The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports that Malta and Brussels will hold talks on citizenship.
In-Nazzjon and the Malta Independent report how a Chinese billionaire who, according to the Sunday Times of Malta, is interested in acquiring Maltese citizenship, panicked when he saw cameras at the airport yesterday.
l-orizzont says former Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve, a Canadian, is interested in acquiring Maltese citizenship. It also reports how investigators found that the bendy buses had all been at risk of catching fire.
The overseas press
Tribune de Genève reports a last-minute UN invitation for Iran to join this week's Syria peace talks threw the long-awaited Geneva conference into doubt, forcing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to rescind his offer under intense US pressure after the opposition threatened to boycott the talks.
According to Teheran’s Press TV, Iran has stopped production of 20 percent enriched uranium, marking the entry into force of an interim deal with world powers on its disputed nuclear programme.
Bloomberg says the global chemical arms watchdog said Monday it had received 14 tenders from private companies around the world to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal outside of the war-ravaged country. AFP quotes the Organsiation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) saying it would decide early next month which companies would destroy the 500 metric tonnes of chemicals, plus the effluent left over from neutralisation of other chemicals to be carried out on a US ship.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych said that the clashes between the police and the anti-government demonstrators in Kiev were a threat for the entire country. Obozrevatel repors that in an address to the Ukrainian nation, he said that when peaceful demonstrations escalate to mass disorder, these were a threat not only for the society in Kiev but also for the entire Ukraine. His speech came after demonstrators in Kiev ripped up cobble stones and used them as weapons in their standoff with police. The clashes of the last two days have devastated a central area of the city.
Los Angeles Times quotes an Oxfam report saying the 85 richest people on Earth now have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the global population. As business and political leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum, new evidence emerged about how much the rich have become richer – and how much further the poor are falling behind. The bottom half of the population, about 3.5 billion people, account for about $1.7 trillion, or about 0.7 per cent of the world's wealth – the same amount of wealth attributed to the world's 85 richest people.
Le Parisien reports French soccer internationals Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema have gone on trial in Paris on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute – Algerian-born Zahia Dehar. The alleged incidents took place in 2008 and 2009. Paying for sex with a anyone under 18 is an offense punishable in France with up to three years in prison and a fine of €45,000 euros.
AP says a woman whose childhood rapes by her uncle were captured on camera and widely traded on the Internet wants the US Supreme Court to make it easier for victims of child pornography to collect money from people who view the brutal images on their computers. The case being argued tomorrow involves a Texas man who pleaded guilty to having images of children engaged in sex acts on his computer. Doyle Randall Paroline is appealing an order holding him responsible for the full amount of losses, nearly $3.4 million, suffered by the woman known as Amy. Of the several hundred incriminating images on Paroline's computer, just two were of Amy.
Ansa announces the death of Italian conductor, virtuoso pianist and life senator Claudio Abbado. He was 80. He had been been ill for several years. Abbado served as music director of La Scala in Milan for nearly two decades, was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1989 to 2002. In December, he decided to donate his stipend as life senator to fund music scolarships at the Fiesole School of Music outside Florence.
RIA Novosti reports Russia's counter-terrorism agency says it’s studying a video posted by an Islamic militant group that asserted responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 34 people last month and is threatening to strike the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Security experts say the Russians are right in taking the threat seriously. The video casts an ominous shadow over the Games which start on February 7 amid unprecedented security measures.