The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the PN has set February 25 for its leadership election.
The Malta Independent leads with the tragedy where a worker died in Sliema yesterday.
In-Nazzjon highlights how an old palazzo in Vittoriosa is being turned into a boutique hotel by a Dutch couple. It also says how Hanger8, a private aviation company, is basing its activities in Malta.
l-orizzont says the Minister of Health is trying to avoid embarrassment over the situation at the Mater Dei emergency department. It also reports how a worker died yesterday when the cable of a tower crane parted in Sliema.
The overseas press:
A cold snap is keeping Europe in its icy grip, pushing the death toll to 160 as countries from Italy to Ukraine struggle to cope with temperatures that have plunged to record lows in some places. Baltic Times says that in Ukraine, tens of thousands of people have headed to shelters trying to escape the freeze that has now killed 63 people. Most of them literally froze to death on the street, as temperatures fell to minus 33 degrees Celsius in the west. In Serbia, the cold has killed seven people and trapped some 11,500 others, mostly in remote mountain villages inaccessible by road.
Euronews reports nine more people died in Poland as temperatures hit minus 32 degrees Celsius in the south-west, bringing the overall toll to 29. In Romania, eight people died bringing the overall toll to 22, while in Bulgaria, where the mercury dipped to lows not seen in a century, at least 10 people have died. Meanwhile, an 83-year-old Austrian woman was found frozen to death in the woods after apparently slipping on her daily walk and not managing to get up again, becoming the country's second victim of the cold snap, officials said. And, according to the Daily Express, temperatures are set to plunge to minus12 degrees Celsius today in some parts of Britain.
Al Ahram says protesters have taken to the streets of Cairo to vent their anger over the deadly riot at a soccer stadium in Port Said. At least 74 people died and hundreds more were injured in clashes between fans of Cairo club Al Ahly and al-Masry in Port Said. Security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators who advanced on the interior ministry, tearing down barricades and chanting "down with military rule". At least two protesters have been shot dead by the police in the city of Suez.
The Wall Street Journal quotes US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warning that the US economy could face the same fate as troubled European countries if it failed to curb its growing debt. Testifying before a House Budget Committee, he urged lawmakers to be more aggressive in reducing the nation's $15 trillion debt or risk facing the same fate as troubled European countries such as Greece and Italy.
UN Security Council President Kodjo Menan of Togo has said that a consensus on a resolution for Syria would soon be reached. The New York Times quotes Togo's UN ambassador as saying that there was no deadline for adopting a resolution. The members of the UN Security Council will meet again this morning to discuss the latest version of a European-Arab draft resolution backed by the Arab League.
ABC, Australia’s Broadcasting Corporation, says an emergency is unfolding across northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, with evacuations, military airlifts, and grim predictions of record floods after days of heavy rainfall. State and federal disaster flood assistance money was being made available and a full scale emergency operation was underway, involving the police, military, state emergency services and local authorities.
Post Courrier quotes a rescue official in Papua New Guinea saying about 120 people missing after a ferry sank yesterday are feared to be dead inside the vessel. There were 350 people – mostly students, as well as 12 crew members – on board the vessel. So far 238 survivors have been rescued after the ship sank.
In the UK, The Independent says The Times newspaper is being investigated by British police over claims of hacking emails, reports said on Thursday. The investigation comes after an ongoing inquiry into the ethics of the British press heard that a journalist at the broadsheet had hacked a police blogger's email. Tom Watson, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour party, said he had received confirmation from London's Metropolitan Police that The Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, was being investigated.
The Lancet publishes the findings of a study showing that malaria kills twice as many people every year as formerly believed – a total of 1.2 million lives. New research by the University of Washington has shown that for children younger than five in Africa, death estimates were 1.3 times higher. For children and adults in Africa they were 8.1 times higher, and for individuals of all ages outside Africa they were 1.8 times higher. Worldwide, 433,000 more people over the age of five had been killed by malaria than WHO estimates suggested.
Los Angeles Times says Michelle Obama has triumphed after accepting a press-up challenge from Ellen DeGeneres on the comic's TV talk show. The 48-year-old easily completed 25 in front of a studio audience and millions of television viewers. She also revealed something about life with the US President behind the doors of the White House, saying “he doesn't pick up his socks”. The US First Lady has been in Los Angeles promoting her "Let's Move" campaign to combat childhood obesity in a series of TV appearances. On Tuesday, she brought food from the White House kitchen garden to show Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.