The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports how Joseph Muscat yesterday refused to comment on the declarations made on Sunday by Anglu Farrugia in a Sunday Times interview.
The Malta Independent says the political parties clashed in a war of words over party funding and the influence of contractors. It also says that the PL will appoint an LGBT government representative.
In-Nazzjon says the PN is promising a leap of quality for the elderly.
l-orizzont says the police will not object to businessman George Farrugia’s request for a pardon to give information on the oil procurement scandal.
The overseas press
European Council president Herman Van Rompuy will present a revised budgetary plan to European leaders on Thursday in a bid to push through agreement on the European Union’s seven-year budget, which has already faced a delay of more than two months. The Irish Times says while Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said he was hopeful agreement on the €1 trillion deal would be agreed this week, Britain’s Minister for Europe David Lidington said Monday there would not be a deal “at any price”. Britain, which is campaigning for a freeze to the budget, is also seeking a reduction in the administration costs involved in running the European institutions themselves. Discussions on the seven-year budget collapsed in November, after EU leaders failed to reach consensus on how the budget should be spent.
Stock markets in Europe have fallen because of concerns of political instability in Italy and Spain and doubts whether they could continue cutting their huge debts. The Financial Times attributed a plunge in the Milan bourse to former premier Silvio Berlusconi's climb in the polls ahead of general elections later this month. According to the financial daily's website, the fact that Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is only five points behind the leading centre-left in opinion polls has "raised fears" surrounding the vote in Italy, which explains the sudden drop in the Milan bourse. Italy's major stock market fell by a full 4.5 per cent.
Business Week says the credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s has announced it is to be sued by the US government over its rating of mortgage bonds before the financial crisis in 2008. The case is to focus on S&P’s ratings in 2007 on some mortgage-backed securities which later dropped in value.
L’Equipe reports the EU’s police agency has uncovered evidence of large-scale match fixing in football, including world cup qualifiers. Europol said the investigation had identified almost 400 suspicious games in Europe alone. Matches included two Champions League games, one of them in England, and World Cup qualifiers, netting criminals more than €8 million.
CBS News says a five-year-old boy, held hostage since last week by a 65-year-old gunman in a bunker in the US, has been freed unharmed. The FBI say they raided the bunker at the gunman’s home in Alabama after deciding that the child was in imminent danger. The gunman, Jimmy Lee Dykes, was killed.
Money Sense reports the Royal Canadian Mint has officially ended its distribution of pennies to financial institutions – declaring they were a nuisance, had outlived their purpose and their costs exceeded their monetary value. The coins will remain legal tender until they eventually disappear from circulation. CBC News says “Free The Children”, an international charity based in Toronto, has already rounded up 70 million pennies during its nationwide penny drive – enough to provide 28,000 people in developing countries with clean drinking water for life.
Pakistan plans to build a $30 million amusement park in the town of Abbottabad, where former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in a May 2, 2011 raid on his compound. Officials told Dawn the project is aimed at boosting tourism and has nothing to do with the town’s now-famous reputation as the site of bin Laden’s capture.
New Zealand Herald announces the classic British sci-fi series "Thunderbirds" will receive a high-tech reboot at the hands of New Zealand's Oscar-winning Weta Workshop. The special effects company, which has worked on movies such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Avatar", said Britain's ITV had commissioned 26 episodes of the hit 1960s show, created by the late Gerry Anderson. The series is scheduled to screen in Britain in 2015 – fifty years after the original was shown.
Dozens of inmates escaped from a Brazilian prison crawling through the sewage system. An official at Rio de Janeiro state's Bangu prison complex told O Globo that 31 prisoners attempted the break on Sunday but within hours four were recaptured still inside the sewage system. Rio state's Prison Affairs Department has ordered an investigation into the prison break.
The Guardian announces the death of Reg Presley, the lead singer of the 1960s rock band The Troggs. He died of cancer at the age of 71. Best known for the hits Wild Thing and Love Is All Around, he had announced a year ago that he was battling cancer and would retire from the band.
France 24 says a law banning Parisian women from wearing trousers has been formally repealed in France more than two centuries after it came into force. The legislation specified that women who wished to dress like men had to ask permission from the police. French Minister for Women’s Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the rule was a “museum piece.”