialist Party candidate, widely regarded as Sarkozy's chief rival, wrote, “The French suffer. They suffer in their daily lives. Unemployment is at its highest because growth is at its lowest.”
Deutsche Welle reports that pressure is growing on German President Christian Wulff to explain allegations that he had intervened to try to stop revelations by the mass circulation newspaper Bild last month over a personal loan he received from the wife of a tycoon friend. He left a furious message on the voicemail of Bild editor Kai Diekmann, threatening legal action. He reportedly also contacted the chief executive of Bild's publishing. It is not the first time the German president tried to suppress a media report; in June 2011, Wulff is said to have tried to make the Welt am Sonntag newspaper drop a story about his half-sister.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the authorities in the United States have charged three Swiss bankers with helping wealthy Americans hide more than $1.2 billion in secret accounts abroad. The bankers, who all live and work in Switzerland, allegedly conspired with US taxpayers and others to hide the existence of Swiss bank accounts held by the taxpayers from US authorities.
Al Ahram says more than 14 million Egyptians are voting for 150 seats in nine governorates, with the Muslim Brotherhood having registered more than 40 per cent of the vote entering the third and final round. The main rival to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, the even more religiously conservative Al Nour party, had more than 20 per cent of the vote in the first two rounds. Final results are expected to be announced next week.
The Egyptian Gazette reports that the chief prosecutor in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak has delivered what observers saw as “the harshest assessment of rule ever heard in an Egyptian courtroom”. He accused the ousted leader of tyranny and corruption, adding he had devoted the last 10 years of his three decades in power to ensuring his son would succeed him. The speech by Mustafa Suleiman seemed aimed at energising the landmark trial of Mubarak, his two sons and eight other defendants after five months of sessions that were often bogged down by lengthy delays, muddled testimonies and complicated procedural issues. The procedures have frustrated many Egyptians, who have hoped for swift and clear justice against Mubarak after his February 11 ousting following 18 days of unprecedented protests against his rule.
Metro says that fierce storms – with winds over 150 km per hour – have lashed Britain, bringing death, destruction and travel chaos as millions returned to work. A motorist in his 50s was crushed by an oak as he sat in a van while another man died and two others were airlifted to safety after their small tanker was hit by a wave in the English Channel. There was also disruption on major roads after lorries overturned.
Illegal fireworks have injured or disabled at least 17,000 New Year's revelers in Italy over the past 20 years. AGI quotes the Italian Animal and Environmental Protection Association reported that illegal firecrackers also left some 5,000 persons disabled and killed over 30,000 animals. This year, fireworks caused 561 casualties, including 70 children. The association is promoting a campaign to ban firecrackers throughout the year, claiming they kill and injure hundreds of persons and animals a year. The list goes on to include thousands of animals that flee from the noise, and persons with heart disease, elderly people and children who panic because of “the absurd and violent sounds".
The Associated Press says New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the world to know that while he might have shared a New Year's kiss with Lady Gaga it was nothing compared with the one he got later from his longtime girlfriend. The 69-year-old politician and the youthful pop star locked lips shortly after leading a Times Square crowd in a final-minute countdown to midnight.