The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press. The local media, with one exception, is dominated by the plans unveiled by Labour yesterday to reduce electricity and water bills.
The Times leads with Labour's plan to reduce electricity tariffs. It also reports that Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco is back on the bench as sittings resumed in court.
The Malta Independent also leads with the PL energy plans and also the launch of the PN electoral manifesto.
MaltaToday says Labour's energy plans were vetted by the government's own consultants. It also says the PN launched its electoral manifesto based on non-interference.
In-Nazzjon says the PN continues to guarantee a secure future. It also says that the PN yesterday issued its electoral manifesto.
l-orizzont carries the big heading 25% - the reduction in electricity bills which the Labour Party is promising.
The overseas press
Record unemployment and fraying social welfare systems in southern Europe risk creating a new divide in the continent, the EU warned Tuesday. L’Echo says the warning came as new figures showed unemployment rates in the northern and southern Europe were 7.5 per cent apart.
Reuters quotes the non-denominational Christian relief organisation “Open Doors” saying some 100 million Christians in over 65 countries face persecution. The group said 49 of the 50 worst countries for Christians to live in, with the exception of 46th-placed Colombia, were in Africa, the Middle East or Asia. It placed North Korea at the top of its index followed by Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The top three was unchanged from the 2011 ranking.
Space Observer says a 275-metre-wide asteroid will make the latest in a series of close approaches to the Earth in the early hours of tomorrow, Thursday. Scientists have ruled out any possibility of a cataclysmic collision but there remains a non-negligible chance of the asteroid Apophis smashing into Earth in 2036.
Globovision reports that the Venezuelan national assembly has approved a request by President Hugo Chavez to postpone his inauguration for a new term in office, which was scheduled for tomorrow. Deputies voted to give him “as much time as he needs” to recover from his latest cancer operation. In his most recent update on Mr Chavez, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said his condition was "stable", and he was "responding to the treatment".
Former U. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded two years ago in an Arizona shooting, has told USA Today she was launching a group aimed at curbing gun violence and raising enough money to challenge the well-funded gun lobby. Giffords, starting the effort called “Americans for Responsible Solutions” with her husband former astronaut Mark Kelly, said that Congress must do more to prevent gun violence. Meanwhile, school teachers in Texas and Ohio are flocking to free firearms classes in the wake of the Connecticut elementary school massacre – some vowing to protect their students with guns even at the risk of losing their jobs.
ABC TV says fire-fighters struggled to contain scores of wildfires raging across southeast Australia, as officials evacuated national parks and warned that high winds and blistering temperatures had led to "catastrophic" fire conditions. As the temperature rose to unprecedented 43 degrees Celsius, more than 130 fires were blazing across New South Wales.
France 24 reports the Paris Prosecutor’s office was opening a preliminary investigation into French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac over allegations that he had an undisclosed bank account in Switzerland. Cahuzac, who is in charge of battling tax evasion, has denied the report by the respected Mediapart investigative website.
The US Inquirer says the little loved US Congress, fresh off its fiscal cliff budget crisis, is now less popular than cockroaches and lice. A Public Policy Polling survey revealed that just nine per cent of those surveyed had a favourable opinion.
The Boston Globe reports a federal lawsuit has been brought by four sisters who believe their breast cancer was caused by a drug their mother took during pregnancy in the 1950s. The case involves a synthetic oestrogen known as DES, diethylstilbestrol, prescribed to millions of pregnant women between the late 1930s and early 1970s to prevent miscarriages, premature births and other problems. The Melnick sisters, who grew up in Tresckow, Pennsylvania, say they all developed breast cancer in their 40s after their mother took DES while pregnant. They say their mother did not take DES while pregnant with a fifth sister, and that sister has not developed breast cancer.
Haveeru Daily says the president of the Maldives has called for leniency in the case of a 15-year-old alleged rape victim who could be publicly whipped for the crime of fornication. The girl was repeatedly raped by her stepfather for years, eventually giving birth to a baby, found buried on the family's property. Police have charged the stepfather and mother, but under sharia law, the victim also faces the charge of fornication, punishable by 100 lashes in public. If convicted, the girl would be held under house arrest until she is 18, at which time she would be publicly flogged.
O Globo reports prostitutes in one of Brazil's biggest cities are taking free English classes in anticipation of a wave of visitors to this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup. Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes in the city of Belo Horizonte, said she expected at least 300 of the group's 4,000 members to take up the eight-month course, which starts in March.
The Guardian says British music legend David Bowie has released his first single in a decade to coincide with his 66th birthday. It's called "Where Are We Now?" The 14-track album, "The Next Day," will be released on March 11. Bowie's last live performance was in 2006 and his public absence had prompted rumours about his health. Born David Jones in South London in 1947, Bowie has sold an estimated 140 million albums in a career spanning more than 40 years. He shot to fame in 1969 with the album "Space Oddity."