The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta and most of the other newspapers lead with yesterday's murder in Kalkara. The Times of Malta also says Arriva could liquidate to get out of its bus contract.
The Malta Independent says the 'gay marriages' bill has halted child adoptions from Russia.
In-Nazzjon says the government has hidden the arrival of a Chinese delegation in connection with Enemalta.
l-orizzont leads with the murder in Kalkara yesterday and reports how the victim's daughter and niece were also injured.
The overseas press
Two European Parliament delegations – one from the Foreign Affairs Committee and another from the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee – will begin talks in Washington later today on the US phone tapping scandal. The Washington Post says the EU lawmakers will meet with their counterparts from the US House of Representatives and Senate, representatives from the State Department and the National Security Council and think-tank experts. The delegations would discuss the impact of people’s rights to privacy.
The talks are being held as a number of new reports reveal that National Security Agency monitored nearly 125 billion phone calls in January alone. Cryptome, a site that posts US government and corporate documents, combined the various documents which show that 60 million calls were secretly monitored in Spain and 46 million in Italy. Other calls originated in Afghanistan (21.98 billion), Pakistan (12.76 billion), Iraq (7.8 billion), Saudi Arabia (7.8 billion), Egypt (1.9 billion), Iran (1.73 billion) and Jordan (1.6 billion). Details of the alleged monitoring came from documents provided by the fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.
Meanwhile, the National Security Agency's outgoing chief, General Keith B. Alexander, said President Obama was never informed of the wiretapping the agency conducted on the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. USA Today quotes NSA spokeswoman Vaneé Vines saying there was no discussion between General Alexander and President Obama, in 2010, regarding alleged intelligence action abroad concerning Chancellor Merkel.
Many London newspapers lead on the major storm hitting Britain. The Daily Telegraph says the storm, which forecasters predict could become the most violent for many years was moving into southern and central England with winds of more than 130 kph. The Met Office forecast that it would bring 20 to 40 millimetres of rain. The amber alert, the third highest out of four, affected millions of UK citizens who were urged to stay indoors and take precautions against flooding, power blackouts and falling trees. The Daily Mirror says a 14-year-old boy in East Sussex was feared to be the storm's first victim after being dragged away by huge waves.
Metro says British Prime Minister David Cameron's former press chief Andy Coulson and his friend and one-time Rupert Murdoch sidekick Rebekah Brooks will appear in court today over the phone-hacking scandal that rocked Britain's media and politics. Brooks and Coulson are among eight defendants appearing at London's Old Bailey in the first trial arising from the scandal that sank Murdoch's News of the World newspaper. The charges include illegally hacking mobile phone voicemails and bribing public officials for stories.
The BBC reports a British security firm, G4S, has been accused of shocking abuses and of losing control of one of South Africa’s most dangerous prisons. Some of the 3,000 inmates at the maximum-security Mangaung prison have reported given electric shocks and forced injections as punishment. G4S has said it had seen no evidence of the abuse by of its employees.
The death has been announced of the American singer, guitarist and songwriter Lou Reed. He was 71. CBS News says the former Velvet Underground frontman, known for tracks including Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side, was considered one of the most influential singers and songwriters in rock.