The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times quotes the prime minister telling the EU summit that there should be no more integration before details of cost of living adjustment mechanisms and pensions were revealed.
The Malta Independent says the EU summit saw a dinner showdown between German Chancellor Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Monti on the future of the EU.
In-Nazzjon says the EU summit aims for growth and stability.
l-orizzont says Malta is the EU country which least uses energy per capita in the EU.
The overseas press
L’Echo reports that EU leaders have agreed in principle to spend €120 billion on immediate measures to boost economic growth and create jobs. But Spain and Italy said they would not sign up to the plan unless other EU members pledge to help bring down their soaring borrow costs. The package would especially target the most vulnerable countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, under pressure to accept some pooling of eurozone debt to help reassure sceptical lenders, said that could only happen if Brussels had more control over budgets. Plans for a more integrated eurozone, including a banking union, are being discussed at the Brussels summit which ends later today.
The Financial Times says the value of bank shares has slumped as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic investigate banks for manipulating interest rates. In London, shares in Barclays Bank – which has been fined €362 million – closed more than 15 per cent down while in New York, shares in JP Morgan fell 2.5 per cent.
As rebel forces attacked Syria's main court in central Damascus, President Bashar al Assad has said he would not accept any foreign intervention to end the violence in his country. Syrian official news agency Sana quotes him saying it was his government’s duty to protect civilians from “terrorists” and that “for every terrorist eliminated, tens of lives were saved or more”.
The Washington Times reports the US Supreme Court has upheld the legality on one of President Obama’s landmark pieces of legislation – his healthcare bill. Obama said the ruling was a victory for Americans but the Republican challenger for the Presidency, Mitt Romney, described it as a bad law which he would repeal if elected.
Voice of America says the Republican-led House of Representatives on Thursday voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for failing to disclose internal Justice Department documents in response to a subpoena. The documents relate to a botched gun-running investigation, which saw US agents lose track of hundreds of illegal guns sold in Arizona and allowed into Mexico to target dealers. Two of the weapons were found in December 2010 at scene of a US border agent's murder. Holder says the action was politically-motivated.
El Universal reports the Supreme Court in Venezuela has ordered the seizure of $5.7 million in assets belonging to a a television channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo Chavez's government. The decision came as regulators seek to force the channel to pay a fine totaling more than $2 million. The channel, Globovisión, has been trying to challenge the fine imposed by regulators for its coverage of a prison uprising last year. The channel has accused the government of trying to intimidate it three days before the beginning of the campaign from Chavez’s presidential election.
When the former Libyan premier Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi was extradited from Tunisia to his country last week, he was "under the effect of sedatives", according to his lawyer Mabrouk Korshid. He told the Algerian daily El Khabar, Baghdadi the extradition was like a ''kidnapping". Al-Mahmoudi, 67, was extradited despite concerns by the Tunisian president and human rights groups that he would be tortured and denied due process. A group of 73 lawmakers walked out parliament to protest the extradition.
Egypt's first democratically elected president, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi, will make a woman and a Coptic Christian his vice-presidents. One of his political advisors, Ahmed al-Deif, told CNN it would be the first time in Egypt’s history that a woman would be appointed to this position and claimed Mursi and his party were not seeking to create "an Islamic republic". Questions remain over the extent of Mursi's authority as he would not have a sitting parliament or a permanent constitution to define his powers or duties.
An Italian anti-Mafia priest murdered in 1993, Giuseppe 'Pino' Puglisi, is to be beatified. Ansa says Pope Benedict authorised the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promote Puglisi as a martyr killed by those who have "hate for the faith". In recent years the number of clergymen who have risked their lives to fight the Mafia has risen, led by the example of Puglisi who was gunned down on his 56th birthday in the Brancaccio neighborhood of Palermo, Sicily.
Adnkronos quotes the Cineteca di Bologna film archive saying it had found a manuscript written by great cinema actor and director Charlie Chaplin. The manuscript is the story for a film he never made that was inspired by Russian dancer Vaclav Nijinsky.
The United Nations has declared that March 20 each year as the International Day of Happiness. ABC says the UN General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution proclaiming the pursuit of happiness as a fundamental human goal. Many governments say new elements, including happiness, must be included in ways of measuring prosperity which are now dominated by economic indicators.