The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times highlights how a director of the La Valette property fund resigned yesterday after an MFSA reprimand over how he sold his holdings.
The Malta Independent highlights the prime minister’s comment yesterday that the government is not in election mode. It also quotes Franco Debono saying that comments he made in his thesis were an academic exercise. In the thesis he spoke on the importance of loyalty of MPs.
In-Nazzjon reports about the new scheme where tenants can redeem the temporary groundrent of residential properties administered by the Joint Office or the Lands Department. It also reports that the company FTIAS is doubling its workforce to 160. FTIAS carries out back office work for a major German tour company.
l-orizzont raises questions about the legality of a building in Strait Street, Valletta, which will be part of the law courts. Two storeys have been added to the building, which towers over other properties.
The overseas press
Deutsche Welle reports German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pressed Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to urgently resume fully-fledged peace talks. Speaking after meeting the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin, Merkel warned time was pressing for peace talks to resume. The direct talks broke down in 2009 over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jordon has hosted three meetings between the two sides this month and a fourth meeting is set for January 25. Abbas is on a week-long tour of Europe, briefing leaders on the progress of talks in Jordan.
US Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich has angrily denied a report that he once wanted an "open marriage". He told CNN's debate host that even raising the issue was "as close to despicable as anything I can imagine". The four remaining candidates were appearing in a last-ditch debate before Saturday's South Carolina primary. Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were debating in Charleston after a dramatic day. As Gingrich gained on Romney in the polls, an ex-wife revealed in an interview he wanted an "open marriage". Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry pulled out of the race and Iowa said a vote mix-up meant Romney had not won its caucuses.
Ansa says divers have continued to comb the wreck of the Italian liner Costa Concordia, as leaked phone transcripts showed a ship's officer playing down the scale of the disaster in conversations with coast guards. The unidentified officer insisted there had only been "a blackout" on board 40 minutes after the ship crashed into rocks off the picturesque Tuscan island of Giglio and lurched on to its side. Eleven bodies have so far been recovered while 21 people are still missing after Friday's tragedy. Salvage operators are standing by to start pumping fuel from the ship's tanks to avoid a potential environmental disaster.
Italian media have also shown pictures of a Moldovan woman who says she was on the bridge after the ship ran aground. The woman defended Capt Francesco Schettino's actions, in an interview with Moldovia’s TRM TV. The reports say investigators are trying to speak to her.
Al Jazeera reports Syria has agreed to extend the mandate of the Arab League's observer mission until the League's foreign ministers meet on Sunday to consider a report on the deployment. The observers' mandate expired on Thursday, but the League is expected to extend it for another month with Syria's blessing. The Arab mission, which currently numbers about 165 monitors, has been in Syria since December 26 to oversee an Arab road map under which president Bashar al-Assad's government agreed to end violence.
Violent sex crimes committed by active US Army soldiers have almost doubled over the past five years, due partly to the trauma of war. Reuters quotes a US Army report saying reported violent sex crimes increased by 90 per cent between 2006 and 2011. There were 2,811 violent felonies in 2011, nearly half of which were violent felony sex crimes. Most were committed in the United States. One violent sex crime was committed by a soldier every six hours and 40 minutes in 2011, the Army said.
The Washington Times announces that USS Abraham Lincoln has joined its sister ship, the carrier USS John Stennis in the Arabian Sea off the Strait of Hormuz., to test Iran's warning against any carrier sailing through the Persian Gulf. The US 5th fleet is located in Bahrein and all American ships to return to their base must go through the Strait of Hormuz, the bottleneck between Oman and Iran where 20 per cent of the world's oil goes through. Washington responded to the Iranian warning by spelling out that the Strait will stay open at all costs.
The Israeli army has arrested a Hamas representative, the president of the "Palestinian Parliament" in the West Bank. His cabinet head, Bahaa Yussef, told Al-Ayyam Aziz Dweik was stopped at a road block in Jabaa, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, as he was going to Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Aksam reports some 20,000 demonstrators gathered in Istanbul to pay tribute to ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and to protest a court ruling that his murder was not planned as part of a wider conspiracy. A leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52, was shot dead in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, outside the offices of his Armenian-Turkish bilingual weekly newspaper Agos.
ABC News reports that the woman who introduced the bikini to Australian beaches has officially become a "legend". Paula Stafford, 91, was awarded the Gold Coast City Council's "Legend Award" as part of Australia Day celebrations this morning. Ms Stafford started making two-piece swimsuits as a hobby in the 1930s.
Arutz Sheva says the ethics committee of Israel’s parliament has suspended an MP for dumping water on a colleague during a bad-tempered debate. During the outburst, Anastassia Michaeli threw water on Raleb Majadale after he told her to shut up. Dripping wet, he chuckled and called her “crazy” as she stormed out of the room. The incident occurred during a debate over whether an Arab-Israeli school had the right to take its students to a Tel Aviv human rights march.