The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press today.
The Times quotes the prime minister saying that controversial primary healthcare proposals will be changed. In other comments, the prime minister also said that Malta is expected to emerge from recession by June. In another story, it features a deep quarry dug right alongside a school in Mqabba and says damage was caused to a boundary wall when part of the quarry wall collapsed.
The Malta Independent highlights the press conference by the Prime Minister yesterday during which he reviewed the government's performance over the past year. It also says that Germany will not be giving financial aid to Greece to help it get over its financial crisis, and none was requested.
In-Nazzjon says the government's focus over the past year was investment in the workforce. It also reports that the oil price has topped $81, the highest in seven weeks.
l-orizzont reports that a Libyan resident in Malta has been found trying to export 136 birds. It also expresses concern over figures showing that 16 per cent of women in Malta are at risk of poverty.
The overseas press:
The Jerusalem Post reports that at least five Palestinians have been arrested after some 30 demonstrators and 15 Israeli officers were injured in violent clashes in Jerusalem's most holy site. According to Israeli officials, hundreds of Palestinians emerged from Friday prayers at the al Aqsa mosque throwing stones.
Athens News says a union leader was attacked by masked youths and demonstrators broke store windows in the city center during violent protests against planned new spending cuts.
Berliner Zeitung reports Prime Minister George Papandreou held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The paper quotes Mrs Merkel saying after the meeting that Germany was more than willing to lend Greece its expertise - but not its money. And Mr Papandreou said he was not looking for any. Earlier he held talks in Luxembourg with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of eurozone finance ministers.
In the UK, the national papers focus on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's appearance at the Iraq Inquiry. The Guardian says Mr Brown took a major political gamble by describing Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq as "the right decision for the right reasons" and insisting that "everything that Mr Blair did during this period, he did properly".
As Turkey angrily withdrew its ambassador from Washington, Gazeta Ankara says President Abdullah Gul joined the political fray after a US government committee backed a resolution branding the killing of Armenians during the First World War as "genocide". Mr Gul said the decision was an injustice to history and that Turkey would not be responsible "for the negative results that this event may lead to".
Pravda quotes newly-elected Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych pledging better relations with Russia during his visit to the Kremlin on Friday during which he had talks with President Dimitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The discussions were expected to centre around Russia's exports of natural gas to the country and the price Ukraine pays for it.
Frettabladid says all the ships trapped in thick ice in the Baltic Sea have now been freed. Among them were three ferries and a cargo ship carrying over a thousand people.
The Age reports that a doting 69-year-old Sri Lankan man, who refused to put his 92-year-old mother in a nursing home, has left Australia voluntarily. He was to have been deported as the immigration department said he had no lawful basis to remain in the country and had exhausted all appeals. It is understood he took his mother with him.
The Daily Breeze says a 24-year-old woman has been arrested for dumping a newborn baby in a trash can after giving birth at a party in Redondo Beach, California.
Sky News reports that doctors in Germany have released pictures of an eight-month boy who was born just 275g - the smallest baby boy ever to survive. Born after just 25 weeks, he was smaller than a can of beer and doctors were convinced he would not survive but refused to give up hope. The most premature baby to survive is believed to have been born after 21 weeks, a girl born in Miami in America in 2004.
Xinhua News Agency says a Chinese kindergarten teacher has admitted she used an empty hypodermic needle to prick 63 of her students on the hands, feet and buttocks as punishment for bad behaviour. None of the children has tested positive for infectious diseases but their parents have demanded compensation totalling 1.8 million yuan (€195,000), more than a Chinese teacher makes in 50 years.