The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the medical condition of former President Guido de Marco has improved. It also reports that Sta Venera Mayor Elizabeth Vella resigned over a donation of €80.
The Malta Independent says the authorities have been urged to support the fireworks tradition.
In-Nazzjon says there has been a sharp increase in exports. It also looks ahead to the election for MFA president today.
l-orizzont says an illegal abbatoir has been found in Qormi.
The overseas press:
The Guardian reports that President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistani and British Prime Minister David Cameron have agreed to increase cooperation in tackling international terrorism, smoothing over recent tensions and asserting that the bond between the two countries remained 'unbreakable'. Relations between the two Commonwealth countries soured after Cameron suggested Pakistan was not fully committed to fighting extremism at home.
Daily Punjab says the worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people - and according to the UN, at least 1,600 people have died in the flooding, considered the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan. In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.
According to Frettabladid, a giant sheet of ice measuring 260 sq km has broken off a glacier in Greenland - the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962.
The Times of India says an Indian stockpile of 18 million tonnes of wheat, enough to feed more than 200 million people for a year, is starting to rot through lack of room to store it. Global wheat supplies have been hit by drought and fires in Russia, heavy rains in Canada and locusts in Australia.
Pravda reports that today's weekly changing of the guard ceremony at the Kremlin has been cancelled because of thick, noxious smog over Moscow. As Air pollution surged to five times normal levels, Muscovites have been asked to wear surgical masks and stay indoors. Workers were sent home as smoke seeped into offices and even underground metro stations.
The Warsaw Times says Bronislaw Komorowski has been sworn in for a five-year term as Poland's president. In his inauguration speech, the 58-year-old promised to modernize Poland's infrastructure and to improve ties with the United States, NATO, the European Union and EU hopefuls like Ukraine.
Cubavision International reports that Fidel Castro is expected to attend today's special session of parliament - his first appearance in front of lawmakers in four years. The legislature was meeting at Castro's request and would discuss the possibility of global nuclear war.
A leading opinion poll shows Australia's Labour government heading for an election defeat in two weeks time. The results, published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, showed Labour trailing the opposition by 49 percent to 51 percent.
Pope Benedict XVI wanted to become the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives 13 years ago but his request to quit high office in the Vatican was rejected. Speaking to Inside the Vatican magazine, the incumbent librarian and archivist Cardinal Raffaele Farina said Pope John Paul declined Cardinal Ratzinger's request to spend his last years as a librarian. Had Pope John Paul II accepted the request, it is unlikely that the Pontiff would ever have become Pope.
Le Parisien reports that five paintings - including a Degas and two works by Toulouse-Lautrec - have been stolen from the Paris residence of an 88-yar-old woman while she was on holiday. The woman had failed to activate the security system. The paintings were not insured.
De Telegraaf says a 25-year-old Dutch woman has been arrested on suspicion of killing four of her babies and hiding their bodies in suitcases in the attic of the home where she lives with her parents. The inquiry was started when police were informed the woman had no children despite being pregnant several times.
The Sun says a British couple who won an £11 million lottery jackpot plan to treat their dog to a diamond-studded collar. Peter and Jacqueline Redikin, from Cheadle Heath near Stockport had the only winning ticket for Wednesday evening's double rollover draw. Peter, who was forced to give up his job as a joiner 15 years ago after injuring his knee, plans to see a private surgeon to try to repair the damage in the hope he will be able to live a more active life.