The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the approval by Mepa of the Valletta project, and the European Parliament's approval of new Frontex operational rules which Malta had objected to.
The Malta Independent also features the Mepa decision on its front page.
In-Nazzjon says the Valletta project can now be taken in hand. It also reports that the EU has agree an aid plan for Greece.
l-orizzont says the EU has called for more women to be appointed to senior decision-making rules. It also reports that Fr Mark Montebello is to undergo a ‘trial' before the Dominican Order in Rome.
The overseas press
European Voice reports all 16 eurozone countries have backed a financing plan, worked out at a summit in Brussels, to help debt-laden Greece, which will include IMF money. Greek PM George Papandreou called it "a very satisfactory" move.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has strongly defended Pope Benedict against allegations that he failed to defrock a US priest accused of sexually abusing up to 200 deaf children. In a front-page editorial, the Vatican denounced recent media reports calling them an "ignoble attempt" to smear the Pope. The editorial came on a day abuse victims protested near St Peter's Square to demand the Pope open files on pedophile clerics and defrock "predator priests".
The Jerusalem Post says Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will convene his senior ministers later today to discuss the demands made by US President Barack Obama and his overall trip to Washington. According to Israeli officials, the US administration wants these commitments by tomorrow so it can take them to the Arab League meeting in Libya and receive that organization's backing for starting proximity talks.
Asharq al-Awsat quotes a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah saying the US administration on Thursday informed the PA that the Netanyahu meetings in Washington did not produce any agreement on the issue of construction in east Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Al Quds al-Arabi reports Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki has called on Arab countries to raise $500 million at a this weekend's summit of the Arab League in Libya to support Palestinians living in Jerusalem squeezed out by Israeli settlement building. He said Israel and the Jewish communities around the world spend more than 17.4 billion dollars on settlements in east Jerusalem.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has threatened to kill any captured Americans if the US executes the mastermind behind September 11. In a new audio message aired on Al-Jazeera TV, bin Laden said if the US executes Khalid Sheik Mohammed it would mean a "death sentence" for Americans captured by al-Qaida. Mohammed, who has confessed to plotting the 9/11 atrocities, is currently in US custody. The Obama administration is still debating where to hold his trial.
De Telegraaf says a Dutch court has fined the owner of the Netherlands' biggest cannabis-selling coffee shop 10m euros, and sentenced him to a 16-week prison term, for breaking drugs laws. Owner Meddie Willemsen, who was tried along with 15 staff of the Checkpoint coffee shop in Terneuzen, was convicted for keeping more than the maximum tolerated amount of 500g of drugs at the cafe. Checkpoint served up to 3,000 people a day before being closed last year.