The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Sliema Wanderers have referred corruption claims to the police. It also says that ground fireworks may disappear in some localities because of insurance costs and conditions, particularly space limitations for spectators.
The Malta Independent says BirdLife found Spring hunting comments by the Prime Minister as offensive. It also highlights the return of climbers who became the first Maltese to summit Mt Everest.
In-Nazzjon leads with the inauguration of Roseville home for the elderly in Attard. It also says that 7,300 are eligible to vote in elections for administrative councils today.
l-orizzont leads will the salaries being given to Jeffrey Pullicino orlando, chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, and the CEO Nicholas Sammut.
The overseas press
The New York Times quotes a UN report that has found that in 66 of 192 UN nations, several thousand people have been detained in secret facilities, and even tortured, since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, under the guise of preventing terrorism. Included on the list are three permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, Russia and the United States - severa; Asian and African countries as well as European states, such as Poland, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lithuania. Human rights experts are calling for action and prosecutions for those responsible.
EU Observer says Justice ministers from 14 EU countries have agreed on joint rules to govern international divorce. There were over a million divorces in the bloc in 2007, of which 140,000 involved international couples.
Cesky Noviny reports Czech President Vaclav Klaus has asked the leader of the center-right Civic Democrats to head talks with two other conservative parties aimed at forming the new government. The three parties won a combined 118 seats in the 200-member lower house in last weekend's elections.
In a speech broadcast live on Ulusal Canal TV, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he did not view radical Palestinian group Hamas, Israel's arch-foe, as a terrorist organisation but as resistance fighters struggling to defend their land. The United States and the European Union blacklist Hamas as a terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian elections in 2006. He criticised Western powers for denying Hamas a chance to shift to a democratic platform.
Y-net news says another aid vessel, the Irish Rachel Corrie, is heading for Gaza, Its crew says it is determined to break Israel's naval blockade but the Israeli say they are equally determined to intercept the ship if it does not take up an offer to dock in the port of Ashdod, where the aid could be offloaded and transferred to Gaza.
Deutsche Welle reports 10 suspected Somali pirates would be extradited from the Netherlands to face trial in Germany. The men would go on trial in Hamburg for the suspected hijacking of a German ship.
The Huntington Post says that as BP expressed confidence that a new cap placed over the ruptured well in the Gulf would capture most of the leaking oil, President Obama has said it is "way too early to be optimistic". The president was making his third visit to the oil-hit Gulf of Mexico coast. Meanwhile, as he sought to reassure investors of the company's strong financial position, BP boss Tony Hayward has said he is "heartbroken" over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
La Sicilia quotes Italian President Giorgio Napolitano calling for "more incisive" action against eco-mafia crime after an environmental league's annual report revealed Italy's mafia was making some 20.5 billion euros a year from crimes against the environment. These included illegal waste disposal, illegal building work using cheap and sub-standard cement, trafficking in animals andthe worldwide illegal recycling of electric and electronic equipment.
Pristina daily Zeri says the EU mission in Kosovo was pressing prime minister Hasim Thaci to dismiss three ministers suspected of corruption. The mission, carrying out about 100 investigations including several involving six senior government officials, has recommended to premier Thaci to continue government reform and for a start demands resignation or sacks three ministers being investigated for corruption.
An-Nahar quotes Lebanon's Energy Minister warning some of the country's top politicians that their power supply woud be cut off unless they pay their bills. Gebran Bassil said that the deficit accrued from officials and politicians who had not paid their bills was more than (€6.7 million).
El Observador says Uruguay's new president Jose Mujica has formally declared his entire wealth amounts to a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle, valued at €1,500. Mujica's only reported income is his presidential salary, about €9,000 a month, of which he gives 20 per cent to his political movement. At 75 years old, Mujica is used to an austere lifestyle. Not so his vice-president, Danilo Astori, whose declared wealth of €210,000 includes a house and car worth nearly 10 times Mujica's Beetle.