The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports figures issued in Brussels which show that economic projections are on course.
The Malta Independent says a pregnant 15-year-old girl has denied stabbing another girl, 14. Meanwhile, a 14-year-old boy has denied raping an 11-year-old-girl. Both are foreigners.
In-Nazzjon quotes the prime minister saying the biggest discussion within the PN was about divorce. He made his comment during a meeting with the Divorce Movement.
l-orizzont, says the government has refused to publish the cohabitation law proposals, despite being challenged to do so by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The overseas press:
The Washington Times reports that the United States has told Libyan rebels visiting the White House that they were “a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people" but stopped short of recognising them as Libya’s government. The statement came after President Obama’s national security adviser Tom Donilon had talks with the leader of the rebels’ Transitional National Council Mahmoud Jebril.
Earlier, Al-Libiya TV played an audio tape in which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said he had survived recent Nato airstrikes and taunted Nato that he was in a place where they "cannot reach" him. Gaddafi had appeared on state TV on Thursday but not been heard speaking. Nato shrugged off the statement, saying they were not targeting him.
Al Jazeera says Libyan officials have shown journalists video footage of charred bodies after what they say was a Nato strike on a boarding house in Brega which killed 11 imams. Regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said dozens of imams and officials from around Libya were gathered there to pray for peace. He said 50 other people were wounded. Five were in a critical condition. Nato confirmed it had attacked a military command-and-control centre.
Dawn reports that a joint session of Pakistan’s parliament has unanimously called for a review of security and foreign policies. It demanded an end to US drone attacks and said the government should consider halting the transit of supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan if they did not stop. The call came after two bomb attacks on a paramilitary force academy in north-west Pakistan killed 80 people and injured at least 120 others. The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden earlier this month.
Le Soir says the European Union has warned that the debts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal would be much bigger than previously forecast, putting pressure on the region's finance ministers to come up with new support for the countries at their meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels. They would be joined by IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn, whose presence underlines the gravity of the situation. He is already travelling to Berlin tomorrow to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose stance on potential aid will be crucial.
Al Ahram says that Susan Mubarak, the wife of Egypt’s ousted president, has been taken ill with a suspected heart attack. She was admitted to hospital just hours after anti-corruption officials ordered her to be detained for 15 days while fraud allegation against here were investigated.
El Pais reports that a 62-year-old British woman has been beheaded in an apparently random attack in a supermarket in Tenerife. A Bulgarian is reported to have walked into the store, seized a knife and decapitated the woman.
According to Abrar, an Iranian man is due to have acid poured into his eyes later today as punishment for throwing acid in the face of a woman who refused to marry him seven years ago. He would be rendered unconscious before a doctor administers the acid. Human rights organisations have appealed to Iran not to allow the punishment to go ahead.
USA Today reports that jurors have found a 31-year-old woman guilty of burning her baby daughter to death in a microwave oven. China Arnold was convicted in Dayton, Ohio of aggravated murder for the death of 28-day-old Paris Talley in August 2005. Arnold could receive the death penalty. The sentencing phase will begin on Monday.
People magazine reports exclusively that American actress Mary Tyler-Moore will undergo brain surgery to remove a benign tumour. The 74-year-old actress known in the ’60s as Laura Petrie on the The Dick Van Dyke Show was TV's first sexy suburban housewife, and then in the '70s as Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the prototypical single career woman. On Thursday's Rachael Ray Show, which was recorded on May 5, Moore made a surprise appearance during an interview with her friend and former costar Dick Van Dyke.