The following are the top stories in the national and international press today.
Times of Malta says Mater Dei Hospital’s bed shortage has forced the cancellation of another 30 non-urgent operations as the hospital struggles to keep up with overcrowding. It also reports about the proposes major project in Malta to alleviate traffic congestion and that transgender hairdresser Joanne Cassar will be awarded the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika.
The Malta Independent speaks to patients who turned up for their operation planned months before at Mater Dei Hospital only to be turned away.
In-Nazzjon leads with a report about the decision taken in the European Parliament to debate Malta's citizenship scheme.
L-Orizzont says Palumbo did not pay a company it subcontracted, which in turn did not pay its workers. It also reports about the proposed traffic project in Marsa.
International news
The North Korean state news agency KCNA has announced that Jang Song Thaek, the once powerful uncle of the country’s leader King Jung Un, has been executed.
Fox News quotes a UN confirming chemical weapons were used in Syria in an attack near Damascus last August in which hundreds of civilians were killed.
Euronews reports that talks about a trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU resumed in Brussels yesterday, despite Ukraine refusing to sign the deal last month.
La Sicilia says some 244 migrants have been rescued from three vessels in international waters south of the island of Lampedusa.
El Pais reports the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he guarantees that an independence referendum announced by the northeastern region of Catalonia will not happen because it would be anti-constitutional.
L’Osservatore Romano quotes European inspectors saying the Vatican had made progress on compliance with international norms to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, but now needed show these are being applied rigorously.
L’Express says a plague spread by rats has killed 39 people in recent weeks in Madagascar.
CNN announces that historical drama “12 Years a Slave” and crime film “American Hustle” won the most nominations for the Golden Globes announced yesterday with seven nods each.
The number of new cases of cancer in the world has risen by 11 per cent between 2008 and 2012, reaching 14.1 million cases last year. La Tribune de Genève says a WHO report emphasises how the spreading of breast cancer has increased by 20 per cent.