The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the fire which caused considerable damage at the Malta Golf Club in Marsa. It also quotes the Prime Minister as saying he expected PN president Victor Scerri to take the best moral decision in view of the Bahrija building permit controversy.
The Malta Independent says the government's new price watch agency is expected to be in place by the end.
In-Nazzjon also leads with the setting up of the price monitoring agency. It also reports that the number of repatriated migrants in the first half of this year was almost double that of the same period last year.
l-orizzont says Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi kept up criticism of the GWU in a radio interview yesterday.
The Press in Britain
According to The Times, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are preventing holidaymakers from boarding if they are suspected of having swine flu.
The Daily Mail looks at the "conflicting swine flu advice" being offered to pregnant women and parents.
The Independent claims a Saudi Arabian princess has been granted asylum in Britain to escape death by stoning for having an illegitimate child with a British man.
The Guardian runs a report which argues students who study at home should not have to pay fees.
The Daily Telegraph writes that the recession has pushed a million people to accept part-time jobs.
The Daily Express claims proposals have been made for patients to pay £20 to see a GP.
The Daily Star has an interview with Michael Jackson's brother Tito, who accuses a doctor over the death of the singer.
In a similar story in the Daily Mirror, Tito says the doctor took too long to call paramedics after Jackson collapsed.
And elsewhere...
The Washington Times leads with the United States' celebrations this week to mark the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon walk. President Barack Obama will be kicking off events by meeting at the White House today with the crew of the Apollo 11 mission, who, on July 20, 1969 accomplished the dream of ages and walk on the surface of the moon.
Al Jazeera reports that the last British Embassy worker being held in Iran has been released on bail... but not before being charged with harming national security for alleged involvement in the violent street protests that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nine member of the embassy staff were originally arrested.
USA Today says the Pentagon has confirmed that an American soldier who went missing from his base in Afghanistan has been captured. The Defence Department released his name a day after he was seen in a video posted online. The US military accused the Taliban of using their captive for propaganda purposes in violation of international law.
Mail & Guardian announces that South Africa is launching clinical trials on 36 healthy volunteers of the first Aids vaccines created by the University of Cape Town with technical help from the US National Institutes of Health, which also manufactured the vaccine. Around 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year.
La Tribuna says talks on resolving Honduras' leadership crisis have broken off after the interim government rejected a provision for ousted President Manuel Zelaya to serve out his term. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who is acting as a mediator, has promised renewed efforts to seek a solution and avoid bloodshed in the Central American country.
Irrawadi reported Burma's military rulers tightened security in Yangon as officials gathered to commemorate the death, 62 years ago, of the father of jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma's independence hero General Aung San and other government leaders were assassinated by gunmen during a Cabinet meeting on July 19, 1947, shortly after Britain granted independence to the Asian colony.
The New York Times announces the death of Irish author Frank McCourt. He was 78 and was living in New York City. He was best known for "Angela's Ashes", a memoir about his childhood, published in 1996 andwhich won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Chumhurriyet reports that Turkey yesterday introduced some of the toughest anti-smoking legislation in Europe. Smoking has been banned from all closed public areas, bars, cafes and restaurants, and even extends to patrons sitting outside cafes.
New Zealand's straight-laced former prime minister, Helen Clark, was once thought of as a "sex bomb" in saucy black boots. The New Zealand Herald reports that a new unauthorised biography, "Helen Clark", sheds light on many of the ex-Labour leader's unknowns: her sense of humour, love of gossip, ability to hold a grudge - and her sex appeal.
O Globo says five major hospitals in Brazil's crime-ridden city of Rio de Janeiro are to be bullet-proofed because of frequent gunfights involving drug gangs. Gunplay between rival gangs and between criminals and police are common in Rio. On Thursday, a stray bullet hit a surgical centre of one of the five hospitals, destroying equipment. No one was hurt.
A British backpacker, rescued after 12 days in near-freezing conditions admitted on Australia's Channel 9's 60 Minutes programme he was "a total idiot" to venture ill-prepared into the rugged Blue Mountains bush.
The Irish Independent says the world's most expensive footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, will make his much anticipated debut for Real Madrid tonight against part-timers Shamrock Rovers in Dublin.