The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with a story on hospital waiting lists, saying 6,000 cataract operations are pending.
The Malta Independent focuses on the comments by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on VAT charged on vehicle registration. Dr Gonzi said any rights would be respected by the government. Dr Muscat said the PL had won this battle politically and morally
In-Nazzjon quotes Dr Gonzi saying that investment and jobs are the government’s top priority. It also reports how two people were seriously injured in a fall in Bahrija.
l-orizzont says the PL is to publish a plan of action on immigration.
The Press in Britain
The Daily Telegraph leads with the Bank of England's warning that the UK is sliding towards a 1930s-style depression.
The Independent says the recession has wiped £40,000 from the wealth of every adult in the UK.
The Guardian reports on more British involvement in detention torture as a detainee says he was hooded and beaten over five days.
The Daily Mail says it has evidence senior Labour MP Keith Vaz intervened in a court case on behalf of a friend.
The Times says Cherie Blair has been hired by two local authority pension funds to sue Sir Fred Goodwin and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Financial Times reports on President Barack Obama's fury over the $165m (£119m) of bonuses paid out by troubled insurance company AIG.
The Daily Mirror says terminally ill Jade Goody is in the final hours of her life.
The reality star's battle with cancer is also the lead in The Sun.
The Daily Star says Jade has received the last rites from the family vicar in a tearful bedside ceremony.
The Daily Express has a picture of Jade Goody with her two young sons in happier times but leads with the news that scientists have discovered the secret to staying slim.
And elsewhere…
The Jerusalem Post reports say two Israeli policemen have been shot dead in the occupied West Bank. They were found in a car that came under fire near the Jewish settlement of Massua, close to the border with Jordan. Police suspect Palestinian gunman carried out the attack and are combing the area.
Haaretz says outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent two senior negotiators to Egypt in a last-ditch effort to negotiate the release of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants. He has ruled out opening Israel's borders to Gaza until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Hamas in a cross border raid nearly three years ago.
The International Herald Tribune reports that OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna have agreed to stick to present production targets, but would crackdown on members that are overshooting their joint target of 25 million barrels a day by nearly a million barrels a day.
Afghan News says five NATO-led troops, three Afghan civilians, two Afghan police officers and five militants were killed in a series of blasts and clashes in Afghanistan. A sixth NATO soldier died in a traffic accident. Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces killed five suspected Taliban insurgents and detained four more in Khandahar province.
Berliner Zeitung leads with the call by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for tighter gun laws following last week's deadly school-shooting near Stuttgart.
Pakistan Times says the government has agreed to re-instate sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhamad Chaudry later this month, following a day of violent protests in the eastern city of Lahore in a bid to end a political crisis, sparked by a Supreme Court ruling banning opposition leader Nawaz Sahrif from elected office. On Sunday Sharif defied a government ban to lead anti-government protests.
Corriere della Sera says Sotheby's is selling the contents of the late Italian designer Gianni Versace's villa by Lake Como. There are 550 items on offer from the spectacular neo-classical Villa Fontanelle, ranging from statues to paintings to silver, worth an estimated €2.2 million to €3.3 million. Versace was gunned down outside his home in Miami in 1997.
The New York Times reports six women were hurt in a "stampede" outside an audition for hit TV show “America's Next Top Model”. Chaos erupted in the street as thousands of hopefuls waited in line, when a car belching smoke pulled up alongside the queue and someone shouted "fire". A man then allegedly leapt from a car and began grabbing at the hopefuls' bags. Two women and a man have been arrested.
The Irish Independent says some 300 men and women of various shapes and ages disrobed in London yesterday, with only strategically-placed shamrocks to protect their modesty, in a stunt to launch Aer Lingus’s new €10.78 fare from Gatwick to new European destinations. The Metropolitan Police had warned that if any of the participants were completely nude, they would be liable to a fine for indecent exposure.
According to Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Iraqi footballer was shot dead by a spectator as he was about to score an equalising goal. The shooting happened in the last minute of a game between two local rivals. The suspected killer has been arrested as police carry out an investigation.