The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports how Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sacked the government as protests continue. It also reports how an industrialist in Gozo proposed the building of a tunnel between Gozo and Malta.
The Malta Independent says a silent wind turbine has been inaugurated in Gozo by FXB. The company is hoping to eventually get all its electricity from renewable sources. It also reports how the Arab world is in turmoil after major protests in Egypt.
In-Nazzjon says Joseph Muscat has gone back to the 1970s by appointing former minister Karmenu Vella as the person responsible to draft the PL electoral programme.
l-oizzont says the number of workers with precarious jobs and poor conditions working with contractors on government contracts has increased.
The overseas press:
Al Ahram reports President Hosni Mubarak has sacked his government and said a new one would b appointed this morning. Appearing on television for the first time since protests erupted demanding his resignation; he said he would press ahead with social, economic and political reforms. He defended the security forces' crackdown on protesters, warned he would not allow Egypt to be destabilised and promised new restrictions would be introduced to ensure security.
The Egyptian Gazette says tens of thousands took part in protests in Cairo, Suez, Alexandria and other cities after Friday prayers. Protests continued into the night despite a curfew. Latest reports say the army has taken control of the capital’s central square. Protesters set fire to the headquarters of the governing NDP party and besieged state TV and the foreign ministry. At least 13 people were killed in Suez and five in Cairo – bringing the death toll to at least 26 since the protests began on Tuesday. Hundreds were injured.
The Washington Times says in a televised address shortly after Mr Mubarak spoke, President Obama said he had spoken directly and at length with the Egyptian president for the first time since the clashed began. He urged him to give meaning to his pledges of greater democratic and economic freedom. He also called on the Egyptian government to stop interfering with the Internet and phone services.
The Wall Street Journal said that increasing the pressure on Egypt's leaders, the Obama administration has threatened to reduce a $1.5 billion programme of foreign aid depending on President Mubarak's response to swelling street protests in Cairo and other cities. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said violence was not the response to the demands for greater freedoms.
According to France 24, a crowd of some 3,000 people gathered in Jordan's capital Amman on Friday in the latest in a string of protests calling for political change and greater freedoms. Banners and chants showed a wider range of grievances than the high food prices that fuelled earlier protests, and included demands for free elections, the dismissal of Prime Minister Samir Rifai's government and a representative parliament.
Assabah says violent protests continued in Tunisia as security forces chased groups of protesters through central Tunis and fired tear gas, after dispersing hundreds of demonstrators holding a 24-hour sit-in outside government offices. Some carried placards reading: "We want freedom for the hijab, the niqab and the beard." Under ex-President Ben Ali's rule, women who covered their hair by wearing the hijab, in the Muslim tradition, were denied jobs or education. Men with long beards were stopped by police.
The Christian Science Monitor reports hundreds have gathered at NASA's launch site to mark the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, receiving words of hope from the widow of the space shuttle's commander. The chilly outdoor ceremony drew space agency managers, former astronauts, past and present launch directors, family and friends of the fallen crew – and schoolchildren who weren't yet born when the space shuttle carrying a high school teacher erupted in the sky.
AllAfrica reports that the African Union was setting up a panel of heads of state to find a solution to the political crisis in Ivory Coast. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said the panel would come up with a legally-binding settlement in the dispute between Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo within a month.
The New York Post says human medications, including dropped pills, sickened more pets in the United States last year than any other toxin. It's the third year in a row that human medications top the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' list of top 10 toxins.
According to Motoring News, an alcohol-detection prototype, that uses automatic sensors to instantly gauge a driver's fitness to be on the road, has the potential to save thousands of lives, but could be as long as a decade away from everyday use in cars. Researchers said the systems could measure whether a motorist has a blood alcohol content at or above the legal limit of 0.08 and, if so, prevent the vehicle from starting.
Irish Express says an Irish woman who emigrated to New York more than 10 years ago, has won the New York Lottery, worth $21.5 million (€15.8 million). Forty-year-old Patricia, a mum of three boys aged nine, seven and four, discovered that she had the winning numbers while in a laundrette. Currently living in Long Beach, she said she would buy a home and give up her job as a waitress.