The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Sunday Times of Malta and MaltaToday quote Bishop Scicluna telling the journal Avvenire that a vote by MPs for gay adoptions would be a gravely immoral act. The Sunday Times also says taxpayers face losses on the bus service of €2m a month.
The Malta Independent on Sunday continues to follow up the Lampedusa tragedy, asking if Italy had let the migrant boat enter the Maltese Search and rescue boat to avoid responsibility even after the first SOS was issued.
Il-Mument says Franco Mercieca has been involved in another case of advertising of his medical services in breach of the Code of Ethics.
It-Torca says Justice Farrugia Sacco has been found prima facie guilty of misbehaviour by the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
Illum says there is disappointment within the PN that Norman Vella will be a candidate for the European Parliament.
KullHadd says the tall chimney on the Delimara power station will be removed.
The overseas press
EU commissioner for employment Laszlo Andor has told Germany’s Die Welt he sees no call for changes to the EU’s rules on immigration since complete freedom of movement was granted to citizens from Bulgaria and Romania at the start of the year.
A deep freeze is spreading across much of the United States, making the north easter that just blanketed about 20 states with snow look like a mere curtain raiser. CNN says nearly half the nation – 140 million people – have been shivering in temperatures of zero or lower since Wednesday and the arctic blast threatens to sweep subzero lows as far south as Alabama and plunge much of the Deep South into the single digits. Winter weather in the past week has claimed at least 13 lives, 11 of whom died in road accidents. More than 1,000 flights have been cancelled. Some states have pre-emptively cancelled Monday’s school to prevent children from being exposed to the dangerous arctic cold air.
Meanwhile, Euronews says further stormy weather is expected in many parts of Britain and France, bringing more misery to millions of households already hit by severe flooding, leaving thousands stranded in their own homes thousands without power and causing widespread damage. The severe weather has also affected Belgium, where some 500 rail passengers were forced to spend five hours stuck in their carriages as their train was blocked by a fallen tree. There has also been widespread damage which insurance cost assessors say could take weeks to estimate.
NBCN News reports the United States is sending a heavy icebreaker to help free a Russian ship and a Chinese icebreaker gripped by Antarctic ice. The Coast Guard said the Polar Star is responding to a request for assistance from Australian authorities as well as from the Russian and Chinese governments. The US ship, which is expected to arrive on the scene on January 12 and take two to three days to complete its mission,.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamist-leaning government is engulfed in a corruption scandal, has called the political crisis a “plot” against Turkey’s “future and stability” by rival forces. Hurriyet says Erdogan reiterated his view that forces in Turkey and abroad were conspiring to oust him from power. His conspiracy charges are in reaction to a vast corruption investigation that led to the arrests on December 17 of key allies including high-profile businessmen and the sons of former ministers. He expressed confidence that Turkey would overcome its current difficulties.
Dhakar News reports dozens of polling booths have been torched in Bangladesh on the eve of today’s general elections the opposition has condemned as "farcical." Some 150 people have so far died in violence related to the controversial polls. The elections have been boycotted by major opposition parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which called a 48-hour general strike after the government refused to accede to its demand to postpone the elections and install a neutral caretaker administration to oversee them.
Al Ayyam says the city centre of Iraq’s Fallujah has fallen completely into the hands of fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Levant. Observers note this is yet another victory for the hardline group that has made waves across the region in recent days. ISIL is also one of the strongest rebel units in Syria, where it has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in territories it holds and kidnapped and killed anyone it deems critical of its rule. Also on Saturday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon.
About 100 people returning from a visit to Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Rio de Janeiro’s Corcovado mountain were stranded for close to two hours when the train they were riding broke down. Savio Neves, president of the company that operates the train, told O Globo that the train stopped because of an unidentified mechanical failure. He said vans and a second train were used to bring the passengers and another 400 people stranded at the base of the statue to the train station in Rio’s Cosme Velho neighbourhood.
Police In England have launched an inquiry after a baby was born at a warehouse on New Year’s Day and then admitted to a neo-natal unit. Metro reports Derbyshire Police said the baby’s mother, who is believed to be of eastern European origin, was also taken to hospital for treatment. The infant, whose mother is aged in her 20s, is described as being in a serious but stable condition.
The Italian authorities have for the first time registered a cat as an illegal immigrant as their owners did not want to leave it behind when they embarked on their perilous journey to mainland Europe. Eugene Zumpano, commander of the vessel San Marco, told Ansa that during their last rescue of 823 migrants from five different boats they had on board “45 children, 23 women, and for the first time a cat”.
It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said.