The following are the top items in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times quotes a Sedqa doctor wondering if drug use should continue to be considered a crime.
The Malta Independent says transport taxes in Malta are the second highest in the EU.
In-Nazzjon leads with the agreement reached yesterday between the government and the MUMN.
l-orizzont reports that an ambulance is being hired for €105 a day because another one has been missing a diesel filter for weeks.
The overseas press
Berliner Zeitung reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel have reaffirmed their commitment to the euro and to the fiscal solvency of the eurozone. At a break in a meeting between the two leaders in Freiburg, Mrs Merkel told reporters that “if the euro fails, the European Union fail, too:. Meanwhile, President Sarkozy pledged that Germany and France "will defend the euro, because the euro is Europe". He also backed Germany's opposition to creating unified European sovereign bonds.
Estos Diaz says the UN summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, was drawing to a close with delegates still searching for an agreement on future cut of greenhouse gas emissions. Japan and Russian have been resisting further cuts under the Kyoto protocol despite appeals from several world leaders and pressure from developing countries.
The People’s Daily quotes a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman saying the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was a "political farce". China said the move by the prize committee in Oslo did not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world.
Aftonbladet reports there were standing ovations at the ceremony in Norway for Mr Liu, who was represented only by an empty chair. The committee's chairman called for the immediate release of the dissident, who is serving an 11-year jail term.
Deutsche Welle reports that the International League for Human Rights has cancelled this year's award of the Carl von Ossietzky Medal, because the Israeli winner, Mordechai Vanunu, was not allowed to travel to Berlin to receive the award in person. The ceremony, planned for Sunday, would now be turned into a protest event. Vanunu received the prize for his work in promoting disarmament. In 1986, Vanunu disclosed the inner workings of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, for which he served an 18-year sentence for treason and espionage.
Bild says former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who is wanted in connection with a corruption investigation, has been arrested by police in Austria. He had left Croatia on Thursday shortly before parliament lifted his immunity from prosecution. Mr Sanader says the accusations against him are politically motivated.
Iran's English-language Press TV has denied reports that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two whose sentence to death by stoning for adultery had sparked an outcry, has been freed from jail.
El Universal says the authorities in Mexico say they have shot dead a notorious drug baron in the western state of Michoacan. Nazario Moreno Gonzalez – known as the Craziest One – was a leader of the drug cartel known as La Familia. He was killed during fierce fighting between security forces and cartel gunmen.
Cape Cod Times reports that the Federal Aviation Administration has reveals it was missing key information on who owned 119,000 private and commercial aircraft or one-third of the planes on the U.S. registry – a gap the agency feared could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers. It said that starting next year, all aircraft would have to re-register. In some case the FAA did not even know whether certain aircraft were still operating.
The Daily Telegraph says police in London have launched a criminal investigation into student protests in the capital over the past month which culminated in an attack on Prince Charles and his wife on Thursday night. The Sun reported the Duchess of Cornwall was poked in the ribs with a stick when protesting students attacked their car. The investigation would concentrate on the circumstances behind the violence and aimed to find those responsible.
The New York Post says a nun has denied charges that she embezzled $850,000 over 10 years from the college where she worked. Sister Marie Thornton, known as Sister Susie, took the money to pay "credit card bills for personal expenses", according to court documents. Prosecutors say she hid the thefts by submitting fake invoices to Iona College, the Catholic institution where she was vice-president of finance.