The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
The Times interviews PL deputy leader Toni Abela who defends himself about a decision not to inform the police of alleged drug trafficking at a party club in 2010. In another story, it says that the police are investigating Minister Austin Gatt’s Swiss bank account at his request.
The Independent leads with the second Abela audio recording which surfaced on YouTube yesterday. It also reports on Dr Gatt’s request to the Police Commissioner to investigate his UBS account.
In-Nazzjon also reports on the Abela recordings which it described as ‘shocking’.
L-Orizzont says that soldiers’ parents have written to the Prime Minister complaining of ‘degrading, humiliating and irregular’ treatment.
International news
The BBC reports European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros has begun investigating the European Commission's links with lobbyists amid concern about alleged conflicts of interest. A row over lobbying cost former EU health commissioner John Dalli his job last year after he was criticised over his links to a Maltese entrepreneur in connection with new tobacco legislation. He denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was forced out unfairly.
North Korea is reported to have told its key ally China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year. A source with direct knowledge of the message told Reuters it's an effort by North Korea to force the United States into diplomatic talks with Pyongyang. It conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday, drawing global condemnation. South Korea has responded to the test by conducting extensive combat drills near the North Korean border.
ABC says a closely-tracked asteroid whizzed safely past Earth on Friday – the same day a much smaller, previously undetected, meteor hit Russia, injuring nearly 1,000 people. Live images from a telescope at the Gingin Observatory in western Australia showed the asteroid looking like a white streak, moving across against a backdrop of black sky. According to NASA, the asteroid, dubbed “2012 DA 14”, passed around 27,000 kilometres above the Earth at the time of closest approach, about 8.2pm (Malta Time).
Space & Aviation News quotes NASA estimating that a meteor which exploded over Russia earlier on Friday was smaller than the passing asteroid, at just 15 metres wide and 7,000 tons. Interfax reported about 1,000 people were injured – three seriously and many had to be kept in hospitals for treatment – when it broke up and fell to earth, shattering windows and destroying some buildings The meteor shot across the sky at around 4.30am (Malta Time) in the region around the city of Chelyabinsk, sending fireballs crashing to Earth. The rare event caused widespread panic.
Mail & Guardian says South African prosecutors will argue that Olympic star Oscar Pistorius is guilty of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp – a charge which could carry a life sentence. Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner for his prosthetic running legs, is alleged to have shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, early on Thursday morning. Magistrate Desmond Nair outlined the prosecutors' case as he announced Pistorius's bail hearing would be delayed until Tuesday to allow the defence more time to prepare.
The horsemeat crisis continued to build on Friday as Austria and Norway confirmed that ready-to-eat “beef” meals containing horsemeat had been found, stoking concerns many more cases in more countries would come to light after falsely-labelled meat was found in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland. The scandal has left governments scrambling to figure out how and where the mislabelling happened. The European Union has agreed the immediate launch of tests for horse DNA in meat products. The test programme will also look for the presence of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory treatment for horses which is harmful to humans and by law supposed to be kept out of the food chain.
Sole 24 Ore announces the formal resignation of the chairman and chief executive of the Italian defence firm Finmeccanica. Giuseppe Orsi was arrested in Italy this week as part of a corruption investigation involving the sale of helicopters to the Indian government. India has started the process of cancelling the $750 million (€561 million) contract. Finmeccanica has already handed the running of the firm to another director, Alessandro Pansa, while it deals with the allegations.
VOA quotes Facebook saying its computer system has been targeted in a series of attacks by an unidentified hacker group. However, there was no evidence that user data was compromised. The company says the malware came from an infected website from a mobile developer
The Venezuelan government has released the first photos of ailing President Hugo Chavez in more than two months. El Universal says Chavez is shown in his hospital bed, accompanied by his daughters, looking at Thursday’s issue of the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma. The pictures come amid widespread speculation about Chavez’s delicate condition following his December 11 cancer surgery. Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Chavez had been fitted with a breathing tube in his throat, making it hard for him to speak.
Manchester Evening News reports a British academic has unearthed a 500-year-old proclamation calling for the arrest of the Renaissance political writer Niccoló Machiavelli. The Medici family, who ruled Florence at the time, accused Machiavelli of plotting to overthrow them. Professor Stephen Milner from the University of Manchester found the 1513 document buried in the state archives in the Italian city of Florence. The proclamation led to the downfall of Machiavelli, known as the “Italian Prince of Darkness”.