The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas newspapers:
The Times leads with an EU report which says that Malta’s economic rebound was stronger than expected. It also features the comments made yesterday by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that his country is either helped to stop migration or Europe turns black.
The Malta Independent says the European Commission expects the Air Malta restructuring to impact on deficit projections.
In-Nazzjon also leads with the rebound in the Maltese economy reported by the EU, and Libya’s insistence on funds to stop migration.
l-orizzont reports a sewage overflow in Valletta. It also quotes an economist saying that it is in everyone’s interest that the euro is strengthened.
The overseas press
The Washington Times leads with US Secretary of Sate Hilary Clinton’s lambast against WikiLead’s disclosures of US classified diplomatic messages, describing them as an attack on the whole international community. Mrs Clinton said every country must have “private, honest dialogue” with other countries.
Al Jamahariya reports Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who is hosting a two-day EU-Africa summit in Tripoli, has lashed out at his European counterparts, insisting that the EU's Africa policy was one-sided and did not benefit African nations enough. In his opening speech, Gaddafi demanded that "Christian, white" Europe lend more financial and technical support for his efforts to combat illegal migration to Europe or face becoming "black”.
El Puebo says that Hermila Garcia Baeza, a trained lawyer who had been police chief in northern Mexico for only about a month, has been gunned down by unknown gunmen who ambushed her on a highway near the rural town in the northern state of Chihuahua. More than 28,000 people have died in spiralling drug violence in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched a military crackdown on organised crime.
O Globo quotes Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva praising a 2,600-member-strong police and military operation to take control of a notorious drug traffickers' stronghold in the city of Rio de Janeiro. President Lula said the occupation of the Complexo do Alemao favela was just the start of a campaign to rid Rio of drugs gangs.
Estos Dias says some 15,000 delegates from more than 190 countries are in Cancun, Mexico, for the latest round of UN talks on climate change. Scientists say emissions should be cut 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to prevent a dangerous rise in global temperatures.
Ethnos reports the Greek government has issued an emergency order to force ferry workers to end their week-long strike. Hundreds of islands are without ferry services to the mainland, with some starting to suffer supply shortages such as medicine and fresh products.
The Wall Street Journal says President Obama has proposed a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers as part of efforts to cut spending and reduce the country’s massive deficit. But he warned that he could not risk deeps cuts that could derail economic recovery.
Abrar quotes Iran’s interior minister, Mostafa Najjar, accusing the CIA and the Mossad of Monday’s assassination of one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists. Hitmen on motorbikes pulled up beside nuclear engineer Majid Shahriari’s car as he and his wife drove through Tehran. They attached explosives to the windows and detonated them. His wife was injured. In a separate but similar attack, another nuclear expert Fereydoon Abbasi and his wife were also wounded.
Liberation says an immense collection of 271 previously unknown works by Pablo Picasso, worth some €60 million, has turned up in southern France, at the residence of a 71-year old retired electrician and his wife. The couple claims they received the works as gifts from Picasso or Picasso's wife. But Picasso's heirs have filed a complaint alleging the receipt of stolen goods.
La Sicilia announced the arrest of a 69-year-old man on suspicion of carrying out a series of murders in Sicily. Giuseppe Raeli, dubbed the Monster of Cassibile, has been charged with five murders and four attempted murders between 1998 and 2009. Prosecutors say Raeli would kill for just €200 because he wanted justice for himself over those who didn't pay him for small jobs he'd done for them. Raeli ran a wood supply business.
Three senior Fifa officials who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 bids for the World Cup are alleged to have taken bribes. The BBC TV current affairs programme Panorama revealed that Fifa executive committee members, representatives of Brazil, Paraguay and Cameroon, received payments from a Swiss sports marketing firm. The BBC has received criticism over the timing of the programme, which came ahead of Thursday's vote by Fifa's executive committee on who would host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals. England is competing with Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium to host the 2018 tournament.