The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Times says judges and magistrates are already receiving additional allowances, amounting to €24,000 over three years, even before a holistic reform of the judiciary is endorsed by Parliament. It also reports on the 70-year-old man who died yesterday after he was hit by a car in Valletta.
The Independent leads with a feature on the film The Making of Simshar and reports on the Thomas Smith Charity Swim yesterday during which €10,000 were raised.
L-Orizzont says that more families are opting to recycle gifts because of a lack of cash flow.
In-Nazzjon leads with the Archbishop’s message after meeting families at the Curia yesterday.
The international press
Global Post reports UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on the Indian government to take immediate action to protect women. It comes after the body of a 23-year-old Delhi student who died in hospital from injuries sustained in a brutal gang-rape, was cremated. Ban said every girl and woman had the right to be respected, valued and protected and called for “further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice”.
Huffington Post announces that the US senate has adjourned its special session until later today as last-ditch efforts continue to avoid tax increases and spending cuts automatically starting January 1. Some progress was achieved after Republican senators withdrew a demand that any deal must include a new way of calculating inflation that would lower payments to beneficiary programmes like social security. If Congress does not reach an agreement, around $600 billion of spending cuts and tax increases will take effect, sending the country and the global economy back into recession.
CNN reports US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been hospitalised after doctors discovered a blood clot during a follow-up exam related to a concussion she suffered earlier this month. She is expected to remain at New York Presbyterian Hospital for the next 48 hours so doctors can monitor her condition and treat her with anti-coagulants. Clinton, 65, was suffering from a stomach virus earlier this month when she fainted due to dehydration, causing the concussion.
El Universal says Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolas Maduro has told the Venezuelan people President Hugo Chavez’s health has suffered a setback and described it as “delicate” following cancer surgery in Cuba. Maduro delivered a solemn televised address from Havana, saying he had spoken with Chávez and that the president sent greetings to his homeland. Maduro did not give details about the complications, which he said came amid a respiratory infection.
Al Ahram quotes international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warning the Syrian war was worsening "by the day" as he announced a peace plan he believed could find support from world powers, including key Syria ally Russia. Brahimi's comments in Cairo came a day after warning in Moscow that Damascus faced a choice between "hell or the political process”.
Two Egyptians have been killed and two injured in an apparent attack on a Coptic church building near the Libyan city of Misrata. A city council official told the BBC that there had been an explosion at the building as the four victims were eating lunch there. It is not clear who was behind the blast.
Meanwhile, Voice of Nigeria confirmed suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 Christians in northern Nigeria, slitting the throats of their victims. The attack happened near Maiduguri, a stronghold of Islamist militants Boko Haram – a group seeking to impose Islamic law on the country.
Dawn reports a car bomb targeting a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims from Pakistan to Iran killed 19 people and wounded 25 others, many of them critically. The blast destroyed the bus and damaged a second bus carrying more Shiites.
Haaretz says Israel's former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has been formally indicted for breach of trust and fraud. He was accused of promoting an Israeli diplomat as ambassador to Latvia in 2009 after the diplomat had supplied him with information about a police investigation against him on corruption charges. Lieberman denies any wrongdoing and plans to run in January’s snap general election.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel's Supreme Court has overturned a decision by the Central Elections Committee banning Arab-Israeli politician Haneen Zuabi from standing in next month's election. Rightwing members of the Knesset sought to disqualify her from running in the next election, arguing that she failed to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and backed enemies of the state by participating in a 2010 Gaza-bound flotilla that was raided by Israeli commandos in an operation that killed nine Turkish activists.
La Stampa announces the death of the Italian Nobel prize-winning neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini. She was 103. Levi-Montalcini lived through anti-semitic discrimination under fascism to become one of Italy's top scientists and most respected figures. In 1986 she shared the Nobel prize for medicine with biochemist Stanley Cohen for research carried out in the US.
AFP says Wagner, Verdi and a myriad of waltzes will broadcast live to 81 countries when the Vienna Philharmonic kicks off 2013 with its traditional New Year's Concert tomorrow, January 1. The event – sold out over a year in advance and followed by millions around the world – will once again be conducted by Franz Welser-Moest, musical director at the Vienna Opera, after his first appearance in 2011. Eleven of the 16 pieces performed will be playing at the New Year's Concert for the first time. Among them are tributes to German composer Richard Wagner and Italian Giuseppe Verdi, both of whom will be celebrated on their 200th birthday next year.