The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
Times of Malta leads with comments by Bishop Scicluna that the Church doesn't have to take a central role because it can shed a light on society from any position.
The Malta Independent says rampant dumping is taking place in the former Flower Power site between Attard and Mosta.
In-Nazzjon leads with eyewitness accounts of how police manhandled a man who took a picture of a uniformed police sergeant in a gentleman's club.
l-orizzont says the police are searching for a woman thought to have caused a bomb hoax which stopped the Gozo Channel service on Saturday evening. She was seen on CCTV using a public phone in San Gwann.
The overseas press
Ansa quotes the Italian navy saying more than 190 passengers have been rescued from the burning Italian ferry, the Norman Atlantic, adrift in the Adriatic Sea. Greek and Italian rescue teams have been battling gale-force winds and massive waves in the dark, trying to save 285 people still trapped on board on the stricken vessel. A Greek man was killed after he fell as he and his wife were trying to abandon ship.
Meanwhile, AGI says two seamen have died, five others were injured and four are still missing after a Turkish-registered merchant ship sank yesterday following a collision with another vessel in rough seas two kilometres off the port of Ravenna on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Investigators are still trying to find out what led to the collision.
Metro TV announces that the search for the missing AirAsia passenger jet that disappeared more than 24 hours ago on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore, has resumed. Five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were taking part, along with ships and planes from Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. Associated Press reports visibility for the search is good.
The Islamic State militant group has shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death nearly 2,000 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organisation said yesterday. The Guardian says they also killed 120 of their own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the past two months. It also beheaded two US journalists, and one American and two British aid workers.
Bloomberg says Libyan storage tanks capable of storing 6.2 million barrels of oil, or four times the country’s daily oil production capacity, are at risk of catching fire with southerly winds threatening to spread the blaze. Five tanks are on fire at the Es Sider port, Libya’s largest oil terminal.
New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has described as “very inappropriate” the silent protest by scores of his officers who turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke during a funeral service on Saturday for a fellow officer killed in the line of duty. The New York Times quotes Bratton saying he did not support the actions of the officers who had gathered to mourn Officer Rafael Ramos, who was shot and killed along with Officer Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn on December 20.
Gloobus reports Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and opponent Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will face each other in a run-off election on January 11 for a five-year term after no one won the first round outright. Preliminary results show Josipovic at 38.9 per cent and Kitarovic at 38.1 per cent – a difference of less than one percentage point.
Sony says its PlayStation Network is back online after three days of disruptions that began on Christmas day. However, Bloomberg quotes the company warning heavy traffic might continue to cause problems for customers seeking to play their favourite games.
Somalia has rejected a Kenyan request to hand over detained Al-Shabaab top leader Zakariya Hersi. El Wak District Commissioner Ibrahim Adan told Anadolu news agency Kenya army officers went to El Wak and asked the Somali army to hand over the Al-Shabaab commander for interrogation. The Somali army declined the request.
Fox News says President Obama has welcomed the end of the international combat mission against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He said that over the last 13 years, US forces had made “extraordinary sacrifices”, adding that the longest war in American history was coming to a “responsible conclusion.
According to Haaretz, Hamas has stopped a group of children from Gaza, many of whom lost parents in the recent war between Hamas and Israel, from making a visit to Israel. Its organiser said the visit was aimed at reconciliation. Al Ayyam quotes a Hamas spokesman saying the visit was stopped in order to preserve the culture and traditions of the Gazan people.
The Wall Street Journal reveals emerging new embarrassing details on Nsagate: the electronic espionage agency used the tools at their disposal not only to intercept enemies or heads of state of friendly countries but even privately to spy on their wives and girlfriends. New documents show that in 2009, an army sergeant was demoted after using the NSA facilities to intercept his wife’s phone calls.
Two alleged victims of a registered sex offender have filed a lawsuit seeking damages “for pain and suffering” after the man won $3 million in a Florida Lottery jackpot. Timothy Poole purchased the winning ticket earlier this month and took a lump sum payment of about $2.2 million. Poole was accused of sexually battering a nine-year-old boy in 1999. Poole denied the allegations but pleaded guilty to attempted sexual battery and was sentenced to time served. His probation was revoked in 2003 after he failed to show up for counselling. The lawsuit was filed by two brothers, who were aged 9 and 5 when Poole was arrested.
The BBC announces the death of British actor David Ryall, known for his role as Elphias Doge in “Harry Pottter and the Deathly Hallows”. Ryall, 79, had a career that lasted more than 50 years, appearing in films like “The Elephant Man” and television series such as “The Village” and “Outnumbered”.