The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta says patients are footing the bill for a third of health costs.
The Malta Independent quotes an international magazine to say that LNG tankers and atomic bombs are 'incomparable'. The comparison had been made by an engineer from Birzebbuga.
In-Nazzjon says the government is continuing to delay the Farrugia Sacco impeachment case.
l-orizzont says Pietru Cassar, gunned down in Zejtun last week, may have been waiting for somebody.
The overseas press
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich will hold another round of talks with opposition leaders later today following yesterday’s agreement on truce and the start of negotiations. Kyiv Post reports Yanukovich’s statement was issued on the eve of a visit to Kiev by the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France, before an EU meeting in Brussels to decide whether to impose sanctions against Ukraine.
The Washington Post says the US Homeland Security Department has warned airlines that terrorists could try to hide explosives in shoes. It’s the second time in less than three weeks that the US government has issued a warning about possible attempts to smuggle explosives on a commercial jetliner.
Globovision announces a local beauty queen has died of a gunshot wound, becoming the fifth fatality from Venezuela’s political unrest, as imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of the socialist government. College student and model Genesis Carmona, 22, was shot in the head at a protest on Tuesday. She died later in a clinic.
Los Angeles Times reports the United States’ largest Roman Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay $720 million to clergy abuse victims over the past decade and released internal files that showed Cardinal Roger Mahony shielded priests and ordered a surrogate to withhold evidence from police.
AP quotes a senior Taliban official saying Washington has held indirect talks with the Taliban over the possible transfer of five senior Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for an American soldier captured nearly five years ago. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage seen as “proof of life” demanded by the United States. Bergdahl is believed to be held in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
University researchers are working on a system that could quash rumours spreading on social media by identifying whether information is accurate. AFP reports five European universities, led by Sheffield in northern England, are cooperating on a system that could automatically identify whether a rumour originates from a reliable source and can be verified. The system would allow governments, emergency services, media and the private sector to respond more effectively to claims emerging and spreading on social media before they get out of hand.
According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, new anti-smoking laws in China could save 13 million lives by 2050 The study, by the Georgetown University Medical Centre, concludes that if China took part in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control it could avoid a serious health situation that could result in more than 50 million deaths linked to smoking tobacco.
The San Francisco Chronicle says best-selling author James Patterson is giving away $1 million of his own money to independent bookstores. Patterson’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, released a statement saying the author feels that bookstores are vital to communities and that they leave a lasting love of reading in children and adults. Patterson’s books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, making him among the world’s most prolific and popular writers.
Metro says a man and woman who became embroiled in years of legal action over their children following a split have reached a consensus after a British High Court judge suggested they should “sit down around the kitchen table” and have a cup of tea together.
Euronews quotes Pollwatch survey showing Europe’s socialists would beat the centre-right conservatives by 20 seats at the next European Parliament elections May. Its last such opinion poll five years ago had an accuracy rate of 90 percent.