THE TIMES
The Lisbon Treaty will be signed by European Union leaders today, replacing the draft Constitution which was not ratified by all the member states.
The Super 5 jackpot was won on Wednesday by a single ticket.
L-ORIZZONT
An appeals court has reduced to 20 years the life sentence imposed on two men convicted of an explosion 20 years ago at Oxford Photo Studio in Paola, killing a mother and her child living in a nearby flat. The court found the men had not intended the killing.
A number of MEPs have held a protest at the European Parliament, saying a referendum should be called on the Lisbon Treaty, due to be signed today.
IN-NAZZJON
Buses will be free of charge in the three days before Christmas.
The new incinerator was commissioned at Marsa yesterday.
THE MALTA INDEPENDENT
The Merchants' Street repaving project was formally concluded yesterday with a ceremony which saw the re-enactment of the arrival of the Grand Master.
The British dailies....
The Sun asks who will be the next Liverpool player to be the target of burglars after club skipper Steven Gerrard's house was raided. His wife Alex was confronted by four hooded burglars at the couple's mansion on Tuesday night as the England midfielder was in France playing in a Champions League game against Marseille.
She told the Daily Mirror that she was shaken but not injured in the ordeal - the latest incident where criminals have targeted the homes of Liverpool footballers while they were playing abroad. Gerrard is the sixth Liverpool player to be hit in 18 months.
The Daily Express leads with the story from Portugal, where the mayor of Praia da Luz has blamed Kate and Gerry McCann for the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine seven months ago.
The Independent looks at the life of Sammy Gitau, a Kenyan man born in a slum and who has just graduated from Manchester University after a long battle to stay in the country.
According to the Daily Mail, girls under 16 may soon be able to get the contraceptive pill from chemists without a prescription. The newspaper also reports that Diana's stepmother told the inquest into Diana and Dodi's death that the Princess of Wales was madly in love with the son of Mohammed Al Fayyed. But Raine, Countess Spencer, said Diana would have never allowed herself to become pregnant outside marriage. The countess was responding to questions over whether Diana had ever mentioned to her, as a close confidante, that she was expecting Dodi's child.
The Guardian leads with the title "Banks Act On Meltdown Fear." Oil prices rebounded on fresh hopes that the global economy could remain robust after the unprecedented action by key central banks to make available billions of dollars worth of loans to cash-strapped banks. The price of New York light crude oil shot up $4.37 to $94.39 a barrel.
The Metro leads with the news that senior police officers have called for British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to resign following an emergency meeting over pay. Members of the Police Federation said they had no confidence in her ability to deal with their pay or conditions. It aso announces the death of Ike Turner, the rock music pioneer and former husband of Tina Turner, aged 76.
The Scotsman leads on a taxi driver who was cleared of any charges after being held in a cell for 12 hours after using racist words in front of his white passengers.
The Herald says new plans could see walk-in medical services being provided at railway stations and shopping centres in Scotland.
The Daily Star has already started reporting claims of wrong-doing by Fabio Capello, the hot favourite for the England manager's job whom it says has a "secret drugs past". The English FA has confirmed it has been in talks with Capello, winner of nine league titles in spells at Juventus, AC Milan and Real Madrid. The FA's director of communications, Adrian Bevington, described the talks as "extremely positive".
... and elsewhere
The Washington Post reports US officials expressed disappointment over a UN human rights expert's report that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was not meeting international justice standards. Finnish law professor Martin Scheinin, the UN's independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, has said his visit to Guantanamo raised more questions about the Bush administration's detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques. Over 300 detainees are held at Guantanamo, almost all of them without charges. The men suspected of links to terrorism are held as "enemy combatants" without the same rights as traditional prisoners of war.
Tel Aviv's liberal Ha'aretz reports from Jerusalem that the first formal Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process for seven years made an acrimonious start yesterday in the shadow of plans for new Jewish housing in Arab East Jerusalem and the threat of military escalation in Gaza. Palestinian negotiators expressed outrage over Isreali plans for an expansion of the settlement of Har Homa - already criticised by the EU and the American and British governments. On the other hand, Israel's military warned of the growing prospect of a "big operation" in Gaza to counter Qassam rocket fire. Some 20 rockets hit Sderot and the surrounding area yesterday, causing minor damage. The Islamic Jihad said it had fired 11 of the rockets in retaliation for the Israeli incursion which killed at least six militants on Tuesday.
At least 41 people were killed and 150 others wounded as three car bombs exploded in quick succession yesterday in Baghdad. Al-Zaman says the explosions occurred at the main market of Amarah, an oil-producing city largely spared from sectarian bloodshed. It was the deadliest attack against Iraqi civilians in four months.
The Daily Star of Beirut reports that a powerful car bombing yesterday killed Brigadier General Francois Hajj, the likely next head of the army. It was the first such assassination targeting Lebanon's military, seen by many Lebanese as the only institution keeping the divided nation from breaking apart. The bombing left a crater 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep on a busy street with school buses and morning commuters in Baabda, a mainly Christian suburb of Beirut where the presidential palace is located and where army presence is heavy.
British Naval forces seized cocaine with an estimated street value of £20m from smugglers after spotting a suspicious fishing boat. Venezuela's El Universal says half a tonne of the Class A drug was recovered by naval personnel from the sea and the smugglers were handed over to Venezuelan authorities.
Al-Ayyam reports Palestinian pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers directing traffic and keeping pedestrians from jaywalking in Ramallah on Wednesday, the first batch of women to venture into a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank. Their duties also include conducting traffic patrols, house searches and security checks on women in prisons and universities.
Santiago's La Tercera reports that a judge in southern Chile has sentenced a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily for three months as punishment for illegal parking after the priest said he could not afford to pay the fine. Judge Manuel Perez told the newspaper he handed down the unusual sentence as a tribute to Galileo Galilei, who received a similar sentence from the Catholic Church for saying the Earth rotates around the sun."