The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times quotes the Prime Minister saying an increase in the minimum wage is not the solution to poverty.
The Malta Independent reports a comment by the Prime Minister that the percentage of people at risk of poverty in Malta is below the EU average. It also quotes PL leader Joseph Muscat saying the health sector needs a new vision.
In-Nazzjon says the economy is growing and creating 11 new jobs every day. It also says that the ETC last year helped 2,132 people find a job.
l-orizzont says there is a quasi-monopoly in the granting of road works contracts in Gozo. The newspaper also quotes MEP Prof Edward Scicluna saying that Maltese economy is losing €42 million in a year. In another story, the newspaper says the number of migrant arrivals in Malta has decreased by 1,000. There have been no arrivals in five-and-a half months.
The overseas press
The Washington Times reports that by a seven-vote majority, the US House of Representatives approved President Obama's historic healthcare reform. On a narrow and hard-fought 219-212 vote, House Democrats approved the most dramatic health policy changes in four decades.
Le Parisien says in President Sarkozy's center-right bloc has suffered a bitter defeat in France's regional elections: the conservative UMP alliance lost all but one or two electoral districts.
Az-Zaman reports Iraq's election commission has rejected calls from the president and prime minister for a recount of votes cast in the general election. An election official said a recount of all votes would be impossible and was unnecessary.
According to Al Jazeera, four Palestinians have been killed by Isreali fire as violence in the West Bank worsens, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu heads to Washington to patch up relations.
Focus quotes the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, admitting that cases of child sex abuse were known and covered up. In an interview with the publication, he denied allegations that he personally had suppressed information.
Cyprus Mail says the police have arrested a Romanian suspected of vandalising the tombs of three archbishops in a cemetery in Nicosia.
In the UK, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and The Sun give prominence to the fact that Soham murderer Ian Huntley was admitted to hospital after his throat was slit by a fellow prison inmate. His condition is not believed to be life-threatening. Huntley was convicted of murdering schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10, after they vanished from their homes in August 2002.
The Age reports an American surgeon has denied three charges of manslaughter and another of grievous bodily harm at a court in the Brisbane. Prosecutors accused Jayant Patel, 59, of incompetence and failing to declare that he had previously been reprimanded by medical boards in the United States. The charges relate to Dr Patel's work at Bundaberg hospital in Queensland between 2003 and 2005. If convicted, Mr Patel faces life in prison. He denied the charges.