The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says an EU report has found that Maltese law discriminates against same sex partners. It also reports that the police have launched an investigation into reports of police beatings of migrants.
The Malta Independent quotes Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt saying in Parliament that the power surcharge is expected to increase to 115 percent. It also says transporters have called for government intervention in view of their rising costs.
In-Nazzjon leads with positive reactions to the white paper on rent reform. It also carries a caption story on new PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier being greeted at his new office by his predecessor Joe Saliba.
l-orizzont says that months after a two-year-old boy fell down a shaft and died, only a police ribbon indicates any danger. It also gives prominence to a GWU statement calling for consultation in the MCESD before the government announces the increased power surcharge today.
The Press in Britain
The Daily Express says police chiefs have escalated the war on motorists by setting officers ticket targets.
The Daily Mail reports that Canada is putting skilled British workers on a fast track for immigration visas to exploit the UK’s soaring cost of living.
The Times claims more than 1,300 clergy say they will defect from the Church of England if women are consecrated bishops.
The Guardian reports the Archbishop of Canterbury directly challenged the rebel Anglicans who have launched a breakaway faction within the global communion.
The Daily Telegraph quotes official data which reveals that first-time buyers have almost completely disappeared and the mortgage market is at a standstill.
The Financial Times claims BP's grip on its Russian oil joint venture was slipping after authorities in Moscow refused work permits to many of the company's foreign executives.
The Herald reports Andy Murray made one of the most dramatic comebacks by a British tennis player to reach the quarter finals of Wimbledon.
The London Evening Standard says 2,417 offenders were deported from the UK in the first six months of the year, a 22 percent rise over 2007. More than a dozen were killers and nearly 140 sex offenders.
And elsewhere…
Le Parisien says President Nicolas Sarkozy of France seized the reins of the European Union pledging to turn the EU's crisis of confidence into an opportunity to make the unloved union more popular with almost half a billion Europeans. Sarkozy went on national television to outline his intentions, portraying himself as Europe's guardian in a time of anxiety and confusion. He said there had been mistakes in the way the union had developed.
Gazeta Polska reports that European Union's Lisbon treaty has received another setback after Poland's President Lech Kaczynski said he would not be signing the accord. Kaczynski said it would be pointless after the Irish ‘no-vote'.
Meanwhile, Berliner Morgenpost quoted Germany's President Horst Köhler saying he would not complete his country’s ratification before a ruling on the text from Germany's constitutional court.
Le Monde says a commercial court has ordered eBay to pay more than £29m to luxury group LVMH for letting counterfeit goods be sold on the auction site.
Chile’s El Mercurio reports a judge has imposed two sentences of life in prison on the security chief for Augusto Pinochet, for killing a retired army chief and his wife.
Corriere della Sera quotes a lawyer for Luciano Pavarotti's widow saying his family has reached an agreement on dividing up his estate.
Diario de Mallorca reports a 20-year-old British student died after falling 40ft out of a hotel window in Magaluf after being unable to stop while running down a corridor.
Canada’s La Republique reports that 20 million honey bees were released along a highway in north-west New Brunswick after a transport truck overturned.
Mexico’s El Universal says Angel Tavira, a one-handed violinist who dedicated his life to folk music, has died at the age of 84.
Sydney Morning Herald reports a 69-year-old man has been charged with hacking his two grandchildren and wife to death with an axe and badly wounding his daughter. He was arrested at a motel about six hours after the attack in Cowra, 155 miles west of Sydney.