The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press today:
The Times says the national breast screening programme is due to be launched in September. It also says that no date has been set yet for the resumption of proceedings before the European Court on Spring hunting, and no Spring hunting is expected to be allowed this year.
The Malta Independent says two have admitted the vandalism in Safi and Kirkop cemeteries last month.
l-orizzont leads with the Prime Minister’s opposition to a Labour call for the debate on a motion on St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum extension to be held this Thursday.
In-Nazzjon features the President’s state visit to Poland and a statement by the Prime Minister in Parliament about his visit to Germany last week. Dr Gonzi said new job opportunities were discussed.
The Press in Britain
The Financial Times reports on a wave of leading global corporations announcing more than 70,000 job cuts in one of the gloomiest days in the economic crisis so far.
The Times adds that more than 4,000 posts in Britain were axed and five leading US companies sacked a total of more than 45,000 workers in America.
The Daily Express continues that the PM was accused of "losing his marbles" after hailing Britain's bloodbath of job cuts as the "birth pangs of a new global order".
The Daily Telegraph reports a Labour peer at the centre of the House of Lords "cash for amendments" scandal was facing questions over his links to a controversial defence industry lobbyist.
The Daily Mail adds that one in five Lords was undertaking consultancy work in a Parliamentary "cottage industry" potentially worth millions.
The Independent focuses on why the green lobby opposes plans for a barrage in the Severn estuary that would use tidal power to meet 5 per cent of UK electricity needs.
The Scotsman says Sir Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, is being lined up to replace Max Mosley as president of Formula 1's governing body.
And elsewhere…
La Tribune de Bruxelles reports that the European Commission is providing €58 million in humanitarian aid to vulnerable Palestinians. Calling the situation in Gaza "catastrophic," EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said the strip's civilian population of nearly 1.5 million had faced "terrible and unprecedented" suffering compared to past times of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He sharply criticized Israel for the massive destruction but added that Hamas bore an "overwhelming" part of the blame.
The Washington Times says President Barack Obama has sent his Middle East envoy George Mitchell on his first mission to the troubled region. The new American ambassador, tasked with engaging "vigorously" to forge "genuine progress" in the Middle East, will travel to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, as well as to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain.
The Washington Post reports that on the environmental side, Mr Obama announced new measures to reduce America's dependency on foreign oil and to cut greenhouse gases. He proposed steps to help develop fuel efficient cars and approved plans by states to impose their own limits on carbon dioxide gas emissions.
Hague News reports Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga was charged at the International Criminal Court in The Hague with war crimes for forcing children to serve as soldiers during a five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The International Herald Tribune says that as African leaders met in Pretoria, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern about the situation in Zimbabwe. She urged South African regional leaders to pressure Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to share power with opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai.
De Standard says EU foreign ministers have discussed plans that could see the 27-nation bloc take in dozens of Guantanamo Bay inmates after they are released from the US military prison.
Börzen-Zeitung reports that the former chairman of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel, has been given a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined one million euros after a court convicted him for tax evasion.
Jumuhariya says hardline Somali Islamists claim to have taken control of the town of Baidoa, the seat of the country's weak government.
Kathimerini says Greek farmers have vowed to step up their protests, after using tractor blockades to shut down border crossings with Bulgaria, Turkey and Macedonia.
USA Today claims millions of people suffering liver damage from alcohol abuse and obesity could reduce their chances of harming the organ by taking aspirin daily.
El Universal says gunmen in Mexico opened fire on a government office after a man accused of dissolving some 300 people in a corrosive material was arrested.
Sydney Morning Herald reports British-born singer Leo Sayer has taken his Australian citizenship oath in Canberra.