The following are the top stories in the local and international press today.
The Sunday Times reports that the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations has threatened to resign if he is undermined. It says that new water and electricity rates may put the future of ST Microelectronics in danger and reports that the financial package of MEPs is expected to increase by €21,000.
The Malta Independent on Sunday says that declassified British documents shed new light on Anglo-Maltese relations in 1979. It says that this is a month of tough decisions for the Prime Minister.
Malta Today says that the driver of a parliamentary secretary is to be charged with creating a mock-up vandalism attack on the parliamentary secretary’s car. It says that the drainage tax has returned to the scene.
Il-Mument leads with a story saying that an architecture review is giving big publicity to Renzo Piano’s plans for Valletta. In another story it says that the first Smart City partners are to move to the site this year and plans for the building of the largest block have been submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. It says that pantomimes have attracted more than 47,000 people.
It-Torca has a story of Fr Saviour Grima, the parish priest of St Augustine’s Parish in Valletta, who has been awarded personality of the year 2009. In another story it says that the government is indicating that the health service is to start being given against payment.
Illum takes a look at hardships expected this year and gives advice on how best to face the challenges ahead.
The international press:
Jylland Posten reports that a Somali man has appeared in court in Denmark charged with attempting to murder the artist whose cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad outraged the Muslim world three years ago. The 28-year-old man with suspected links to al Qaida, was ushered into court on a stretcher and was remanded in custody for four weeks. The cartoonist – 74-year-old Kurt Westergaard – was moved to an undisclosed location for his own protection.
Iran's state television quotes foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying Iran had given the West a one-month "ultimatum" to accept a uranium swap, warning that it would produce its own nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor if there was no deal. He said the international community had just one month left to decide whether or not it will accept Iran's conditions.
Al Jazeera says hundreds of Israelis have rallied in central Tel Aviv to protest against the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israeli Arab and Jewish activists marched in Rabin square, demanding Israel end the blockade, deeming its continuation a "war crime". Hundreds of international protesters held a similar demonstration on Thursday on both sides of an Israeli border crossing to the Palestinian territory. The events coincide with the one-year anniversary of Israel's 22-day war on Gaza which left about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Isrealis dead.
O Globo reports firefighters using heavy machinery, shovels and bare hands dug for survivors in south-eastern Brazil but only found bodies under a mountain of red earth and crushed lodgings – the worst of a spate of mudslides and floods which have killed at least 64 people. Officials said no foreigners were known to be among the dead and there were few details about those who died.
The Sunday Telegraph says Conservative leader David Cameron has fired the first salvo in the British general election campaign, insisting he was the man to lead Britain to a brighter future. He called for voters to make 2010 a “year of change”, pledging that a Tory government would unify the country and get the economy back on track. The Conservative leader also said opposition leaders would be invited to join a war cabinet on Afghanistan.
Afghan Times reports that the counry’s parliament has rejected 70 per cent of President Hamid Karzai’s nominees for a new Cabinet. The vote, in which 17 of 24 nominees were turned down, presents Mr Karzai with a severe challenge as he tries to get his second term in office into full swing. He has said he will propose new nominees for the unfilled positions.
Dawn quotes tribal elders in a Pakistani village where a suicide car bomber killed nearly 100 people insisting residents would keep defying the Taliban. The police believe the attacker meant to detonate his 250 kilograms of explosives at a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Taliban militia. Instead, the blast went off at a nearby outdoor volleyball court, killing at least 96 people.
The Irish Times says an atheist group in the Irish Republic has defied a new blasphemy law by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations on its website. According to the government, the new law which makes blasphemy a crime punishable by a fine of up to €25,000, was needed because the republic's 1937 constitution only gave Christians legal protection of their beliefs. The new law was passed in July 2009 but came into force on Friday.
La Provence reports about 30 artworks, including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, have been stolen from the home of a private collector in Provence. French police said the theft was carried out while the owner was on holiday abroad. The value of the missing pictures was still unclear.
Asia Times says a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth $3.2 million (€2.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. Last February, $540,000 (€377,000) worth of jewelry were stolen from another Ginza store through a hole in a concrete wall. Police said it was not clear whether the two thefts were linked.
Louisiana Weekly reports that a New Orleans man is in jail after being caught using credit cards fraudulently registered in the names of dead children. Career con man Charles Wegmann III, 41, was busted after a crowd of law enforcement officers tracked him to JFK. The son of a retired New Orleans police lieutenant, he has a rap sheet riddled with forgeries and thefts in Louisiana and New York. His latest crimes alone netted him $100,000 (€70,000).
Tampa Tribune says a pair of identical twin boys will get to celebrate their birthdays individually after they were born in separate decades. Margarita Velasco delivered the twins by caesarean section at Tampa General Hospital. Marcello was delivered just before midnight. His twin, Stephano, was delivered just as the new year began. The twins are in intensive care because they were born about 10 weeks early. Doctors say they will go home in about eight weeks.