The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how the wife of the man murdered in Marsa earlier this week heard his last breaths. She recounts the scene. The newspaper also reports about a discrepancy in the Maltese and language versions of the legal notice on citizenship.
The Malta Independent says the Mayor of Mosta is calling for the release of footage showing the Mosta cat killer.
In-Nazzjon says the discrepancy in the citizenship legal notice makes this a comedy of errors.
l-orizzont says it is legally impossible for the government to amend the legal notice on citizenship in the way the PN wants it to.
The overseas press
European lawmakers have called for targeted EU sanctions against the Ukraine government and those implicated in violence against pro-EU demonstrators. AFP reports a non-binding resolution said the EU and member states should consider travel bans and asset freezes on those personally responsible for the attacks on and deaths of protesters. MEPs said they also wanted the EU to provide financial support for Ukraine. EU foreign ministers will discuss Ukraine at a meeting on Monday.
USA Today says two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was secure and private, were caught disparaging the European Union in a phone call that was apparently bugged – and US officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation. The suspicions were aired after audio of the call was posted to the Internet and amid continuing criticism of the United States in Europe and elsewhere over NSA spying on foreign leaders. They also came as the Russia-hosted Winter Olympics open under tight security to prevent possible terrorist attacks and highlighted distrust between Washington and Moscow that has thrived despite the Obama administration's attempt to “reset” relations with the Kremlin.
Russia officially opens its first ever Winter Olympics later today with a lavish ceremony attended by dozens of heads of state and aimed at impressing a sceptical world with an unforgettable spectacle. Voice of Russia says the ceremony starts with symbolic timing – at 2014 local time (5.14 Malta Time) – in the spectacular new Fisht Stadium on the shores of the Black Sea. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spearheaded the Sochi Games from the bid in 2007, will be at the ceremony together with 66 world leaders including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In total around 3,000 athletes, a record for the Winter Olympics, have gathered in Sochi to take part in 98 events.
According to Adevarul, Romanian Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu announced his resignation on Thursday after anti-corruption officials launched a probe against his wife for suspected graft. Denying his resignation had anything to do with the scandal, Chitoiu said he resigned to focus more on activities in the National Liberal Party in preparation the European and presidential election. Chitoiu was also a deputy prime minister in the centre-left governing coalition.
Al Bawaba says a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a Syrian prison and rebels stormed in behind him, freeing hundreds of inmates as part of an offensive aimed at capturing key government symbols around the northern city of Aleppo. Government forces, meanwhile, dropped crude “barrel bombs” in deadly airstrikes as both sides escalated their fight for the strategic city ahead of a second round of peace talks set for next week. Opposition leaders threatened to suspend the talks over the barrel bombings.
According to Greek Reporter, police have arrested a 48-year-old Bulgarian national in Larissa – accused of baby trafficking – after the Bulgarian authorities issued the European Arrest Warrant. Last week, Greek police arrested five Bulgarians and two Greeks in an ongoing large-scale operation which targeted a baby trafficking ring. One of the two Greeks is a well-known lawyer. Police officers infiltrated the crime ring by pretending to be clients that want to adopt an infant.
ABC News says a generation after the death of Martin Luther King, his children are fighting among themselves again – this time over two of their father's most cherished possessions: his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Bible he carried. The civil rights leader's daughter Bernice King has both items, and her brothers, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III, asked a judge last week to order her to turn them over. She said her brothers want to sell them.
The Lancet reports that thanks to an episode in “House”, doctors at a German clinic were able to save a 55-year-old man who was in a serious and baffling decline. The patient had been referred to Marburg's Centre for Undiagnosed Diseases in May 2012. Poring over his medical history, the team found a past that was uneventful... apart from a double hip replacement. They pounced on this detail. Recalling an episode from the seventh season of “House”, the team began to suspect cobalt poisoning, probably from a worn hip implant. Scans and blood tests confirmed the suspicion and the patient soon had his metal prosthesis replaced by a ceramic one.