The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that first-time drug users are to be given a warning under a wide-ranging law announced yesterday by Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.
The Malta Independent, like most of the other newspapers, gives prominence to the prime minister's visit to Tripoli and Misurata. It says Libya is insisting that Libya is insisting that its frozen funds must be returned.
In-Nazzjon also highlights the prime minister’s visit to Libya, saying the two countries will remain shoulder to shoulder.
l-orizzont says the national debt has reached 86.6% of GNP including the debt of the extended government. It also gives importance to evidence in the trial of a man allegedly involved in a police shootout in 2005, saying it was like the scene in a movie.
The overseas press
CNN reports that US and EU leaders have agreed to launch bilateral trade talks to boost jobs and growth and announced the formation of a joint working group to explore how to enhance the "untapped potential" of transatlantic economic co-operation. The statement followed wide-ranging talks between US President Barack Obama and European Union leaders at a White House summit during which President Obama urged Europe to act quickly to resolve the sovereign debt crisis that threatens the eurozone and could damage the fragile US economy. The US and EU account for around half of the world's economic output.
Meanwhile, Eurozone finance ministers meet today to agree on details of leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility so it can help Italy or Spain if needed. Irish TV says the ministers are also likely to approve the next tranche of emergency loans for Ireland and Greece. Detailed guidelines for the EFSF are said to be ready for approval by the ministers, opening the way for new operations and multiplying the fund's effective size. The guidelines should clear the way for the €440-billion-facility to attract cash from private and public investors in coming weeks.
The ministers’ meeting comes as the OECD warned that the eurozone debt crisis had become the biggest threat to the global economy and a break up of the currency zone could no longer be ruled out. According to Reuters, the organisation also slashed its forecasts and urged the European Central Bank to play a bigger role in defusing the crisis, which was now “one step away from plunging advanced economies into an abyss of recession and even depression, with waves of bankruptcies and wealth destruction in Europe”.
Al Ahram reports that the first elections in Egypt since former President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown go into a second day with indications of a high turnout in Cairo and Alexandria. The first day of polling for a new parliament was mainly peaceful. Voting was extended to cope with long queues and few security problems were reported. Many protesters occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square have boycotted the vote.
The New York Times says the US and Germany are to press for further action by the UN Security Council against the Syrian authorities following a UN report which accused Syria's security forces of having committed systematic "crimes against humanity" in their crackdown on anti-government protesters. The independent study says civilians, including children, had been murdered, tortured and sexually assaulted. More than 3,500 people have reportedly died in the violence since March. Syria rebutted the allegations saying it was fighting armed gangs.
Meanwhile, Syria condemned the Arab League's imposition of economic sanctions. Al Jazeera reports Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem dismissed the sanctions against his country, saying the decision to halt dealings with the Syria's central bank was a "declaration of economic war". Syrian state television showed tens of thousands of people protesting against the sanctions in Damascus and other main cities.
USA Today says that according to the UN, Libyan revolutionaries are still holding about 7,000 people in prisons and make-shift detention centres without access to legal process because the police and courts were not functioning. Some of the detainees are reported to have been tortured. Many are sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being mercenaries hired by the Gaddafi regime.
Al Ayyam reports Sudan’s Foreign Ministry has ordered Kenya’s ambassador to leave Khartoum within 72 hours. The move follows the issue of an arrest warrant by the high court in Nairobi for the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on genocide charges.
Voice of America says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has denied claims by a Georgia woman that she had a 13-year extramarital affair with him. Even before Ginger White's allegations were aired on an Atlanta TV station, Cain went on cable television to say he knew her, but that her story was false. The claims come weeks after four women accused the Georgia businessman of sexual harassment during the 1990s. His poll ratings have slipped since those allegations emerged.
Michael Jackson's physician, Dr Conrad Murray, is due back in court later today for sentencing, after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death. CBS TV says Murray faces up to four years in prison, but his attorneys have asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor to give the doctor probation and community service. They claim Murray has already been punished severely by the loss of his medical license and with public contempt. Murray is being held in a cell in the medical services building where there is a higher ratio of guards to inmates for his safety.