The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how the no-confidence vote will be taken today-week, a story featured on all the front pages. It also reports how a nurse was jailed for four years for raping a 17-year-old cleaner.
The Malta Independent says Air Malta cost-cutting has cast doubts on travelling arrangements for voters.
In-Nazzjon reports how the vote on the no-confidence motion will be taken today-week.
l-orizzont also highlights the vote today week. It also carries a spectacular picture of a car crash near Corradino yesterday.
The overseas press
The Economic Times quotes the head of the eurogroup, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, saying the eurozone was close to recession. At a new conference held after talks with new Belgian Premier Elio Di Rupo, Juncker said the eurozone was on the brink of “a technical recession”, the term used for two consecutive quarters registering falls in GDP. The World Bank slashed its growth forecasts from 3.6 per cent to 2.5 per cent in 2012 and warned that rich nations' debt problems might yet reap a crisis that would eclipse the tumult of 2008. Junker advocated the need to forge a real growth policy for Europe.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wall Street ended higher on positive economic data from the United States and better than forecast earnings from investment bank Goldman Sachs but European markets finished the session with mixed results. A call by the IMF for more money from donor nations also improved investor sentiment. But the US said it would not ask Congress to boost the IMF's lending ability and Britain has said it would consider an IMF request but would demand that the funds be used to help member countries rather than save the euro. European markets were mixed as Greece negotiates the terms of write-downs on its bonds for investors.
Ansa reports that Italian Premier Mario Monti on Wednesday ruled out privatising public companies as part of the government's efforts to raise revenue and stoke growth. Speaking at a news conference after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, Monti said market prices were too low to consider privatisations at the moment.
Monti added he hoped agreement could be forged among all 27 European Union members on a new fiscal compact to stave off the eurozone debt crisis at an EU summit on January 30. Last month Cameron vetoed the compact and other EU countries said they would go ahead with it on their own.
Tageblatt reports Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told the European Parliament he would modify controversial laws that were the subject of European Commission legal action against Budapest. The ruling Fidesz party faced criticism for tightening control over public institutions including the judiciary, central bank and data protection agency, as well as the media. Orban hoped talks next week with EU executive chief Jose Manuel Barroso would yield quick results. Barroso urged Orban's government to demonstrate its commitment to democracy.
Agi reports that Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini has said it would take at least two weeks to empty the Costa Concordia's fuel tanks as well as all the oil contained in the cruise liner's systems. The minister told Parliament this time frame was considered sufficient on condition weather conditions remained good and did not get any worse. Meanwhile, Adnkronos reports Italian authorities on Wednesday suspended a rescue effort of a sunken cruise ship after the 290 metre-long vessel shifted on the rocky reef where it has been perched since running aground off Tuscany's coast five days ago. And CBS reports that Francesco Schettino, the cruise ship captain under fire for abandoning his vessel while thousands of passengers scrambled for rescue, has reportedly come up with an explanation for his flight: he accidentally tripped and fell into a lifeboat.
The Afghan government says it is "disgusted" by the alleged abuse of Afghan children by two British soldiers and has demanded an immediate investigation into the case. The Sun reported that a sergeant and a private from the Mercian Battle Group had been arrested over claims they abused an Afghan boy and a girl, both aged about 10. The paper says the accused pair allegedly encouraged a boy and a girl to touch them through their clothes, and filmed the incidents. The allegation comes less than a week after a video emerged showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of militants in Afghanistan.
Italy's many tax evaders were giving “poisoned bread to their children”, Premier Mario Monti told Vatican Radio on Wednesday. “As well hurting other citizens they are offering their children poisoned bread because they will make them citizens of an unliveable country.” The Monti government has launched a drive against tax evasion and TV adverts brandi tax dodgers as "parasites". Tax police are sweeping the country to see that proper receipts are given in shops and restaurants as well as by the self-employed.
The Australian reports that a prison riot in Victoria was partly sparked by the introduction of new flexible toothbrushes. Victoria's Corrections Commissioner Bob Hastings says standard toothbrushes at the jail were confiscated after they were used at weapons. A group of 30 inmates armed themselves with gardening tools and gym equipment and started several fires. Eleven camped out on the roof and refused to come. The disturbance was also sparked by a dispute over losing pay TV and by the objection to some changes to the prison uniform.
Gazeta Polska reports that a court in Warsaw has fined a Polish pop star who criticised the Bible 5,000 Zloty (€1,151. Dorota Rabczewska said in an interview that she doubted the Bible “because it’s hard to believe in something that was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs”.