The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas newspapers.
The Times of Malta reports that Enemalta staff were paid 41,200 to rig meters.
The Malta Independent reports how the head teacher of Cospicua primary briefly broke down in tears after criticism from parents.
In-Nazzjon says a person close to minister Konrad Mizzi is involved in the smart meters scandal.
l-orizzont focuses on how delays were caused in court proceedings to discourage a woman who was allegedly beaten and sexually abused by her partner.
The overseas press
Il Tempo reports Italian Premier Enrico Letta will formally present his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano after his own Democratic Party leader withdrew crucial government support accusing him of failing to make progress on key financial reforms. Letta was virtually forced to resign after Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi called a party leadership meeting to decide whether to withdraw support from the coalition, with members voting 136 in favour, 16 against and two abstained. Renzi, 39, could be asked to form a new government, but it would need to win a vote of confidence in both houses of Parliament.
Le Soir says Belgian MPs have voted overwhelmingly to extend the country’s euthanasia law to children under 18. The 86-44 vote in the House of Representatives, with 12 abstentions, followed approval by the Senate last December. The law empowers children with terminal ailments who are in great pain to request to be put to death if their parents agree and a psychiatrist or psychologist find they are conscious of what their choice signifies. The law was opposed by some Belgian paediatricians and the Catholic Church. Belgium’s euthanasia law, passed in 2002, previously applied only to legal adults.
The Syrian opposition will not meet in Geneva later today with the government delegation in view of the latter’s “non-constructive attitude”, Louai Safi, spokesman for the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCROF), told Itar-Tass. The United States and Russia have promised to try to break the deadlock, as Syrian activists said government shelling and airstrikes with makeshift barrel bombs killed about 400 people in the country’s largest city so far this month.
A survey commissioned by Deutsche Welle has found the majority of German citizens would vote for limiting immigration. The survey follows a decision in Switzerland to limit its annual immigration from the EU. If Germans were to vote in a referendum today, 48 percent would support the measure while almost as many (46 percent) would oppose it. Three percent of those surveyed were undecided.
As anti-government protesters downed tools and marched on Kyiv’s Independence Square on Thursday, an EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said financial aid was available for Ukraine but only if it reformed. According to Kyiv Post, the one-hour, nationwide strike was called by opposition leader and ex-boxing champion Vladimir Klitschko. Both he and President Viktor Yanukovych have met Fuele who has spent three days in Kyiv.
Sky News reports three more powerful storms are set to batter Britain and Ireland in the next seven days, heaping further misery on millions of people affected by the extreme weather. Wave after wave of low pressure systems building over the Atlantic will threaten coastal areas and flood-hit communities with yet more torrential rain, violent gales and heavy snow. The swollen River Thames is expected to reach its highest level for 60 years at the weekend.
A huge winter storm is bearing down on the densely populated US north-east, after wreaking havoc in the South, the Daily Star reports. Across the typically mild South, more than half a million homes and businesses lack power, and more than 3,300 US flights have been cancelled.
The mammoth storm has affected people in 22 states from Texas to Maine and caused at least 10 deaths. The most crowded swath of the US - between Washington DC and Boston - is bracing for up to 20cm of snow. The National Weather Service has said it was one of the worst storms to strike Atlanta, the largest city in the South, since 1973.
The Los Angeles Times says a record number of American women are “marrying down” – tying the knot with a husband who is less educated than they are. According to a new study by the Pew Research Centre, nearly 21 percent of married women in 2012 were better educated than their spouses – a threefold jump from 1960.
You don’t have to be just male or female on Facebook anymore. VOA News says the social media giant has added a customizable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them. Facebook said the changes initially cover the company’s 159 million monthly users in the US and are aimed at giving people more choices in how they describe themselves, such as androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid or transsexual.