The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says EasyJet will service all its aircraft in Malta following an agreement with SR Technics to set up an aircraft maintenance base in Malta. It also reports that it is still not clear where flyash from the power extension will be disposed of. It also reports a meeting between Social Policy Minister John Dalli and EU Commisison president Juan Barroso yesterday. Mr Dalli is currently considering an offer to become European Commissioner.
The Malta Independent leads with the investment by SR Technics and the trial of former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo.
MaltaToday says no decision has been taken yet on whether John Dalli will become an EU CommissionIt also reports that Malta has gone down several places in Corruption Perceptions Index.
In-Nazzjon says that 350 jobs will be created after an agreement with ST Technics to set up an aircraft maintenance base. The newspaper also reports Chief Justice Noel Arrigo saying he had made mistakes, but acted according to law.
l-orizzont says state aid to families is among the lowest in the EU, according to an EU report.
The Press in Britain...
The Independent quotes scientists saying that there has been a fast rise in carbon emissions leading them to believe in worst case predictions for climate change are coming true.
The Guardian claims Tory Peers are ready to block most of the Government's bills in the Queens Speech.
The Queen's speech is also the lead in The Daily Telegraph which says teachers fear new education plans will lead to a "whingers' charter".
The Financial Times says Gordon Brown is putting fiscal discipline at the heart of the Queens Speech - forcing ministers to accept budget cuts.
The Times reports Marylebone Cricket Club is considering selling the rights to Lord's as part of a £400m redevelopment.
The Daily Mail says eight in 10 ten savings accounts are paying such a low rate of interest that customers are effectively losing money.
The Daily Express says there's outrage the Prime Minister of Belgium - a euro fanatic - could be appointed President of Europe.
The Daily Mirror leads with the brutal attack on a mother of two whose hand was cut off just yards from her childminder's front door.
The Sun says the son of Britain's biggest lottery winner is off to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Model Jordan has told The Star she's only returned to the jungle to win back her ex-husband Peter Andre.
Metro leads with the case of a man who claims he killed his wife while dreaming that she was an intruder in their camper van,
And elsewhere...
EU Observer says that the European Union has rejected a request from the Palestinian Authority that it back plans to unilaterally declare the occupied territories an independent state. It quotes a senior Palestinian official saying the independence move, which would entail an attempt to win recognition by the UN Security Council, could come within weeks.
The International Herald Tribune reports that the US and the UN have criticised Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem on land captured in 1967 and later annexed to the Jerusalem municipality. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the move would hamper Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Le Monde says at least 23 members of a gang suspected of bringing more than 2,000 illegal immigrants into Europe have been arrested in a series of raids across Europe - 13 in France, five in the UK, two in the Netherlands, two in Greece and one in Italy. Most of those allegedly trafficked are Iraqis and Afghans.
The Wall Street Journal leads with Barack Obama's first trip to China and the agreement reached with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to cooperate on a number of global problems heralding a possible new era in Sino-American relations. Climate change is a key issue. Others include trade and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. However, friction remains between the two countries over human rights, the Dalai Lama and economic policy.
Iran's state-owned IRIB broadcaster has announced five people have been sentenced to death and 81 others to prison terms of up to 15 years in a mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the unrest that followed June's disputed presidential election. A statement from the justice department said the five sentenced to death were members of "terrorist and armed opposition groups".
Sydney Morning Herald says parts of South Australia are on "red alert" for bushfires as abnormally high November temperatures, forecast to top 40°C in some places, grip the state. This is the first time the new "catastrophic" bushfire danger rating warning system has been activated after the heat-wave has lasted more than a week. Last February, 173 people were killed in a series of blazes in Victoria.
El Pais quotes the Spanish Prime Minister announcing on TV that all 36 crew members of a Basque-owned fishing boat, hijacked by Somali pirates, have been freed. The owners of the trawler Alakrana are reported to have agreed to pay a ransom of nearly €3 million. The hijackers are also demanding two pirates being held in Madrid are set free.
Blesk reports tens of thousands of Czechs and Slovaks have taken to the streets of Prague to re-enact a mass demonstration 20 years ago that led to the end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. The mass demonstration in 1989 took place a week after the fall of the Berlin Wall inspiring people to persevere with their protests against the totalitarian regime.
Afghan Observer quotes a survey by British aid agency Oxfam showing that poverty and unemployment are overwhelmingly seen as the main reasons behind conflict in Afghanistan. Taliban violence was seen as less important than government weakness and corruption.
Irriwady says at least 50 people are believed to have drowned in Myanmar when a wooden ferry packed with 178 people collided with a tugboat on a river in the southern Irrawaddy delta region of Burma.
Carolina Post reports that a missing five-year-old girl, whose mother was accused of offering her for sex, was found dead near a heavily wooded road ,, ending a week-long search. Weeping searchers found Shaniya Davis' body near Sanford. Two people have been charged over her disappearance, one of them her 25-year-old mother Antoinette.
Le Parisien says 1,200 bits and pieces from the plush homes of late fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge have gone under the hammer in a Paris. The auction, which attracted hundreds of dealers as well as seekers of YSL memorabilia, was expected to raise between €3 million and €4 million, with proceeds going to campaigns against HIV-AIDS.