The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times of Malta reports how the European Union is seeking legal advice on citizenship sales after yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament. The Malta Independent also says proceedings may be possible.
In-Nazzjon reports how social partners have urged the government to stop, reflect, and not to persist on the citizenship scheme.
l-orizzont leads with a tribute to a young teacher killed in a traffic accident on Wednesday. It also reports how S&P retained maintained Malta’s credit ratings.
The overseas press
A document obtained by the Associated Press shows that in his last two years as pope, Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests for raping and molesting children. The document, prepared from data the Vatican had been collecting to help the Holy See defend itself before a UN committee in Geneva, shows 260 priests were defrocked in 2011 and 124 in 2012, a total of 384. This represented a dramatic increase over the 171 priests defrocked in 2008 and 2009.
The Washington Times says President Barack Obama has laid out a series of reforms to US spying programmes. In addition to changing parts of its bulk data collection practices, Washington will no longer spy on some foreign leaders. Obama’s highly anticipated speech, after months of revelations about US spying by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden, said intelligence officials have not intentionally abused the programme to invade privacy.
Haaretz reports Israel has summoned the ambassadors from four EU countries – Britain, France, Italy and Spain – to protest what it described as their “one-sided” stand in favour of Palestinians. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stressed their stance was unacceptable. The move came a day after the governments of the same four EU member states had called in their respective Israeli ambassadors to protest the country's latest announcement regarding settlement construction.
Syria's fractured opposition pushed back the opening of talks in Istanbul to Saturday amid continuing differences over whether to attend peace talks with the government next week. AFP says the talks of the opposition National Coalition had originally been due to get underway on Friday but were postponed due to problems posed by some 40 delegates, who threatened to resign because of “lack of transparency” in the re-election this month of Ahmad Jarba, seen as close to key rebel backer Saudi Arabia, as National Coalition leader.
According to European Voice, the EU has criticised the Ukraine over laws that could stifle freedom of speech and assembly. Late Friday, President Viktor Yanukovych signed the Bills into law. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said they Bills restrict fundamental rights, curtail civil society organizations and run contrary to international obligations. The ruling party passed the Bill with 235 ayes in the 450-seat chamber, taking the vote by a show of hands rather than the electronic system normally used. The controversial vote led to fistfights in the parliament.
RT reports the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe expressed outrage at the “cruel and inhuman” execution of a convicted killer in Ohio with an untested drug that lasted an unusually long time, calling on Americans to protest against “such atrocities”. Denis McGuire, 53, spent the last 15 minutes of his life gasping for breath on Thursday while being executed with an “experimental” drug cocktail. The execution that lasted 25 minutes from the lethal ejection to the pronouncement of his death has been described as one of the longest since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.
Hurriyet says the Council of Europe has warned that Turkish moves to “politicise” the judiciary would weaken trust in the entire state and jeopardise democracy in the aspiring EU member state. The comments by Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, come amid a new purge of top prosecutors and a government push to tighten its grip on Turkey's top judicial body.
The Scotsman reports a body has been found in Fife shortly before midnight and a person detained in connection with the disappearance of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular. Mikaeel disappeared after he was put to bed by his mother at their home in Ferry Gait Crescent at 9pm on Wednesday. Hundreds of volunteers from the local community joined emergency services in the search for the missing boy.
Russia Today says President Putin has said gays should feel welcome at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but they must “leave the children in peace”. He vowed that there would be no discrimination at the games but he emphasised that, according to a law banning homosexual “propaganda” among minors, gays cannot express their views on gay rights issues to anyone under age.
O Globo reports the iconic statue of Jesus overlooking Rio de Janeiro, one of the city's most recognisable landmarks, has lost a thumb tip to lightening. Brazil's national space institute INPE counted more than 40,000 lighting flashes during the three-hour storm which felled dozens of trees and flooded streets. Winds gusting at 87 kilometres per hour forced one of Rio's airports to close and brought a halt to boat trips across the city's Guanabara Bay.
Ansa says a 32-year-old nun gave birth late Tuesday to a baby boy at a hospital in Rieti, central Italy on Friday. The sister, originally from El Salvador, was taken to the emergency ward of the hospital after strong pain she felt in her abdomen. The baby weighed three and a half kilograms. The nun, who told hospital staff she was not aware of being pregnant, has named the baby Francis and plans to keep the baby.