The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says six Enemlta firemen who supervised the burning of mercaptan received mystery pay rises. It also highlights drought fears for the future as a report showed how the Mediterranean will bear the brunt of European climate change.
The Malta Independent says the number of children in childrcare centre has tripled to 1,500 since 2006. It also quotes the finance minister saying investors are wary of Labour being returned to power.
In-Nazzjon highlights the record in passenger traffic through MIA last month.
l-orizzont quotes MEP Edward Scicluna saying Tonio Fenech ignored repeated warnings by the EU before he presented the Budget – only to then have to revise spending projections.
The overseas press
El Universal reports that at least 23 people have been killed in gruesome circumstances in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, on the border with the United States. Nine bodies were found hanging from a bridge. Hours later, 14 decapitated bodies were discovered in a vehicle while their heads were found in iceboxes dumped outside the mayor’s office. Nuevo Laredo is the scene of a feud between two of Mexico’s biggest drug gangs.
The BBC announces that after a tightly-fought election, the Conservative incumbent Boris Johnson has been re-elected as Mayor of London. His narrow victory, based on voters’ second preferences, was the only Tory triumph in a dismal night at the polls for Conservatives across England, Scotland and Wales, as Labour seized control of 32 councils. Labour gained 823 councillors nationally, as the Tories lost 405 and the Lib-Dems 336.
Le Parisien says campaigning has come to an end in the French presidential elections with the two rival candidates making their final speeches. The incumbent centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy said the silent majority could still give him “a sensational victory”. His Socialist challenger, François Hollande, urged voters to give him a clear mandate.
Greek party leaders have also made their final appeals to voters ahead of tomorrow’s general election to replace the country’s caretaker administration. Kathimerini quotes the leader of the Socialist Pasok Party, Evangelos Venizelos, telling supporters in Athens that Greece faced a choice between seeing through the austerity measures and remaining in the eurozone or experiencing a disastrous default. The new Democracy Party leader, Antonis Samaras, accused the Socialists of playing dangerous games with the country’s European future.
Iran has begun run-off elections for more than one-fifth of parliamentary seats. Press TV says 130 compete for 65 seats in 33 constituencies. The parliament has no direct control over major policy matters like Iran’s nuclear programme, but it can influence the run-up to the election of a successor to President Mohammad Ahmadinejad next year.
Al Ahram reports that security forces in Egypt have dispersed thousands of demonstrators after hours of clashes near the Defence Ministry in Cairo. Hundreds of demonstrators were injured and scores of arrests made as the protesters accused the ruling Egyptian military council of orchestrating an attack on demonstrators on Thursday which left more than 20 dead. A night-time curfew has been imposed
CNN says that at least 37 people died as Syrian government snipers and other forces stalked opponents in homes and neighbourhoods in a campaign of gunfire, shelling and arrests amid mass protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The new attacks came a day after seven students were killed when violence flared at Aleppo University.
The Washington Times reports the US and China have forged the outlines of a deal to end a diplomatic stand-off over legal activist Chen Guangcheng, with Beijing saying he could apply to go abroad for study and Washington saying he had been offered an American fellowship. After three days of fraught, behind-the-scenes and emotional calls by Chen from a guarded hospital room, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said progress had been made in granting the activist’s wish to take his family abroad.
According to France 24, the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has denied allegations of possible gang-rape after a Belgian sex worker alleged she was forced to take part in sex acts against her will at a party he and his friends attended in a Washington hotel suite in December 2010. Charges are already being prepared against Strauss-Kahn over allegations that he was one of a group which procured prostitutes to take part in sex parties. The same ring is alleged to have supplied women for orgies attended by Strauss-Kahn in Paris, Washington and European cities and investigators believe they can prove the former finance minister committed crimes. Paying for sex is not illegal in France, but profiting from an organised vice ring is, and Strauss-Kahn – who until last year was seen as a likely future French president – could face a lengthy jail term.
Harare’s Daily News reports prosecutors in Zimbabwe have dropped charges against three women accused of raping men after DNA tests failed to link them to 17 alleged male victims. However, they will now face prostitution charges. The women, aged in their 20s, and a male companion were arrested in November amid allegations they lured men into a car and forced them to have sex at gunpoint, knifepoint or using drugged drinks to collect semen for tribal rituals. Police said 31 condoms containing semen were found in the car. In a case that has fascinated the nation, the women denied the allegations, saying they had sex for money and did not throw out the condoms.
Metro says a newborn girl has been found abandoned in a holdall on a doorstep opposite the Polish centre in London Road, Reading. A note written in Polish was left with the infant, believed to be between two and three weeks old. Police said the baby, who was being cared for in hospital, was unharmed but they expressed concern for her mother, who may need medical help. Meanwhile, a teenager has contacted British police to say she was the mother of a newly-born baby boy found dead in waste being sorted at a recycling plant. She has been admitted for post-natal care.