The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says efforts to introduce a ban on the trade of tuna failed miserably at the CITES meeting in Doha yesterday. It also says the EU has cleared Malta of claims that it violated community rules when it extended building areas in 2006.
The Malta Independent gives prominence to the commissioning of four patrol boats by the AFM. It also reports that hoteliers saw their income drop by €54 million last year, but the long road to recovery may have started.
In-Nazzjon also features the commissioning of the patrol boats. It also says that preliminary work has started on a pool in Gozo as part of the sports complex.
l-orizzont says the Church has shared the views of Caritas on growing poverty.
The overseas press:
Al Quds al-Arabi reports Israeli aircraft struck at least six targets in the Gaza Strip early today, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel.
Haaretz quotes an Israeli military spokesman confirming there had been "direct hits". Israel also sent a letter of complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend, and the UN Security Council.
Le Soir quotes Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou calling on EU countries to live up to pledges to help his country overcome its debt crisis when they meet at a summit next week. He told a committee in the European Parliament he would rather not turn to the International Monetary Fund for aid.
Le Monde says President Sarkozy has vowed to wipe out ETA in France after a policeman was allegedly shot by one of its members in Paris. After meeting the victim's family, he said the move to stamp them out would be "total and merciless".
Asahi Shimbun says Japan has welcomed a decision by delegates at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to reject a ban on cross-border trade in rapidly declining Atlantic bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay. There were 68 votes against the measure, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions. The European Commission has warned the consequences could be catastrophic for the future of the species.
The International Herald Tribune reports that Russia has announced that it will start up the first reactor at Iran's Bushehr atomic power plant in mid-2010. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the startup, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Clinton said such a decision would be "premature" without Iranian assurances on its nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at producing atomic weapons.
The Washington Times says President Obama has postponed his long-awaited trip to Indonesia and Australia until June in order to lobby Democratic lawmakers ahead of a crucial House of Representative vote on healthcare. The decision was enforced by the need to woo wavering Democratic lawmakers with a knife-edge vote on the plan expected on Sunday.
Panapress reports the Nigerian authorities have recalled their ambassador in Tripoli after Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi suggested that Nigeria should be partitioned between Muslims and Christians to put an end to the inter-religious violence in the country. He suggested that a Christian homeland in the south could have Lagos as its capital while a Muslim homeland in the north would have Abuja as its principal city.
USA Today says Pakistani-American national David Coleman Headley has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in a Chicago court. He is accused of helping plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed. Meanwhile, a 46-year-old American woman who called herself "JihadJane" on internet sites pleaded not guilty in a Philadelphia court to the charges against her, including involvement in a "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists".
China Business News reports US Internet giant Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans next week, after rows over censorship and hacking.
In the UK, the Daily Mail claims former British Prime Minister Tony Blair waged a two-year battle to keep secret a deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq. It says his earnings since 2007 reached £20 million.
Variety announces the death of TV actor Fess Parker. He was 85. He had mesmerised children in the mid-1950s portraying frontiersman Davy Crockett on television and then won a new audience in the 1960s as Daniel Boone.
The Sun reports that the British, obsessed with cheap stores, have been voted the worst dressed in Europe by 44 per cent of the consumers in seven countries - behind the likes of the Swedes and Dutch. In the survey by shopping website Ciao, 33 per cent thought Germans were least fashionable and the Italians were voted the most stylish with only three per cent calling them badly dressed.