The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that a court has justified the banning of the play Stitching by the Film and Stage Classification Board. It also highlights the debate in the parliamentary social affairs committee yesterday on the sharing of TV content, reporting that Melita and Go were described as acting like a cartel.
The Malta Independent says biometric passports are to include fingerprints. It also says no new Public Service Commission has been appointed yet.
l-orizzont says a man was seriously injured in a traffic accident near Mosta yesterday. It also says that an experts are not yet completely convinced that a Russian nuclear expert's death in Malta was accidental.
In-Nazzjon says food prices in Malta are 7% cheaper than the European average. Tax on labour is also the lowest in Europe.
The overseas press
USA Today reports that the FBI has charged 11 people with belonging to a long-running Russian programme to plant secret agents inside the country. The Bureau alleged that the Russian overseas intelligence service provided members of the programme with training in language, as well as the use of codes and ciphers, before dispatching them to the US, some as early as the mid-1990s.
Athens Post says Greece is bracing itself for yet another day of disruption with a new general strike against proposed pension and labour reforms, which the Greek parliament would start discussing today. The country's two major private and public sector unions bitterly oppose draft legislation that would increase the retirement age and make it cheaper for companies to fire workers.
Meanwhile, Expansión reports that Madrid subway workers are also staging a three-day strike, called to protest an average five percent wage cut for public service workers that are due to come into effect next month. The wage cuts are part of an austerity plan aimed at reducing a deficit of 11.2 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 3 per by 2013.
Prague Tribune announces that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has appointed Petr Necas, the leader of a major conservative party, as the country's new prime minister. Necas will lead a center-right coalition that plans to reign in the country's debt.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bank for International Settlements has delivered a stern message to central banks and governments that keeping interest rates low for too long, or failing to act quickly to cut budget deficits, could sow the seeds for the next crisis. The paper said that the warning amounted to a direct challenge to the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve, the world's dominant central banks
China Daily says more than 7,200 fire-fighters are battling a huge forest fire in the in the northeastern part of the country. The paper said the situation remains very severe because of the hot weather.
Avvenire reports the Vatican has rebuked Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, who had accused the former Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano of blocking a church investigation into the late Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, who was accused of abusing boys at a seminary. The Vatican said only the Pope can level such accusations against a cardinal, not another fellow prince of the church.
The Washington Times says the US Supreme Court has ruled that Americans have the right to own a gun, saying that states and cities could not bar Americans from owning firearms in the US - a blow to gun control advocates.
Il Tempo says many professional women are freezing their eggs as they bide their time and wait for ‘Mr Right'. The trend was brought to light by a Belgian survey of educated, financially secure and mostly single women in their late 30s and 40s, all of whom had applied to have their eggs frozen at £3,000 a time. More than half said it was to give them more time to search for the right partner and almost a third wanted to give a future relationship a chance to blossom before bringing up the subject of children.
London's Daily Express reports that a grieving grandmother, who is raising seven grandchildren following her 11-year-old daughter's death from skin cancer, has called for a ban on sunbeds. Ellen Zawadski believes her daughter Teresa's love of tanning was to blame for her death - just six months after being diagnosed with the disease. Mrs Zawadski said the mother of eight was too scared to show the malignant melanoma on her leg to a doctor until it was far too late.
Metro says US prison officer Jessie Lunderby has been put on ‘administrative leave' after she featured in a nude Playboy photoshoot. A county sheriff said the 21-year-old's images as ‘June 7th Cyber Girl' on the famed magazine's website might be found to have violated department policy and lead to her dismissal. The correction officer from Fayetteville, Arkansas, said she had no regrets for her out-of-hours modelling. ‘My phone has been going like crazy and my e-mail is clogged,' she said.