The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times says European Parliament leaders have failed to agree on a Tonio Borg resolution.
The Malta Independent says the PM is ready to pay a political price to achieve fiscal stability. It also says that the chance of Prime Minister Gonzi having two deputy leaders is growing.
In-Nazzjon quotes Dr Gonzi saying that everyone (in the EU) needs to take the best decisions without being populist.
l-orizzont says the health minister has realised that the place of the Blood Bank is close to Mater Dei.
The overseas press
Israel moved closer to an all-out ground war with Hamas as Israeli planes, tanks and gunboats pounded suspected militant positions in Gaza in retaliation for another day of Hamas rocket attacks that left at least three Israelis dead. The Jerusalem Post reports Israel authorised the call-up to 30,000 reservists as it moved troops towards the Gaza border. The reaction came after Palestinian militants fired two rockets towards Tel Aviv – the first time in 20 years. ABC says one of the rockets landed on the southern outskirts of the coastal city while the other landed in the sea, but the attacks sparked panic.
Meanwhile Al Ayyam reports that Israeli warplanes continued to bombard Gaza, where at least 18 people have been killed and 100 injured since Israel began its strikes on the coastal enclave by assassinating top Hamas commander Ahmed al-Jabari on Wednesday. Medics and Hamas officials said the dead included seven militants, three children, a woman and two elderly men.
Haaretz said rockets fired from Gaza continued to streak towards towns and communities in southern Israel, with three Israeli civilians killed on Thursday when a rocket hit their home in Kiryat Malachi, 30 km from Gaza. Israel said more than 200 rockets had been launched from Gaza in the last 24 hours and pledged to use all means to end the ongoing barrage.
VOA reports that the United States has urged Egypt, Turkey and some European powers to put pressure on Hamas to end rocket attacks on Israel. The White House said it regretted the loss of civilian life in Gaza but the onus was on Hamas to stop the violence. Meanwhile, Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister of Hamas told the BBC the group did not want to see situation escalate.
Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi has ordered his prime minister, Hesham Kandil, to lead a senior delegation to Gaza in a show of support for Hamas in the face of Israel's offensive. Al Ahram says the delegation will also try and meet the "urgent needs" of Gaza residents. Earlier on Thursday, Morsi vowed to work to stop Israel's campaign against Hamas, calling the Jewish state's actions there "unacceptable."
Börzen Zeitung quotes official figures which show the eurozone is back in recession for the first time in three years, with its economy shrinking for a second consecutive quarter. The GDP in the 17-member single currency zone declined by 0.1 per cent in the three months to September. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of zero growth or worse in the region, where more than 18 million people are out of work. The full 27-state European Union managed third quarter growth of 0.1 per cent, after a contraction of 0.2 per cent in the second, narrowly avoiding recession. The austerity measures that led to strikes across the continent this week are set to continue, which could further threaten growth in the region's economies.
Xi Jinping has been confirmed as the man to lead China for the next decade. Asia Business Times says he led the new Politburo Standing Committee onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, signalling his elevation to the top of China's ruling Communist Party at a time when the ruling Communist Party is confronting slower economic growth, a public clamour to end corruption and demands for change that threaten its hold on power. In his first address to the nation, Xi promised to deliver better social services while making sure China stands tall in the world and the party continues to rule.
CNN reports the CIA has opened an investigation into the conduct of its former director, David Petraeus, who resigned last week after acknowledging an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. A CIA spokesman says the inquiry by the agency's inspector general would see if there are lessons to be learned. Mrs Broadwell, 40, was found to have classified information in her possession. In his first interview since resigning, Gen Petraeus told CNN on Thursday he did not give any national security-sensitive information to his lover.
Wall Street Journal announces that BP has agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion to settle criminal charges stemming from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 workers and released millions of barrels of crude oil into the gulf. The $4.5 billion settlement is the biggest criminal penalty in US history. It includes a $1.4 billion criminal fine and almost $3 billion more which BP agreed to give to national institutions.
Writing in The Times, Liberal Democrat former leader Lord Ashdown has said British forces must withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed. In a damning assessment of the campaign in Afghanistan, he said allied forces had failed to build a sustainable state and establish a government which was untainted by corruption. Prime Minister David Cameron has said British forces will have been withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 but Lord Ashdown said it should be sooner.
Metro reports that a high-powered British businesswoman is divorcing her husband after he refused to recreate raunchy sex scenes from best-selling book “Fifty Shades of Grey”. The 41-year-old banker, who earns more than €500,000 a year, tried to use the bestseller to enhance the couple's sex life. Papers filed at the London High Court say his lack of adventure is evidence of unreasonable behaviour – one of five grounds for divorce under family law. The woman's husband is not contesting the divorce.