The following are the top stories in the local and overseas press:
The Times leads with the public transport strike, saying disruptions are expected as public transport workers hold protests. It also features the news that a Maltese fishing boat has been missing for several days.
The Malta Independent leads with the summit in Paris, which launched the Mediterranean Union and also reports about the missing fishing boat. It also reports how MLP leader Joseph Muscat urged the Transport Federation to call off its strke.
In-Nazzjon gives most importance to the creation of the Mediterranean Union and also reports how an emergency transport service has been laid out for health workers.
L-Orizzont says fishermen onboard a missing fishing boat last contacted their relatives last Wednesday to say that the weather was fine.
The press in Britain
The Independent reports that the cases of 14 brain surgery patients, who were the victims of catastrophic errors when neurosurgeons operated on the wrong side of the head, are to spearhead a government drive for safer operations.
Metro leads on knife crime and also features a picture of troubled singer Amy Winehouse performing at T in the Park.
The Daily Mail says that, on his first day in the post, Police Chief Alf Hitchcock unveiled a blueprint that would send jobless teenagers on national service. The non- military programme could include helping vulnerable people and overseas aid work.
The Daily Telegraph continues that Gordon Brown's promised "shock tactics" to combat knife crime unravelled as the families of stab victims and politicians branded them "half-baked" and "not tough enough".
The Guardian adds the government's drive to curb street gangs and knives has also been challenged by research suggesting official tactics are fundamentally misinformed, frequently failing and sometimes actively strengthen the groups they target.
The Times quotes the head of a new equalities watchdog insisting the radical extension of maternity leave and parents' rights is sabotaging women's careers.
The Daily Mirror says inflation is running at 18 per cent - five times the government's figure – with food having gone up by 14 per cent and fuel by 30 per cent.
The Daily Express says ministers have been accused of forcing the end of weekly rubbish bin collections in the face of public uproar.
And elsewhere…
The International Herald Tribune leads with the launch of the 43-nation Union for the Mediterranean. French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the Mediterranean Sea to make peace, saying the European and the Mediterranean dreams were inseparable. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who will co-chair the new organisation with President Sarkozy, also used the summit to urge Israeli and Palestinian leaders to reach a final peace deal.
The Daily Afghanistan says nine United States (US) soldiers have been killed in an attack on a remote base in the Kunar region. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the worst attack on US troops since 2005. In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up next to a police patrol killing 24 people, including 19 civilians.
The Sydney Morning Herald dedicates its front page to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI on a nine-day trip, highlighted by World Youth Day, a nearly week-long festival that attracts young people from around the globe. As the issue of sexual abuse by the clergy in Australia made the headlines again after a new case came to light, the Pope said on an in-flight news conference he would apologise for the Church for the past crimes of the clergy.
The Teheran Times says Iran is exploring a newly-discovered oil field believed to contain more than one billion barrels of crude oil. The report says the oil field is located near Andimeshk, in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, some 450 kilometres southwest of Tehran.
Khartoum’s Al-Rayaam reports that 23 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 36 injured in a stampede at a national service graduation ceremony. The ceremony was held in a football stadium in the city of Omdurman.
Polska Gazeta reports that MEP Bronislaw Geremek, 76, who was a key figure in the Solidarity trade union, was killed when his car hit a van. He became Polish Foreign Minister after the end of communism