The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times quotes the prime minister saying that the confidence vote by parliament yesterday sends a message of stability.
The Malta Independent says the government got the thumbs up in parliament yesterday, while Franco Debono moved a private member’s motion on justice and police reform.
MaltaToday says that Enemalta and the WSC have demanded higher tariffs. It also says that Gonzi secured a confidence vote yesterday but Muscat said problems remain.
In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying he is determined to see the country move forward. It also reports how Italian prime minister Berlusconi said he would step down.
l-orizzont says the setting up of a transport task force is a demonstration of no confidence in Austin Gatt.
The overseas press
Bloomberg reports that Asian markets posted modest gains after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would step down, boosting optimism that problems in the eurozone may ease. Earlier, Mr Berlusconi lost his majority in parliament. Corriere della Sera say 308 voted for him on a budget vote seen as a test of his support. One abstained, and 320 others – the entire opposition – did not vote in order to allow the 2010 budget report to be approved. The European Union had asked Italy to implement economic reforms and Berlusconi said he would step down after those reforms had been approved by parliament. A vote on those measures is planned for next week.
Kathimerini quotes a Greek government official saying the make-up of country’s interim government would be announced later today. The announcement came as talks dragged into a third day without any sign of progress. The official said PM George Papandreou, who has agreed to step down, would meet the president this morning before talks with party leaders. Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, was widely seen as the front-runner to replace Mr Papandreou.
The BBC says Iran has reacted sharply to a report from the UN nuclear watchdog, which says there are signs it may have worked on designing a new weapon. Teheran condemned the findings as politically motivated. A US official said Washington would work additional sanctions against Iran.
The Washington Post quotes US Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann calling on President Barack Obama to apologise to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an unflattering exchange caught on an open microphone at the G20 summit in France last week. In the conversation reporters heard, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he could not stand Netanyahu and called him a liar. Obama responded, through a French interpreter: “You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day.” White House spokesman Jay Carney had no comment on the conversation.
CBS News says Herman Cain has insisted he would stay in the race to become the Republican Party candidate in next year’s US presidential election despite allegations of sexual harassment. At a news conference he denied ever having met Sharon Bialek, who accused him on Monday of touching her inappropriately in the 90’s. She was the first woman to make the claim publicly, though three other women had done so anonymously.
Pravda quotes the Russian space agency saying that the unmanned probe that was launched on a mission to reach Phobos, a moon of Mars, has veered off course. Scientists said an engine designed to keep it on track failed to start.
MSN reports that an American family famed for its 19 children was set to expand, with mother Michelle Duggar announcing she was pregnant with her twentieth child. The Duggar family, who are aged from 23 months to 23 years and all have names beginning with J, would need to change the name of their reality show 19 and Counting. Despite her age, 45-year-old Michelle and her husband Jim Bob told the Today Show US network NBC they were not worried about the potential complications. The couple said they had always left their birth control up to God and did not believe in contraception.