The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times and the other newspapers feature the approval by parliament of a motion for the holding of a divorce referendum. The Times also reports how Gaddafi forces are threatening Benghazi.
The Malta Independent's front page is totally dedicated to the divorce referendum.
In-Nazzjon says parliament yesterday also approved all the Budget measures.
l-orizzont reports that the FORUM group of trade unions has demanded William Portelli's resignation as president of the CMTU.
The overseas press
According to TV Asahi, Japanese military helicopters dumped loads of seawater onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant reactor early today, trying to avoid full meltdowns as plant operators said they were close to finishing a new power line that could restore cooling systems and ease the crisis.
The Washington Post says US officials, meanwhile, warned that the plant in northeastern Japan may be on the verge of spewing more radioactive material because water was gone from a storage pool that kept spent nuclear fuel rods from overheating.
According to a leaked 2008 US embassy cable published in London’s Daily Telegraph, IAEA officials had warned Japan that nuclear safety rules were outdated and earthquakes could cause "serious problems" for nuclear power stations.
The New York Times quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on both sides in the conflict in Libya to accept an "immediate ceasefire", even as deliberations began at the Security Council over a draft resolution regarding the crisis. Ban warned that those responsible for the continuous use of military forces against civilians would be held accountable.
Newsday says supporters of a no-fly zone over Libya called for a Security Council vote today on a UN resolution aimed at preventing Muammar Gaddafi's planes from conducting aerial attacks on the Libyan people. However, the United States was pushing for broader action to protect civilians from land and sea attacks as well. Britain and France put a draft resolution that would impose a no-fly zone in a final form late yesterday after more than eight hours of closed-door discussions by Security Council ambassadors. France's UN Ambassador Gerard Araud said the text was being sent to capitals overnight and could still be changed before being put to a vote in the 15-member council.
The Libyan army has told people in Benghazi to leave opposition-held locations and arms storage areas. A text on the screen of Al-Libya television addressed people in the eastern city, saying the army was coming “to support you and to cleanse your city from armed gangs”
Gaddafi said on Lebanon's LBC TV he did not expect a battle in Benghazi because Libyan people have been helping get rid of "al Qaeda" elements there. Gaddafi, however, vowed that his forces would get engaged in a "decisive battle" on Thursday to recapture Misrata, the country's third city.
In an interview with the French Le Figaro newspaper, Gaddafi dismissed the idea of dialogue with the opposition, saying that there can be no dialogue with al-Qaeda. He also alleged that pro-democracy activists in Benghazi were gangs who are "likely to use citizens as human shields".
Meanwhile, Saif al-Islam, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, has told Euronews forces loyal to his father were nearing the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and predicted an uprising against the regime would be crushed within the next two days.
Al Jazeera says Gaddafi's forces launched a major attack on the rebel-held city of Misurata, killing at least five people. Fighting was also under way in the eastern town of Ajdabiyah as rebels fought back against Gaddafi troops in an effort to halt their push towards Benghazi. Rebels vowed to continue fighting.
AFP quotes pro-democracy activists saying they had taken control of the Anwar Afriqiya oil tanker, a ship carrying 25,000 tons of fuel, in the waters off Tobruk.
Al Ahram says the Obama administration has sharply warned Bahrain against violent crackdowns on anti-government demonstrators as unrest worsened around the Middle East. The warning came as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Egyptians to hold true to the ideals of their revolution while she toured Cairo's Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the peaceful uprising that toppled Egypt's longtime autocratic leader last month.
Meanwhile, al-Khaleej says soldiers and riot police in Bahrain have imposed a 12-hour curfew. Witnesses said helicopters fired on homes in a hunt for Shiites and attacking doctors treating the wounded, while the government called the demonstrators "outlaws" for demanding an end to the monarchy.
The Irish Independent reports that a delegation from the EU and the IMF has given the Irish government the go-ahead to make changes to Ireland's bailout deal, as long as the overall savings target remains the same. The head of the IMF mission to Ireland, Ajai Chopra, along with representatives from the European Commission and the ECB, met with ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin and agreed to accept the programme as long as the new administration agreed to raise the same amount of money from cuts and taxes.
Staatscourant says that at a press conference in The Hague, Europol revealed that more than 120 suspected paedophiles had been arrested in Britain as part of one of the biggest global investigations ever mounted into child abuse networks on the internet. Across the world, 670 paedophile suspects have been identified and a total of 184 arrests made – two thirds in the UK – as part of Operation Rescue, which has been running for more than three years. Europol coordinated police forces in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, America and the UK.
Dawn says Pakistan has freed the CIA contractor who shot and killed two men in a gunfight in Lahore after a deal was sealed on Wednesday to pay $2.34 million (€1.38 million) in "blood money" to the men's families. The agreement, nearly seven weeks after the shootings, ended a tense showdown with a vital US ally that had threatened to disrupt the war on terrorism.
The New York Times reveals US Customs and Border Protection has been secretly flying Predator drones into Mexico for two years, helping Mexican authorities spy on suspected drug traffickers. The border security agency's surveillance flights were approved by Mexico but never announced by either country.