The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how a man yesterday admitted in court to fatally shooting the partner of his former wife, although he said it was not his intention to do so.
The Malta Independent says a shortage of nurses is leading to suicidal patients being left unattended at Mt Carmel Hospital.
l-orizzont focuses on the state of abandon in a large government warehouse of medicine products in 2008.
In-Nazzjon says retail trade in Malta saw the sharpest drop in the EU.
The overseas press
The New York Times reports the United Nations is preparing to assist 10,000 refugees from South Sudan in Darfur. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 120,000 people have been displaced by the conflict that started on December 15 in South Sudan. Since 2003, there has been an armed uprising in Darfur against the Sudanese government dominated by Arabs, in which at least 300,000 people have died.
Meanwhile, the BBC says UNICEF has warned that the Central African Republic is heading for a humanitarian disaster following last year’s coup. Severely overcrowded camps and poor water and sanitation added up to a deadly combination or children.
Canada has announced the first H5N1 avian flu death in North America, in the western plains province of Alberta, of a patient who had just returned from China. It was also the first known instance of someone in North America contracting the illness. Toronto Star quotes Health Minister Rona Ambrose stressing it was an “isolated case”.
Meanwhile, the first H7N9 death of the year has been reported in China by the Xinhua news agency, quoting health authorities in the province of Guangdong. The virus reappeared in December after a number of months during which it appeared to be dormant. Since the beginning of the epidemic in February last year, WHO has confirmed 136 cases and 45 deaths.
L’Echo says more than 1.8 million job vacancies were registered in the EU in the first seven days of January. The European Employment Service (EURES) reported there were over 32,500 companies and employers in search of employees in the EU. Most vacant jobs were registered in the UK. On the other hand, the greatest number of unemployed people in search of a job was registered in Spain (318,000), followed by Italy, Portugal, and Romania.
Kathimerini reports several hundred Greek leftists defied a protest ban and scuffled with police in Athens late on Wednesday as Greece was ceremonially inaugurated as the EU's presiding nation for six months. Police, who had shut down roads and railway stations for 18 hours in central Athens, dispersed the protestors with tear gas. No arrests or injuries were reported. Greece's role as president requires it to help organise the European Parliament elections next May.
Deutsche Welle quotes Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman saying she had accepted an invitation from President Obama to visit Washington as he was briefed on Wednesday by privacy advocates on ways to reform US surveillance operations. White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to elaborate on whether the issue of eavesdropping had been discussed when Obama phoned Merkel on Wednesday. An exact date has not been announced.
Sky News reports angry scenes outside a London court after an inquest jury concluded that Mark Duggan was lawfully killed by police. Jurors at a London inquest found on Wednesday that a police marksman truly believed Duggan was armed with a handgun and said it was likely he had thrown the weapon over a fence seconds before being confronted. The jury's 8-2 majority decision prompted outrage from Duggan's family and supporters outside London's Royal Courts of Justice. Duggan, a father of six then aged 29, was shot dead on August 4, 2011, as he emerged from a taxi when intercepted by police in the north London neighborhood of Tottenham.
Kolner Stadt Anzeiger says an 88-year-old former SS soldier has been charged in Germany over the Second World War massacre of an entire French village in which 642 men, women and children were slaughtered. The man, who has not been named, faces 25 counts of murder. Prosecutors say he shot 25 men as part of a firing squad, and then helped as troops blockaded and then set fire to a church, in which dozens of women and children were burned alive. The suspect’s lawyer said he did not deny being at the village but said he never fired a shot that day and was not otherwise involved in any killings
Ansa reports Pope Francis has broken with papal protocol once again, inviting a friend for a ride in his popemobile. Fabian Baez, a priest from Francis’ hometown in Buenos Aires, did not have a VIP ticket for the pope’s weekly general audience. But as soon as Francis saw him in the crowd, the pope signalled for the Vatican guards to help him jump the barricade and approach.
Metro states the space adventure in 3D “Gravity” dominates the nominations for British Academy Film Awards. The film, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, got 11 nominations, including one for best picture, actress and director (Alfonso Cuaron), with “12 Years a Slave” and “American Hustle” close on its heels. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London on February 16.