The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times quotes a former Enemalta engineer saying that a ditched gas pipeline to Malta was Austin Gatt’s biggest mistake. It also reports how a court has ordered the presentation in court of the OLAF report on John Dalli.
The Malta Independent also leads with the court order on the OLAF report.
In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying that with sound finances, Malta would have a secure future.
l-orizzont says S&P’s downgrading was a blow to the government. It also says Labour’s plan for the health sector will be announced in the coming days.
The overseas press
Mauritania’s AMI news agency reports 34 hostages and 14 of their captors were reportedly killed in an air raid by Algerian armed forces to try to free a group of hostages from their Islamist captives at a gas installation in Algeria. The agency has close ties to the militant group, but al bawaba says so far the reports had not been confirmed. The Algerian authorities say the main assault was over but the country’s state radio says special forces were still surrounding part of the complex, where al-Qaeda-linked kidnappers were holding a number of hostages. They were threatening to kill them if the Algerian army approached.
France 24 says clashes have continued in Mali, where French troops are bolstering Malian army efforts to halt the southward advance of the Islamists rebels who have seized control of more than half the country. Meanwhile, the first contingent of troops has arrived in Mali from Togo for the planned West African defence force.
The New York Times reports the UN has warned that the refugee crisis in Syria was worsening dramatically. It said 3,000 people were drifting into neighbouring countries every day – more than half of them children. Almost 650,000 refugees have already been registered.
Kathermerini says the Greek Par5liament has voted overwhelmingly to launch a criminal investigation into the former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou. He is accused of mishandling or tampering with a list of suspected Greek tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts to remove the names of his relatives.
Saif al-Islam, the son of the ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has appeared in court in Zintan for the first time since his capture during the uprising against his father’s rule. Libya Herald reports a spokesman for the Attorney-General told Wataniya TV, that Saif was accused he had been planning to escape from prison with the help of his ICC defence team. He has also been charged with harming state security and insulting Libya’s new flag. The proceedings took place in a secret session, with no prior announcement. Saif is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity but Libya has so far resisted extradition requests.
Britain could drift out of the European Union unless the bloc meets key challenges, British Prime Minister David Cameron was to have said in a speech today that has been postponed by the Algeria hostage crisis. The Financial Times says that Cameron was to have outlined three key challenges for the EU: the eurozone crisis, lack of competitiveness compared to emerging nations, and a "lack of democratic accountability" that was "felt particularly acutely in Britain". Cameron was to have insisted that many European citizens increasingly saw the EU as imposing painful austerity without their consent to "bail out governments on the other side of the continent".
Clarin reports that the hacker group Anonymous blocked the official website of Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Census amid an international stand-off over claims the country has lied about its economy. Last year, the institute reported that Argentina's inflation reached 10.8 percent – less than half the 25.6 percent estimated by consultants and critics. IMF directors meet on February 1 to decide if and how to punish Argentina for not supplying accurate economic data.
Market Watch says that while airlines worldwide grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliners over a fire risk, top Mexican carrier Aeromexico has confirmed it was maintaining its order for 19 of the US-made aircraft. AeroMexico said in a statement it had “absolute confidence in the Boeing company and all of its products". Meanwhile, Australian airline Qantas announced has said it was cutting its order for Dreamliner aircraft by one, but said it had planned the move before the Boeing jets were grounded worldwide and still had 14 on order. Authorities in Europe, Chile, Ethiopia, India, Japan and Qatar followed the lead of the FAA by stopping all 787 flights after a Japanese Dreamliner was forced by a smoke alert to make an emergency landing on Wednesday.
Authoritarian regimes around the world are using technology from a Silicon Valley firm for Internet surveillance, filtering and censorship, according to a report by Canadian researchers. Vancouver Star says the report by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab said devices from California-based security firm Blue Coat Systems were being used in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf states. The new report comes after Blue Coat technologies were discovered in Syria in 2011 being used for Internet filtering and monitoring.
Journal de Monaco reports Prince Albert of Monaco and his sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, have slammed Oliver Dahan’s upcoming film Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman, as “needlessly glamorised and historically inaccurate”. The glamorous blonde movie star Grace Kelly (famous for her roles in Alfred Hitchcock films like Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, and Dial M for Murder) became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. She was killed in a car crash in 1982, aged 52, after suffering a stroke while driving. Conspiracy theories, ranging from assassination by the royal family to involvement in a religious cult, quickly swirled about the tragedy.