The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times reports that the economy shrunk by 3.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to official figures issued yesterday. It also reports that all eligible candidates will be accepted for the nursing course.

The focus of The Malta Independent is on a bond issue by Melita plc, formally launched yesterday.

In-Nazzjon also leads with the decision taken by the government and the University to accept all eligible students for the nursing course.

l-orizzont records the drop in GDP and also reports that inadequate equipment is being dumped on Malta for the power station extension.

The Press in Britain...

The Independent leads on three Islamic fanatics found guilty of plotting to blow up transatlantic flights.

The Daily Mail reports the men planned to conceal explosives in small drinks bottles before detonating them in mid-air.

The Times has a shopping list belonging to one of the trio convicted of plotting to blow up seven airliners bound for the US and Canada.

The Guardian says the men's arrests led to tight restrictions on passengers bringing liquids on planes.

According to The Daily Telegraph as many as 10,000 people could have been killed if the bomb plot was successful.

The Sun reports the total number of victims would have been equivalent to seven Lockerbie disasters.

The Daily Express predicts that millions of home buyers and owners can look forward to record low interest rates until at least the end of next year.

The Financial Times reports that Cadbury has vowed to mount a staunch defence against an unsolicited £10.2bn takeover offer from Kraft of the US.

The Guardian says Alan Duncan, the Conservative frontbencher who complained that MPs are being "forced to live on rations", has been sacked from the shadow cabinet as punishment for his outburst.

The Daily Star says Kate Price, aka Jordan, and Peter Andre's divorce battle kicks off in court today with both blaming each other for the split.

The celebrity couple's divorce is also the lead in the Daily Mirror.

The London Evening Standard reports that a wealthy British playboy is behind bars after being convicted of murdering a man during a £2 million property deal.

And elsewhere...

Al Jazeera reports that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, has said his country would resist demands from IRA victims for compensation adding that any compensation arising from alleged Libyan arms supplies to the IRA would be a matter for "the courts".

Defiant Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that he is still popular because Italians secretly want to be like him. During a phone interview on Canale 5, a TV channel he owns, he denied any strains with the Catholic Church and denounced what he called a "subversive campaign" to unseat a democratically elected leader.

The Jerusalem Post leads with the Israeli government's official approval of the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank - the first approved by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under heavy US pressure to freeze all settlement activity on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. Mr Netanyahu has said the newly approved homes are a prelude to a freeze.

The International Herald Tribune says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran will not halt uranium enrichment or negotiate over its nuclear rights but is ready to talk to world powers about "global challenges". His statement comes as the UN nuclear watchdog said there was "stalemate" with Iran over the suspected nuclear programme.

Dnevni Avaz reports the arrest of 43-year-old Marinko Ljepoja, a Bosnian Serb suspected of participating in the murder of about 200 Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats in 1992. The male civilians were taken to a 330-feet cliff in central Bosnia, shot and pushed over the edge.

Asia Observer says Taiwan's Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned amid criticism of the government's slow response to the a devastating storm which left some 670 people dead.

Sudan Tribune says a woman journalist convicted of violating Sudan's public indecency law by wearing trousers outdoors has been spared a feared flogging penalty. Lubna Hussein, who was fined $200, was among 13 women arrested last July in Khartoum. Ten of the women were fined and flogged two days later but Hussein and two others decided to go to trial.

Il Gazzettino says British conservationist group Venice in Peril has condemned Italian authorities over a plan to expand Venice's port into a bustling shipping hub, saying the move would further endanger the fragile lagoon and contribute to the sinking of the treasured city built on water. But the Venice port authority insisted the works would respect the environment and were necessary to deal with the growing flow of tourists and goods.

Irish Examiner reports that the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is Ireland's top fee-paying tourist attraction, with over a million visitors last year. The National Gallery of Ireland has come top of the free attractions, recording almost three quarters of a million visitors.

Times of India reports that debt-ridden Uttar Pradesh farmers are selling their wives to money lenders to survive after failing crops. Each fetches between €56 and €168 - the more beautiful the woman, the higher the price.

Metro says a 28-year-old French woman has denied killing her two children with poisoned cannelloni the day before she gave birth to a stillborn baby whose rotting body was later found on her balcony.

Kurier reports that an Austrian millionaire, who found the lost €200,000 ring of pop culture icon Bianca Jagger, has agreed to negotiate a settlement over her refusal to pay him a reward. Austrian law mandates that Jagger pay Reinhard Ringler, a wealthy entrepreneur, five per cent of the ring's value. Jagger says Ringler should not get the reward because he took too long to return the platinum-and-aquamarine ring, which she lost in Salzburg last year.