The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how a schooner ran aground at Bahar ic-Caghaq and started taking in water. It also reports that material related to fireworks were found being stored illegally in parts of the former Bighi Hospital. No explosive was found.
The Malta Independent highlights a press conference given yesterday by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses. It also reports how a majority of councillors in Sliema have filed a motion of no confidence in Cyrus Engerer, who was due to be appointed Deputy Mayor.
In-Nazzjon says 46 passengers were rescued from the schoooner Fernandes. It also reports how pharmaceutical firm Actavis is investing €12m on a new warehouse and research facilities.
l-orizzont says health care is in emergency mode because of an acute shortage of nurses. It also reports how a couple chose to cohabit rather than marry because that made it easier to adopt a child.
The overseas press:
Deutsche Welle reports the eurozone economy was likely to grow twice as fast as previously thought. The European Commission said in its biannual interim economics forecast for the EU that the 16-member eurozone would grow by around 1.7 percent this year, up from the 0.9 percent growth forecast made in May. The commission almost tripled its forecast for German gross domestic product growth to 3.4 percent from 1.2 percent for 2010.
The Financial Times reports bankers in the UK, US and Switzerland are bracing themselves for tougher regulations following an agreement reached in Basel requiring banks hold more capital in reserve to prevent a repeat of the recent global financial crisis. The Wall Street Journal takes the opposite view claiming most banks are already easily able to comply with the Basel requirements.
Britain appears heading into a winter of discontent as British union leaders endorsed plans for the biggest show of industrial action for two decades against the government's proposed spending cuts. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told Sky News that unions meeting at the TUC's annual congress in Manchester have decided to co-ordinate action to defend members' jobs.
Grandma reports Cuba will lay off a million state employees - half of them within the next few months - as part of efforts to tackle a deep crisis in the socialist economy. The Cuban labour federation said the state could not continue to maintain companies and industries that lost money and had bloated payrolls.
Al Ahram says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Egypt to start a second round of Mideast peace talks, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Clinton told reporters she believed the time was ripe for Israel and the Palestinians to make a permanent peace. First, however, they would have to find a way around a disagreement over a looming end to an Israeli curb on Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for their own state.
Arutz Sheva says a group representing Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories threatened to withdraw its support to Benjamin Natenyahu's right-wing coalition unless it was allowed to resume building new homes. A partial moratorium is due to expure in under two weeks. The Palestinians said they would walk out of peace talks if settlement contruction resumes.
The New York Times says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, suspend its uranium enrichment programme and answer all questions about its nuclear programme.
La Sicilia reports an Italian trawler was fired on by a Libyan motor launch off the coast of Libya. None of the 10-man crew was hurt. The "Ariete" was reportedly told to stop but ignored the order and headed for its base in Sicily, sparking the burst of fire. The incident took place in the Gulf of Sirte about 30 nautical miles off Libya in disputed international waters.
Ansa quotes Republican Party Secretary Francesco Nucara saying that a nascent centrist caucus in the Italian House of Representatives would remove any threat to Silvio Berlusconi's government. Nucara said 20 MPs were ready to vote in the government's favour, removing any need to rely on 35 Future and Freedom (FLI) breakaways under House Speaker Gianfranco Fini.
Globovision reports at least 14 people were killed and 33 others injured - many seriously - when a passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff on a domestic flight in Venezuela. Four more people remain unaccounted for. The ATR-42 plane was carrying 51 people when it came down near the airport, in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz.
L'Osservatore Romano quotes Pope Benedict saying he felt "much pain" following the exposure of long-standing sexual abuse cases by priests in Belgium and was following the conduct of the Belgium Catholic church "very closely". The Belgian Catholic church earlier acknowledged a history of sex abuse by its clergy over the past 50 years and vowed to punish culprits.
Le Monde says it is filing a lawsuit accusing the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy of spying on its journalists. The paper, which claimed the presidency used the intelligence service to identify one of its sources, said the government was angry about its coverage of a funding scandal involving Mr Sarkozy's party. The president's office rejected all of the paper's claims.