The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press.
The Times refers to the launching of the pre-budget document and says the government has adopted a wait and see on tax cuts as the deficit takes priority.
The Malta Independent also leads with the launch of the pre-budget document. It says the EU Commission is expected to give its verdict on Air Malta at about December. It also reports that a Maltese man has claimed he helped Amy Winehouse buy drugs.
l-orizzont features criticism over the latest fuel price increases. It also asks if the pre-budget document is more of the same.
In-Nazzjon says cataract operations will be held in private hospitals to reduce waiting lists. It also reports that 6,800 new jobs were created in a year.
The overseas press
CNN International reports the US House of Representatives has voted 269-161 today to keep the American government from defaulting on its debts. The measure also sets a course for reducing the government deficit in the future. The Senate, where support is stronger, is expected to take up the bill later today, the deadline for Congress to act. The bill would raise the debt ceiling by more than $2 trillion (€1.4 trillion) and cut government spending by a similar amount over the next decade. A special congressional committee would be set up to consider entitlement and tax changes.
According to Reuters, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy. He told a pro-Kremlin youth group during summer camp, that the US dollar’s dominance was a threat to the financial markets. He said that Russia, like China, held a large amount of US bonds and treasuries, warning that “there should be other reserve currencies". Putin has often criticised the United States' foreign exchange policy.
Kerdos says Greek officials have started appointing advisers for the quick sale of state assets intended to raise €50 billion by 2015. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said he aimed to raise €1.7 billion by the end of September. International lenders have warned that if there was no progress with privatisations they would withhold the next tranche of aid in September.
Haaretz says a document setting out the demands of the Israeli protesters in the areas of housing, welfare, education, health and economic policy was being drawn up by the movement's leaders to be presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The draft document claims that the expected income from these steps would exceed their cost.
EU Times says the European Union plans to impose a new round of sanctions against Syria, as violence continued a day after at least 80 anti-regime protesters were killed. Five new names will be added to a list of 30 Syrian individuals to have already been targeted by a visa ban and assets freeze, among them, President Bashar al-Assad. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called on the UN to step in and do what it could to stop the bloodshed. At least eight people were reported killed on Monday as security forces broadened their siege of the city of Hama.
France 24 says that the French government had given Libyan rebels €181 million in frozen funds that used to belong to the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The French Foreign Ministry said the National Transitional Council would use the funds for “purchases of a humanitarian nature”. The NTC's new ambassador to Paris, Mansur Saif al-Nasr, said after meeting French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that the funds “belonged to the Libyan people” and would be used to buy "food and medicine".
A Frenchwoman claiming to be a former lover of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said she would testify in the scandal over attempted rape charges against him if asked to do so by his defence team. She was photographed by the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, and identified as Marie-Victorine M., a 38-year-old consultant. She said she started an affair with Strauss-Kahn in 1997 after her father introduced them. She also described her affair with Strauss-Kahn in an interview with Swiss magazine L'Illustre, in which she said her testimony would most likely benefit Strauss-Kahn's defence.
La Prensa says a haul of cocaine worth €126.7 million has been caught by US coastguards in the Caribbean. A cutter found the semi-submersible craft off the coast of Honduras near the Nicaraguan border after it was seen by a spotter plane. It sank, but was found after several searches by the Coast Guard, FBI dive teams and the Honduran Navy. An FBI dive team found nearly 7.5 tons of cocaine.
Metro reports that workers at a French nappy factory threatened with closure have sent a box of nappies to first lady Carla Bruni in a plea to help them save their jobs. Employees at the Ontex factory sent 187 nappies to the expectant supermodel wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy – one for each worker – and a none-too-subtle message that while the nappies might be disposable, their jobs were not.