The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Malta faces a €10m fine under new EU rules if its deficit remains high.
The Malta Independent reports comments from a British tour operators' conference that austerity measures will not deter people from having holidays.
MaltaToday says a man arraigned in connection with the attempted HSBC depot hold-up has been granted bail.
In-Nazzjon reports on the launching yesterday of an e-mall.
l-orizzont says a €4 million Italian investment for the production of plastic cards in Gozo has collapsed.
The overseas press
Börzen Zeitung announces that the European Commission has put forward proposals for direct EU taxes on member states, including a possible EU-wide value-added tax. The proposals are part of a package of options for finding new sources of revenue for the European Union budget. Historically, it is the national governments which levy taxes in the EU and the 27 member states then pay a fixed contribution to the EU budget based on their gross domestic product and a percentage of their VAT proceeds. France, Germany and Britain have rejected the idea of direct EU taxes.
Britain's coalition government is to spell out today the details of how it proposes to make big cuts in state spending to reduce the high levels of national debt. The Financial Times tells how Chancellor George Osborne will usher in a "sober decade" when he announces an £83-billion (€95 billion) package of spending cuts, which are likely to lead to the loss of some half a million jobs in the public sector. Critics say the cuts risk plunging Britain back into recession.
Meanwhile, many of the British nationals focus on Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement of the biggest cuts in the country's defence spending since the end of the Cold War. He said manpower cuts of 17,000 would be made over the next five years. The Daily Telegraph warns defence cuts mean Britain would need France's help to fight a war.
Liberation says France's anti-pension reform protest strikes turned violent as youths clashed with riot police in cities across the country. More than 200 protests and one-day strikes by workers in sectors across the French economy were held, disrupting flights and throwing public transport into chaos. There was also growing alarm among motorists over fuel shortages with hundreds of filling stations running dry. President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to ensure public order.
The Wall Street Journal reports that China surprised investors by raising interest rates by a quarter percentage point, sparking a world-wide sell-off in stocks, commodities and emerging-markets currencies as investors lowered their expectations for Chinese growth, which has been seen as a key driver of the global economy. Financial analysts say the timing of the move was unexpected an viewed it as the first in a series of interest rate increases.
European Voice says MEPs will today vote on a European Commission directive to give mothers across the continent more time off - at least 18 weeks with full pay. The first six weeks would be compulsory. The Women's Rights and Gender Equality committee in the Parliament has gone a bit farther, calling for 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and two weeks of paternity leave guaranteed for all workers in the EU.
EU Observer says that the European Commission has moved a big step closer toward a ban on cloning farm animals and a prohibition of imports of cloned livestock and their meat and milk. The EU already bans the planting of all genetically modified crops except for one kind of corn, as well as factory-farm meat.
The Washington Times reports that the CIA has admitted that one of its informers, who killed seven CIA empoloyees in eastern Afghanistan last year, had not been properly vetted. An internal investigation lists a series of breakdowns which led up to the attack in which the informer detonated a suicide vest as he stood among CIA officers.
USA Today says a man has been jailed a man for 24 years for attempting to blow up a skyscraper in Dallas. The 24-year-old Jordanian, had pleaded guilty last May for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was arrested following an undercover operation.
The Daily Mail says former British Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher has been admitted to hospital with a flu infection. Her son, Sir Mark, has played down fears over her health saying she was doing "surprisingly good", adding that tests due to be performed on the Baroness were "entirely precautionary".
L'Equipe reports that Fifa has confirmed that two of its executive committee members have been summoned to appear before its ethics committee to answer allegations of corruption. The two officials were secretly filmed by London's Sunday Times, allegedly offering to sell their votes in the contest to host future world cup tournaments. Both men deny any wrongdoing.
Showbiz website tmz.com announces the death of actor Tom Bosley, famous for his role in 70s TV series Happy Days. The 83-year-old actor died in hospital in California after a brief battle with lung cancer. Bosley forged a career in Hollywood as a character actor and guest star in a number of popular 60s television shows but it was on the long-running series Happy Days that he enjoyed his biggest success, playing the father of the show's central character, Richie Cunningham, a teenager growing up in the 50s. The show ran from 1974 to 1984.