The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times reports court evidence of how Enemalta executives shared oil kickbacks. It also reports how the Vatican is battling to preserve the secrecy of its talks.
The Malta Independent reports how more details emerged in court yesterday as four cases were heard in connection with the oil procurement scandal.
In-Nazzjon reports how voting will start today in hospitals.
l-orizzont also focuses on the evidence in court, saying Enemalta officials were involved in the setting up of a private company to rival and 'drain' business from MOBC, an Enemalta subsidiary.
The overseas press
CNN reports Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, who acted as a spokesman for al-Qaida, has been apprehended, transported to New York and charged with conspiracy to kill Americans. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith appeared alongside bin Laden in a 2001 video in which they took responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and warned of more, before he dropped out of sight for more than a decade before his arrest. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that no amount of distance or time would weaken the US resolve to bring America's enemies to justice.
North Korea has announced it was abrogating all non-aggression pacts with South Korea and severing its hotline with Seoul, hours after threatening the US with a pre-emptive nuclear strike. ABC says the statement came just hours after all UN Security Council voted for tougher sanctions aimed at further isolating and financially crippling Kim Jong-un's regime. Earlier, North Korea had threatened to launch a nuclear missile at the US, saying a new war was "unavoidable" because of joint South Korean and US military exercises. Beijing said the focus now should be to "defuse the tensions" by restarting negotiations.
According to The Australian, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has used International Women's Day to announce new measures aimed at cracking down on slavery and people smuggling, saying businesses tainted by such activities would be prevented from winning government contracts. She said some16 million women worldwide have been enslaved and trafficked over the past decade, and it was imperative governments worked to restore people's freedom.
Adnkronos says that as the last of the 115 cardinal electors arrived in Rome, speculation mounted on Thursday that cardinals would soon set a date for the start of the conclave to appoint Benedict XVI's successor. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said after Thursday's pre-conclave talks that no date had yet been set for the conclave. Vatican's finances were the focus of the meeting attended by elector cardinals and those aged over 80 who are ineligible to elect the next pope. Cardinals have said they want to elect a new pope by the start of Easter Holy Week on 24 March.
Corriere della Sera announces that a court has sentenced Italy's former premier Silvio Berlusconi to a year in prison over an illegal wiretap and his brother Paolo Berlusconi got two years and three months. Berlusconi was convicted of breaching confidentiality for arranging for a police wiretap concerning a political rival to be leaked and published in a newspaper owned by his brother. Berlusconi has denied wrongdoing in the case and is likely to appeal. Berlusconi, who has faced over 30 trials, claims he is the target of a vendetta by politically-biased prosecutors.
Ansa reports environmental police have seized a 50,000-square-metre photovoltaic park worth €25 million near Brindisi. The action came as part of a probe into 11 lawyers, company officials, engineers and operations managers for allegedly trying to scam regional authorities by altering paperwork related to the power plant.
El Universal says Hugo Chavez’s embalmed body would be permanently displayed in a glass casket so that “his people will always have him”. Vice president Nicolas Maduro said the president would lie in state first for at least another seven days. A state funeral for Chavez attended by some 33 heads of government is scheduled to begin this morning. Tens of thousands have already filed past his glass-topped casket at a military academy. Chavez, who led Venezuela for 14 years, died on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.
The Nation reports that Kenya's electoral commission has said that a computer bug was to blame for a large number of rejected votes in the tallying of the presidential election. Vote-tallying has been restarted by hand following this and other glitches but Uhuru Kenyatta still has a large lead over Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Prince Harry has decided to promote his mother Diana's legacy and fight against mines. The Daily Mirror says Prince Harry, 28, who is third in line to the throne, is the new patron of landmine clearance charity Halo Trust which Diana supported. Diana's photographs walking in a minefield in Angola only eight months before her death in 1997 have become a milestone.
The Daily Star reports mMedical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) speaks of a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in Syria and said that the level of care provided was far below what the population needed. MSF said the diplomatic paralysis currently preventing a political solution to the war should not be used to excuse the failure of humanitarian action.
Huffington Post announces the death of Alvin Lee, the speed-fingered British guitarist who lit up Woodstock with a monumental 11-minute version of his song "I'm Going Home". He was 68.
PC World says Facebook has revealed a new look to its News Feed. The changes allow users to switch between sections – giving separate areas to things like photographs and music. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg says he wants it to look more like a digital newspaper and to help people find content they actually want.
The Lumper – a potato not seen since the famine – is set to make a comeback. The Irish Independent says the distinctive knobbly spud has been specially nurtured from a handful of rare seedlings and is expected to hit the supermarket shelves next week – 170 years after it was last harvested commercially. The Lumper was introduced around 1810 and, before the blight, was particularly popular among thousands of poverty-stricken families because it could be grown easily in poor soils and required little manure.