The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how a policeman shot a man wielding a large knife yesterday. It also reports that battered women were told to report unhelpful officers.
The Malta Independent says mobile roaming rip-off charges are to be slashed.
In-Nazzjon said a policeman fired in self-defence at a migrant.
l-orizzont reports how former Health Minister Louis Deguara signed an agreement with doctors in 2008 because of ‘orders from above’.
The overseas press
Börzen Zeitung reports that eurozone finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen have announced a landmark deal to raise the bloc's debt firewall to €800 billion. The headline figure, which includes some €300 billion in loans already pledged, is made up of €500 billion in the bloc's permanent ESM bailout pot that comes into effect in July, €200 billion already pledged for crisis-hit countries, and another €100 billion in bilateral and EU loans. The eurozone's two bailout funds, the ESM and a temporary pot called the EFSF, will run in parallel until mid-2013. Ministers are under huge international pressure to ring-fence the eurozone to prevent a new global economic crisis.
El Mundo says the Spanish government has announced €27 billion worth of deep cuts to its budget as part of a tough austerity drive. The savings will be made by slashing government spending by 17 per cent, with plans to freeze public sector wages and introduce a tax hike on large companies. The cuts, to reduce the deficit this year from 8.5 to 5.3 per cent of GDP, come despite popular resistance, including a general strike on Thursday which disrupted transport, halted industry and saw some violence as frustration boiled over.
The United States is preparing to increase oil sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. The Wall Street Journal quotes a statement by President Obama saying there was enough oil on the world market to allow significant a reduction in purchases from Iran. He added that after June, countries that but oil through Iran’s central bank would face USA sanctions.
Al Ayyam says a 21-year-old Palestinian protester in Gaza has been killed and another critically injured from Israeli army gunfire as thousands took part in an annual protest against Israeli land policy. Israeli security forces in riot gear deployed in high numbers along the frontiers of Israel and the Palestinian territories in anticipation of a repeat of last year’s violence, in which at least 38 people died near Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria. But for the most part, protests were small and organisers kept demonstrators from actually marching on the borders.
Irrawady reports Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned that the lead-up to this weekend's by-elections have not been free and fair. At a press conference at her home on Friday, Suu Kyi told hundreds of journalists and observers that opposition campaigning had been restricted and some candidates intimidated.
EurasiaNet says the Turkish parliament has approved an education reform Bill that allows parents to move their children into Islamic schools far earlier than before. The government said the reforms would encourage people to stay in school for longer but the Bill has angered secular Turks.
The Washington Post reveals credit card companies Mastercard and Visa were investigating a security breach in the United States that might have put the account details of millions of customers at risk. Repots suggest the numbers from 10 million accounts might have been stolen when customers used their credit cards in New York.
O Globo reports human rights activists have expressed dismay at a decision by a Brazilian court not to convict a man who had sex with three 12-year-old girls. The highest appeal court ruled that the man could not be convicted for statutory rape because the girls had previously worked as prostitutes.
The jackpot in the world's biggest lottery, the multi-state Mega Millions, has grown by nearly $300 million to $640 million since Tuesday's draw failed to draw a top prize-winner for the 18th consecutive time since late January. Associated Press estimates Americans forked out an estimated $1.5 billion on tickets – enough to feed 238,000 households for a year. The odds of winning are one in 176 million.
L’Equipe says football’s world governing body FIFA has agreed new anti-corruption reforms after independent experts issued a scathing assessment of its investigations into earlier scandals. FIFA’s Executive Committee convened in Zurich for its first meeting of the year and agreed to major reforms of its governance, in particular relating to ethics, audit and compliance.