The following are the leading stories in Maltese and foreign newspapers.
The Times leads with Dr Gonzi’s announcement of plans for further income tax cuts to boost the economy. It also carries remarks by Dr Sant at a press conference where he insisted that Malta needed an accountable government. On the backpage it reports how the police and Customs have smashed a drug trafficking ring and seized €1.1 million worth of cocaine.
In-Nazzjon also gives prominence to Dr Gonzi’s tax cuts plans and the prime minister’s meeting with freeport workers.
l-orizzont says government corruption dominated the theme of a well attended mass rally by the Labour Party held yesterday. The newspaper also reports that bus drivers are prepared to hold industrial action over a belated new contract.
The Malta Today midweek says di-ve.com will have no regular election reporting. The newspaper also says libel suits are being used to curtail freedom of expression. It also reports that Gary Neville is seeking a permit for a villa at Ta’ Cenc.
The Malta Independent also leads with Dr Gonzi’s tax plans and the police drugs find.
The Press in Britain...
The Independent looks ahead to the results of Super Tuesday and in particular to the battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
The Financial Times reports the UK, Germany and Japan have rebuffed US requests for a global economic stimulus package.
The Daily Mail focuses on a report on the police force which finds that six million hours a year are lost every year through bureaucracy and that constables are paralysed by fear.
The Guardian says that a new British force with extra firepower is being sent to Afghanistan as fears persist that the country could sink into civil war.
The Daily Telegraph claims a revolution in contraception will be signalled by ministers, with women told to consider injections and implants instead of the Pill.
According to a government health official quoted in The Times, drug dealers are targeting patients in mental health wards by pretending they are friends and selling them cannabis.
The Sun says troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been questioned by police over a video that appears to show her smoking crack cocaine.
And elsewhere...
Moscow Times reports lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who has defended numerous high-profile clients against Russian government charges and is suspected of divulging state secrets, said Tuesday that he had requested political asylum in the United States. Kuznetsov, who fled the country in July, said in a telephone interview from New York, he applied for asylum in New Jersey in December after his US visa expired. A decision on his application is expected next week.
Washington Post reports CIA Director Michael Hayden admitting to Congress that a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding had been used on three terrorist suspects thought to have had direct involvement in 9/11 attacks. He said the method, considered as torture by several human rights groups, has not been used for at least five years.
Le Monde leads with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's warning he will order French troops stationed in Chad to intervene, if necessary, to prevent any more fighting between government forces and rebels. This comes after the Security Council issued a non-binding resolution granting France the legal means to do so.
Jerusalem Post says an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip has killed at least six members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and wounded several others. The strike came in response to rockets fired from Gaza earlier in the day that had struck the Israeli border town of Sderot.
International Herld Tribune quotes Red Cross reports which show the death toll in Kenya from the violence following the disputed presidential elections at the end of 2007, has surpassed 1,000 and that 300,000 people have been displaced. A UN mission is on its way to the country and will remain there for three weeks. Meanwhile rival factions began talks in Nairobi to try to end the bloodshed.
The Standard reports former Zimbabwe Finance Minister Simba Makon plans to challenge President Robert Mugabe in next month's presidential election in what is seen as the most serious challenge to Mugabe's leadership. Critics claim the 83-year old, who has been in power since 1980, is responsible for running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground.
Le Parisien says rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel has broken his silence over the alleged fraud that saw Société Général lose €4.9bn, stating that he had got "a bit carried away". The 31-year-old said he was not driven by "personal ambition" and the aim of the unauthorised transactions was to make more money for the bank. He accepted his share of the responsibility for the losses but added he would "not be made a scapegoat".
De Telegraaf reports the death at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles at the end of the sixties who introduced the West to transcendental meditation. He was thought to be 91. He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. The movement really took off, however, after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968.