The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas media.
Times of Malta leads with the tough conditions imposed by the EU for a third EU bailout.
The Malta Independent quotes Joseph Muscat saying Greece could have obtained a less humiliating result two weeks ago.
In-Nazzjon says a former Police inspector has become chief officer at the freeport with a €35,000 salary.
l-orizzont reports how Austin Gatt demanded stiff punishment to those who betrayed the people's trust and did not do their duty. He was speaking in the context of the oil procurement scandal yesterday.
The overseas press
Ta Nea reports Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras flew home to sell the bailout plan to sceptical lawmakers and political allies, some of whom accused him of selling Greece out. Tsipras agreed to tax rises, pension cuts and changes to employment laws by tomorrow in return for a three-year bailout worth up to €86 billion.
Kathimerini reports Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, leader of the junior partner in Tsipras’ coalition government, denounced the deal as a “German-led coup”. He said he would not support the agreement reached in Brussels when it comes to a vote in parliament. The paper also predicts House speaker Zoe Constantopoulou may resign from office later today in protest against the deal.
Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told the New Statesman he had a plan for Greece after the referendum but he did not find support for it. He accused the Eurogroup as being “totally subjugated” by Germany, comparing to “an orchestra conducted by (Finance Minister Wolfgang) Schauble”.
Pasok opposition leader Evangelos Venizelos has described the agreement as “tough and humiliating, and much worse than the two memoranda that came before it”. Kathimerini’s online edition quoted Venizelos, who served as deputy prime minister in the former coalition government, saying, “Greece avoided an exit from the eurozone and total disaster.”
AFP reports NATO has welcomed the bailout deal. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Slovenia the nation’s economic stability was also vital for the “security” of other NATO countries. He described Greece as a “committed ally”.
According to the influential German daily Deutschen Wirtschafts Nachrichten, the existence of the political union in its previous form is out of the question, the EU will split, and the final break is only a matter of time. DWN says German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Schäuble have “overnight, transformed the EU into an entity that is no longer held together by trust, but only by naked fear”.
In other news...
Dnevnik reports Romanian prosecutors have included Prime Minister Victor Ponta as part of a corruption probe, piling more pressure on the embattled politician to resign. He was charged with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to 2007-2011, before he became prime minister in 2012, the DNA anti-corruption agency said, adding that some of his property has been seized pending the outcome of the case.
El Universal says the Mexican government is offering a reward of nearly $4 million for the capture of the country’s most wanted drug lord who has escaped through a 1.5 km tunnel from a security prison. As a huge manhunt is underway for Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, the Interior Minister said the prison must have helped him escape and that would constitute “an act of treason”.
Belfast Telegraph reports rioting in Belfast as police tried to prevent a Protestant parade from entering a nationalist area of the city. At least eight officers were injured after being pelted with rocks and bottles.
Pope Francis is back in Rome after a nine-day South America trip where he railed at injustice and drew millions to Masses in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. Avvenire says on the plane home, questioned by a journalist as to the secret of his energy during a whirlwind tour, the 78-year-old pontiff joked he did not have to take drugs. “I have never tried coca. That should be made clear,” he said, smilingly after Bolivian authorities said they did not exclude him chewing coca leaves to deal with the altitude in La Paz.
The BBC announces the eagerly-awaited second book by the reclusive American author Harper Lee has been published – almost 60 years after it was written. The new book, “To Set a Watchman” is set some 20 years later after “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
If you are a dog owner in Piacenza, you do not only have to clean up your pet’s poop but also “immediately wash with water” its urine. AGI says Mayor Paolo Dosi has signed a new city ordinance that requires dog owners to wash, except in periods of frost, all “public areas or common use (roads, squares, sidewalks), and on buildings and even private vehicles parked by the road. Dosi said the measure has long called for in the interest of hygiene. Defaulters face fines ranging from €25 to €500. The ordinance does not affect guide and police dogs.