The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times carries an interview with Maria Farrugia, the woman who lost her husband and two sons in last Sunday's fireworks factory explosion.
The Malta Independent says the jobless figure is likely to be less than 6.5% this year.
Malta Today asks what went wrong with regard to the government's plans to improve safety in fireworks factories.
In-Nazzjon says the economy in the second quarter grew by almost 4% compared to the same period last year.
l-orizzont says public funds were used for a party held on the roof of the minister's private residence.
The overseas press:
EU Observer reports European finance ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed that, as of next year, the 27 EU member states would have to submit their proposed budgets to the union in advance, so that Brussels could scrutinise their plans before they took effect. The new method was designed to prevent individual countries racking up excessive levels of debt.
Le Parisien says French trade unions have estimated that 2.5 million workers hit the streets yesterday in protest against government plans to raise France's retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018. The strike coincided with the presentation of the new Bill in parliament. President Sarkozy's center-right UMP party, however, said the planned pension reform is necessary and that it will not back down.
Corriere della Sera quotes Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's key ally, Lega Nord's Umberto Bossi, saying it was better to have early elections than to try to keep the government alive without a safe majority because of a likely war of attrition by their former ally, Speaker Gianfranco Fini, Bossi said he and Berlusconi would "know what to do" after talking to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Fini has confirmed he would not bow to pressure to resign and would continue until the end of the legislature.
Canberra Times says Prime Minister Julia Gillard would lead Australia's first minority government in nearly 70 years after two independent politicians joined her coalition. With no clear winner in the polls more than two weeks ago, Miss Gillard's centre-left Labor Party finally gained control of 76 seats, two more that the Conservative opposition's 74.
Honduras' La Tribuna reports that 15 workers were killed and eight wounded after four men armed with assault rifles burst into a shoe factory in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, in what police described as "a massacre". Police were not ruling out the possibility the attack may have been related to drug trafficking.
The New York Times says a senior UN officials has said that UN peacekeepers had failed victims of the recent mass rape attacks in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Atul Khare told the Security Council the scale of systematic rape by armed rebels was far worse than feared - up to 500 women and children were now believed raped in recent weeks, more than double the previously reported figure.
The Washington Times says there has been widespread condemnation of plans by a small church in the United States to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville in Florida, says the event will "remember those who were brutally murdered" and send a warning "to the radical element of Islam". But military commanders in Kabul have warned that such an act wound endanger American lives. The US Attorney General described the plan as\"idiotic and dangerous".
The New York Post reveals that the man who murdered former Beatle John Lennon three decades ago will remain behind bars for at least another two years after being denied parole for a sixth time. Mark David Chapman, 55, was interviewed by a three-member panel of the parole board via video link and had his request for early release turned down again.
The Times reports a British police sergeant who injured a woman when he threw her in a cell has been jailed for six months. Sgt Mark Andrews was caught on CCTV dragging Pamela Somerville, 59, who was arrested after being found asleep in her car. She was detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test. The CCTV footage shows her lying on the floor for a minute before struggling to get up with blood pouring from a head wound.
USA Today says the airline steward who fled his plane via the emergency exit chute after swearing at a passenger would be mentally evaluated for a possible plea deal. Steven Slater appeared in a New York and he could face community service instead of jail.
Metro reports a great-grandfather who said he became a crack cocaine dealer because he could not live on his pension has been jailed for four-and-a-half yars. David Hartley, 65, admitted he dealt in the class A drug because he was worried about paying his bills. He was arrested after police stopped him in his car and smelt cannabis. A total of £8,400 worth of the drug was eventually found, he added.