The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says there are hopes that a decline in the number of tourists to Gozo would be compensated by visitors for Sta Marija this weekend. It also says that plans for a Riccardo Muti music academy have failed
The Malta Independent leads with the raid carried out yesterday by animal welfare officers on rooms in Qormi, finding six dogs.
In-Nazzjon reports that three offers have been submitted for the Dragonara Casino. It also says that Greece is to try five people in connection with the murder of Maltese-Australian Doujon Zammit on a Greek island a year ago.
l-orizzont reports comments by Joseph Muscat that the Auditor-General two years ago noted irregularities in the VAT Department. It also reports that 3,700 tonnes of chemicals would need to be kept in storage for the operation of the Delimara power station. The newspaper also reports that the Super 5 jackpot has not risen to €1 million.
The Press in Britain...
The senior Tory MP and multi-millionaire Alan Duncan provides the Daily Mail's lead after being caught complaining about his income.
The Daily Telegraph claims the Conservative frontbencher's political future is in the balance after saying that he has to "live on rations".
The Daily Mirror reports that the two armed robbers who pulled off Britain's biggest gems heist may have had a secret buyer lined up already.
The Sun claims the robbers hid their faces by wearing elaborate latex rubber disguises.
The Daily Express claims that the Labour government has created a "lost generation" of jobless youths - as one in five young people are unemployed.
The Times reports the Financial Services Authority has been accused of giving banks a green light to continue paying multi-million-pound bonuses,.
The Financial Times says Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, delivered a glimmer of hope for the UK economy in his quarterly inflation report.
The Guardian says the under-25s are feeling the brunt of the recession as unemployment in the UK hot a 14-year high.
Metro's lead story is about a cyclist from Weymouth, Dorset, sent to prison for killing a pedestrian under a law passed in 1861.
And elsewhere...
Asia Times reports that two strong earthquakes have hit Japan and the Philippines. An earthquake of 6.7 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean, some 325km southeast of Tokyo. Earlier, a 5.6 magnitude tremor struck the Mindanao region of the Philippines. Seismologists said the quake had an epicentre 130 kilometres east of General Santos, in the south of the country and it was measured at a depth of 95 kilometres.
China Times confirms that nearly 1,000 people have been found alive around three remote Taiwan villages devastated by typhoon Morakot. But hundreds more remain missing, feared dead, in the area, which bore the brunt of the storm.
Pravda says Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin interrupted his vacation on the Black Sea resort of Sochi to visit Abkhazia, vowing to spend at least between €325 and €347 million to build military bases in the separatist Georgian region. Earlier he had issued a stern warning to Georgia against attempting to retake Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia.
USA Today says two Associated Press journalists have been seriously wounded in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, with one losing a foot.
Le Parisien reports that a swimming pool has refused entry to a young Muslim woman wearing a "burqini", a swimsuit resembling a wetsuit with built-in hood, covering most of the body. Pool officials decided to apply hygiene rules and told her she could not swim if she insisted on wearing the garment because rules forbid swimming while clothed. The newspaper said the woman, identified by her first name Carole, was a French convert to Islam and that she was determined to go to the courts to challenge the decision.
Pakistan Times reports that two schoolboys were killed and their brother badly injured when a bomb exploded in a village playground in the Bajaur tribal region.