The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times quotes Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando saying witnesses are ready to testify against Richard Cachia Caruana. He said he is ready to present irrefutable evidence of Mr Cachia Caruana colluding with the Labour government of 1996 to feather his nest.
The Malta Independent reports how JPO claimed that Cachia Caruana colluded with the 1996 Labour government.
MaltaToday says that members of the PN Executive have called on Gonzi to call an election.
In-Nazzjon says that there was a 3,000 increase in jobs in the first months of this year.
l-orizzont reports how JPO has called on the PN Executive to dismiss Cachia Caruana.
The overseas press
The European Union is to consider proposals that would give it a much greater say in the economic affairs of countries using the euro. L’Echo says the proposals include a European Treasury with powers to oversee national budgets and force governments to change spending amounts of they exceed agreed limits. The plan was unveiled by the head of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and would be presented to tomorrow’s EU summit in Brussels.
Syria’s state-owned agency Sana quotes President Bashar al-Assad saying his country was in a state of war. After a day of fighting between the Syrian army and rebels on the outskirts of Damascus, Assad told his cabinet that “all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war". Assad also snubbed countries that have been calling for him to step aside, saying the West "takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage".
The Huffington Post says Assad’s latest remarks came as the United States called him "desperate" and said he was slowly losing his grip on power, citing recent defections of army officers and soldiers to neighbouring Turkey and Jordan. Meanwhile, Russia has said that it was ready to attend a meeting on the Syrian crisis that international mediator Kofi Annan aimed to Geneva on Saturday. So far there seems to be no agreement on the agenda of the meeting or whether Iran would take part.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his parliament that if Syrian troops approached Turkey's borders, they would be seen as a military threat. Gazete Oku reports he also strongly condemned the Syrian downing of the Turkish fighter jet, announcing that Turkey would retaliate against any further aggression. Meanwhile, after a meeting with Turkish officials and ambassadors to the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Alliance on Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it a "completely unacceptable act" that the alliance condemned "in the strongest terms".
The Wall Street Journal says US officials said 24 suspected cyber criminals in have been arrested as part of an investigation into internet financial fraud on four continents. The two-year FBI operation in 13 countries targeted hackers trading in stolen credit cards and banking information.
Belfast Telegraph reports that police in Northern Ireland came under attack from a crowd of about 100 youths throwing petrol bombs and other missiles. The trouble in west Belfast came in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s two-day visit to N. Ireland as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour.
Australia’s ABC says some 50,000 teachers across New South Wales have defied an industrial relations order and gone on strike. Teachers were attending rallies at Sydney's Town Hall and 30 other locations, forcing the closure of more than 2,000 schools. The strike is over State Government plans to give principals greater power to handle staffing and budgets through its Local Schools, Local Decision policy.
France 24 reports President François Hollande has told the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi that France would do anything possible to support Burma’s democratic transition. He was speaking after the two leaders held talks as the pro-democracy icon visited Paris for the last leg of a landmark European tour. Hollande told her he was ready to welcome reformist President Thein Sein if he wanted to visit. Suu Kyi meanwhile called for investment in her country's struggling economy, but not at the expense of democratic reforms.
The BBC quotes a report by the British-based charity Save the Children saying pregnancy is the biggest cause of deaths in teenage girls worldwide. The report says that in many countries girls married young and gave birth before their bodies were fully developed. The report also unveils children born to young mothers were also at risk and that one million babies die every year to under-age mothers.
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reports that a court in Cologne has ruled that it was an offence to circumcise young boys for non-medical reasons. The court said the right of a boy for bodily integrity outweighed his parents’ religious rights. Jewish and Muslim organisations have criticised the decision. The World Health Organization estimates that roughly a third of men in the world are circumcised. Many are Muslims or Jews circumcised for religious reasons, but some parents also choose to circumcise their boys on health and hygiene grounds.
AFP quotes President Vladimir Putin of Russia saying he was "at a bit of a loss" after a street was named after him in Bethlehem. Mr Putin was speaking in Jordan as he wrapped up his Middle East tour, which included a stop in Bethlehem and talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who ordered a street to be named after his guest. "I would like to live a bit longer," Mr Putin said, referring to the European tradition according to which streets are named after the deceased.