The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the resignation of Fgura Mayor Darren Marmara, rather than face a no-confidence motion. He said he had served with integrity and honesty. The newspaper also reports complaints about participants in the Jazz Festival about fireworks.
The Malta Independent looks into preparatory works being done on the City Gate projects. It also carries reactions to the SEC results.
In-Nazzjon says the Mayor of Fgura has resigned following pressure and threats against him and his family. It also reports that a yacht marina is to be set up at Kalkara.
l-orizzont says speed may have been a factor in the collision between a yacht and a small boat which left a man dead.
The overseas press:
China Daily quotes Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao saying China would continue to invest in European markets despite the debt problems affecting many eurozone countries. He was speaking in Beijing alongside the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who described his pledge as an important signal that China has confidence in the euro.
Meanwhile, Le Monde says that French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, during a speech to Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, sought to ease Japanese fears over instability in the eurozone by urging business leaders not to turn away from the embattled euro single currency. He said Europe was united on stabilizing the euro and reforming the public finances of many of the 16 states that share the single currency.
Sydney's Daily Telegraph devotes the whole front page to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's announcement that Australia will go to the polls on 21 August. In a televised address, Ms Gillard said the general election would allow voters to choose their new leader. Ms Gillard's governing Labour Party elected her three weeks ago after dumping her predecessor, Kevin Rudd. Economy, health and immigration are expected to be key issues during the election campaign.
Cuba's Grandma says Fidel Castro has warned of the threat of global nuclear war in his most overtly political public act since re-emerging from four years of near total seclusion. With Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at his side, the former president took questions for more than 90 minutes from Cuba's ambassador corps, who were assembled in Havana for a regularly scheduled meeting. It was the revolutionary leader's fifth appearance in less than a week, and the first in which he met with senior government officials.
The International Herald Tribune reports a heat wave across much of Europe was causing crops to wither, forest fires to ignite and roads to melt, while residents have been warned to be prepared for the hot conditions to continue for another week. Europe's weather comes on the heels of a record heat wave stifling much of the US Eastern Seaboard. Philadelphia, Newark and Trenton, New Jersey hit 38 degrees last week in weather that caused scattered power cuts throughout the region.
And heat waves may be here to stay, it seems. The Washington Post quotes US climate scientists saying that June was a record-setting month, keeping the planet on a course for a hot year. Worldwide, the average temperature in June was 16.2 degrees Celsius - 0.68 degrees warmer than average for the month of June. This year has had the warmest average temperature for the January-June period on record - 12.2 degrees Celsius.
Pravda reports that Russia's lower house of parliament has approved a bill empowering the country's secret police, the FSB, to call citizens in for "precautionary talks" for potential crimes agents believe may be committed in the future. Under the law, FSB officials would require no evidence to take such action.
Hamburger Morgenpost says the world's first female Lutheran bishop, Maria Jepsen, has resigned over the handling of an alleged sex abuse case in her diocese, dating back to the 1980s when a pastor in the town of Ahrensburg reportedly sexually abused as many as 20 children. Jepsen had said she had only become aware of cases in March of this year when she received a letter from one of the victims. But a recent report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel and the daily Hamburger Abendblatt indicated Jepsen knew of the priest's suspected behaviour in 1999.
Metro quotes the results of a new research that cast doubt over the stereotype of a "seven-year itch" in marriage. A study of 90 family law firms in Britain found that the biggest threat to a marriage hits after 12 years. More than 25 per cent split because of infidelity, and 18 per cent because of "unreasonable behaviour".
La Gazzetta dello Sport announces that more than 5,000 people have been arrested across Asia as part of a World Cup operation against illegal gambling. Interpol said almost $10m was seized during the crackdown in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Police in those countries identified and raided nearly 800 illegal gambling dens, which handled more than $155m (£100m) in bets.
Bild says a German zoo has turned down a "transfer request" from Spain for its star performer during the football World Cup - Paul, the "psychic" octopus, which shot up to world fame after correctly predicting the outcome of Germany's seven World Cup matches, and got the result of the final with Spain right. But his aquarium in Germany have turned down a request to sell or loan him to Madrid Zoo.