The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta says the new Parliament’s chairs will cost taxpayers €370,000.
The Malta Independent says Joseph Muscat set out a vision for Malta as a land of opportunity. It also reports Simon Busuttil’s comments on the government failing to keep its meritocracy promises.
In-Nazzjon quotes Simon Busuttil saying the government is not doing enough to create investment and jobs.
l-orizzont says the 110 workers being dismissed from EuroPharm are to be given alternative jobs.
The overseas press
The European Commission has said it would assess EU ties with Switzerland after it voted to limit immigration from the European Union – by far, its biggest trading partner. Le Soir reports that statement after Swiss results said the EC would “examine the implications of this initiative on EU-Swiss relations as a whole”.
Al Arabiya says aid workers in Syria have evacuated more than 600 women, children and elderly men from the city of Homs. Mortar fire and shooting continued as the civilians boarded buses to leave the city. The Governor of Homs said the truce could now be extended for a further three days.
A global survey has found that most Roman Catholics disagree with Vatican teaching in key areas. The poll, commissioned by the US TV network Univision, Showed that 78 per cent disagreed with the ban on contraception.
USA Today says a company in California is withdrawing from the market nearly four million kilograms of meat distributed in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas because it was the product of sick animals, which did not pass federal inspection. The US Department of Agriculture said the meat was produced from Rancho Feeding Corp. Petaluma in the first week of January. According to authorities, it had to be withdrawn because it was not adequate for human consumption.
Journalists at France’s third-biggest national newspaper, Liberation, are reacting with fury at a surprise plan by the owners to try to turn around the struggling daily by transforming it into a “social network”. The owners also want to convert the multi-million-euro building currently rented by the newsroom in central Paris into an all-day cultural centre featuring a cafe, TV studio and business area to help start-ups. Outraged Liberation journalists vented their opposition to the plan on the cover of the weekend edition, which had the front-page headline: “We are a newspaper, not a restaurant, not a social network, not a cultural space, not a TV studio, not a bar, not a start-up incubator.”
AFP quotes American officials saying North Korea has cancelled a US envoy’s visit to discuss the fate of a Korean American imprisoned there, and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson offered to travel instead. No reason was given for Pyongyang’s decision to rescind Ambassador Robert King’s invitation. But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki stressed that North Korea had promised last year it would not use jailed Christian missionary Kenneth Bae as a “political bargaining chip”.
Le Confident reports a weekend of violence and looting in the Central African capital has left at least 11 people dead, including two Muslims who were gruesomely lynched and a lawmaker gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Jean-Emmanuel Ndjaroua, representative of the southeast region of Haute Kotto, had condemned violence against the Muslim residents of his district in front of the interim parliament on Saturday.
ABC says Australian astronomers have found a star 13.6 billion years old, making it the most ancient star ever seen. The star was formed just a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang that brought the Universe into being, they believe. Previous contenders for the title of oldest star are around 13.2 billion years old -- two objects described by European and US teams respectively in 2007 and 2013.
Adnkronos says there was an increase last year of over 23.4 per cent in inter-neighbour squabbles in Italian condos because of animals. According to Aida, some 30,000 people ended in court mainly because of the barking of dogs. Among the strangest cases: the escape of domesticated mice. Milan was the city where most cases were reported with Rome, Naples and Palermo following suit.