The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that the President yesterday met victims of alleged child abuse by the clergy and promised to look into the causes of the court delays. It also reports the traffic chaos after a heavy vehicle hit a bridge in Aldo Moro Rd yesterday.
The Malta Independent shows the President with one of the abuse victims. It also says that Greece has requested the activation of the IMF-EU assistance package.
In-Nazzjon quotes Transport Minister Austin Gatt saying the liberalization of taxi services is being finalized. It also reports on yesterday's traffic chaos. In another story, it says Palumbo will employ 250 in the dockyard in its first year.
l-orizzont says that ttraffic was jammed in half of Malta because of the Marsa incident yesterday. It also reports that very few hunters have applied and paid for a spring hunting licence.
The overseas press
Kathimerini reports that Greek riot police have clashed with some 2,500 protesters in the capital Athens demonstrating after Prime Minister George Papandreou asked for the activation of a €45bn EU-IMF aid package mechanism aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis shaking the euro zone. Papandreou's announcement has sparked fears among workers unions that tougher measures might be on their way.
Al Jazeera says White House Middle East envoy George Mitchell has told Israeli and Palestinian leaders that President Obama wants a peace deal in the region "soon, not in some vague and distant time in the future". During a busy day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, Mitchell said that Obama was determined to see a peace settlement that addressed Israeli security concerns and provides the Palestinians with a viable independent state.
The New York Times reports a man accused of plotting to bomb the New York subway has told a court he had been ordered to carry out the attacks by al-Qaida leaders. Prosecutors say the foiled attacks were modelled on the London underground bombings in July 2005, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people and themselves.
Avvenire announces that the Vatican has agreed to donate €2.3m to a fund for research into the potential use of adult stem cells in treating diseases. The church is opposed to embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos, but it supports the use of adult stem cells. In 2007 the pope said adult stem cell research respects human life, which according to church teachings begins at conception.
L'Echo eports Belgium's longest-serving bishop has resigned saying he was "enormously sorry" for sexually abusing a young boy 25 years ago. The resignation of Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the Bishop of Bruges since 1984, was the first from Belgium since the child abuse scandal hit the Catholic Church several months ago in Europe and the United States.
Clarin says three former altar boys allegedly sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest, and a priest collaborating with authorities have received threats and are under police protection. They were threatened after they denounced Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa for allegedly molesting former altar boys. A video allegedly showing Mosignor Barbosa abusing one of the altar boys was broadcast on television last month.
Az-Zaman reports a triple bombing hit the main Baghdad office of an anti-Western Shiite cleric in the deadliest of a series of attacks across Iraq that killed more than 60 people and wounded another 200. The violence came days after Iraqi authorities announced the killings of the top two al Qaida in Iraq leaders in what was seen as a major blow to the insurgency.
Metro says Nick Clegg went on the offensive today, accusing David Cameron and Gordon Brown of attempting to "frighten" British voters away from voting Liberal Democrat in an attempt to protect their share of the vote. He said people should put "hope before fear" in an election which was the most exciting for a generation.
According to Uganda Daily, 80 people have died over the past three weeks in a south-western district of Uganda after drinking illegal home-made banana gin laced with methanol. Symptoms included blindness, as well as liver and kidney failure before death.
ABC announces that Spanish surgeons have carried out the world's first full-face transplant. The hospital, in Barcelona, performed the surgery on a young man who lost his face in an accident five years ago. Since then, he'd been unable to swallow, speak or breathe properly.
Le Parisien says a French Muslim woman has been fined for driving while wearing a full-face veil, as the government pushes to ban the garment. The woman's lawyer has accused police of abusing her human rights, after officers stopped the 31-one-year-old in the western city of Nantes and fined her 22 euros on the grounds that her niqab - an Islamic veil with a slit for the eyes - restricted her view so she could not drive safely. He added that "the field of vision of a motorcycle rider wearing a helmet is more restricted".