The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times says the Budget cuts tax but puts up fuel prices.

The Malta Independent  says this was an election Budget.

MaltaToday says this was a Budget focused on specific voter groups.

In-Nazzjon quotes the Finance Minister saying this was a Budget of responsible choices.

l-orizzont says Malta faces 12 days of uncertainty, with Franco Debono saying he will vote against the Budget on December 10.

The overseas press

The New York Times predicts Palestinians are expected win approval in their bid for non-member observer state by the UN later today, despite opposition from Israel, the US and Germany. France, Switzerland and Denmark have all indicated that they would vote in while Britain has signalled it could join Australia in abstaining, saying it wanted an assurance that the Palestinians would not pursue Israel through the International Criminal Court. Semi-statehood could allow Palestinian territories to access the court and other international bodies. According to Haaretz, at least 150 countries are expected to vote in favour of the resolution.

The Financial Times says the European Commission has approved the Spanish government's plans to restructure four troubled banks. Three banks must cut their loans and investments by over 60 per cent in the next five years, close half of their branches and shed thousands of staff. A fourth bank that was in the worst shape would be sold to a privately-owned bank. The agreement means the banks would now get almost €40 billion euros in loans from eurozone bailout funds. All four were nationalised by Madrid after suffering heavy losses on loans to homebuyers and property developers.

More than 80 British MPs and members of the House of Lords have written an open letter opposing any statutory regulation of the media. The letter was published in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph newspapers one day before the release of the landmark Leveson report into the phone-hacking scandal. The report is expected to recommend some form of state regulation of newspapers.

Clarin reports a court in Argentina has begun hearings in the largest trials of crimes committed under military rule between 1976 and 1983. More than 65 people face charges of kidnapping, torturing and murder of mostly left-wing opponents of the military. Tens of thousands of Argentines were kidnapped and killed by the military junta during their years in power. The bodies of many have never been recovered. Some were allegedly burnt and their remains disposed of, others were dropped from planes flying over the Atlantic Ocean.

Al Ahram quotes the head of the assembly writing a new Egyptian constitution saying the document would shortly be finished and voted on by the assembly members later today. The move is aimed at diffusing the current political crisis after President Mohammed Mursi gave himself special powers. He said he would surrender these when as new constitution was in place.

De Telegraaf says Dutch authorities have decided to repeal legislation making it is a crime to insult God, a law not invoked in the past 50 years. Last year, judges in the trial of far-right politician Geert Wilders ruled he had the right to criticise Islam, even if his opinion was insulting to many Moslems.  However, it still remains illegal under Dutch law to be disrespectful to police officers or to insult Queen Beatrix, the country's monarch.

The Australian quotes Ecuador’s ambassador to Britain saying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung condition which could deteriorate any time. Assange has been living inside Ecuador’s London embassy since seeking asylum eight months ago to avoid extradition to Sweden to face alleged rape charges.

For the first time in living memory, New York has spent a day entirely without violent crime. The city police department's chief spokesman told The Newyorker that Monday was the most bloodshed-free 24-hour period in recent history: not a single murder, shooting, stabbing or other incident of violent crime was reported for a whole day in the city of eight million people. However, statistics point to a 3 per cent overall rise in crime.

WeirdNewsAsia reports that a Belgian is seeking to have his marriage annulled after discovering that his Indonesian wife of 19 years was born a man. The husband, 64-year-old Jan, married Monica in 1993 despite legal difficulties raised by immigration authorities. The truth came out during a row after Jan found "amorous messages" from men on his wife's computer. He said she admitted being born a man, but told him she was now a woman and had not needed to tell him about her past.

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