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

The Times leads with an appeals court decision to free a Briton, Steve Marsden, who had been jailed for 25 years for importing pills. The nature of the pills was later found not to have been illegal. It also reports how a man has been accused of raping a girl, aged seven at the time. The man himself was 17.

The Malta Independent also reports on the rape trial and gives prominence to the Prime Minister's visit to Madrid to meet Spanish PM Zapatero.

In-Nazzon says Spain has confirmed that one of its priorities as EU president will be EU action on immigration. It also says a €20m biotechnology park is being set up jointly by Malta Enterprise, the University and Mater Dei Hospital.

l-orizzont leads with GWU Budget proposals aimed at sustainable investment and higher living standards.

The Press in Britain...

The Independent says the official re-appointment of Hamid Karzai for a second term as Afghanistan's president was a victory for a crooked, corrupt and discredited government.

The Daily Telegraph reports on a u-turn by David Cameron: a Conservative government would no longer offer voters a Lisbon Treaty referendum.

The Times reports Alan Johnson is the first Labour Home Secretary to admit community problems were ignored in relation to the government's immigration policy.

The Guardian says a funding crisis has dramatically hit free state-run nurseries, leaving them stretched and over-subscribed.

The Daily Mail dedicates its front page to a mother's appearance at the High Court to support a hospital's application for her year-old baby, with an active brain locked inside an immobile body, to be taken off life support.

The Daily Star reports England and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney sobbed with joy at the arrival of his first born child.

The Sun has typical fun with the new arrival, dedicating a terrace chant to the boy the Rooneys have named Kai.

The proud parents are also pictured on the front of Metro, which leads with BNP leader's appearance in court to defend claims he was racially abused by an Asian man who shouted "white bastards" at him and his group from a passing car.

The Daily Express has a picture of how Maddy McCann probably looks now, after three years of her abduction, saying the paper believes she is still alive.

And elsewhere...

Deutsche Welle reports that western leaders have responded to the re-election of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, offering congratulations and advice.

Pakistan Today says a suicide bomber has killed 35 people outside a bank near Pakistan's capital. Meanwhile, the UN said spreading violence in the country had forced it to suspend long-term development work in the northwest regions along the Afghan border.

Asia Observer reports that North Korea is pressing the United States to accept its demand for direct talks on the communist regime's nuclear programme. And it warned that Pyongyang "will go our own way" unless Washington agrees

Le Parisien says far-right French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter said she would attempt to succeed her father as head of the National Front party. Marine Le Pen, the party's vice president, said her father's successor will probably be chosen at the next party congress next year.

Hague News reports former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has said he would appear at a UN court hearing to discuss how to proceed with his trial, which he has boycotted since it began on October 26. The UN prosecutor has told the trial at the Hague that Karadzic's only regret about the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims was that some survived.

Cleveland News Daily quotes medical experts saying the six women whose badly-decomposed bodies were found at the home of a convicted rapist had been murdered. At least five had apparently been strangled but decomposition made it difficult to determine how the sixth died. They said the bodies could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years.

China Today says a naked man who climbed out of a window and hid on the ledge to escape his lover's furious husband has been caught on camera. Sun Meng has been given the cold shoulder by his community after the extraordinary picture of him cowering naked outside the flat were posted on the internet. The terrified 25-year-old fled from the balcony window when he was caught in bed with the man's wife at the married couple's flat in Chengdu, central China.