The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times reports that three weeks after the cancellation of an €18 million power station refurbishment project, the government has conceded that a €100,000 boiler modification implemented in its stead will not be as effective in cutting emissions. It also says that Tom Cruise has chosen a house in Malta.
The Malta Independent leads with Joseph Muscat's address at the New Libya forum yesterday.
MaltaToday focuses on the Standard and Poor's downgrade of Enemalta owing to delayed restructuring and delays in restructuring.
In-Nazzjon leads with developments by Maltese researchers in new stents used for the treatment of heart problems. It also says that 2,025 have benefited from an employment assistance scheme run by the eTC.
l-orizzont says €8.5m have been slashed from the budget of the Health Ministry, much of it in administrative costs. It also reports that the former PN council in Mosta left debts of €1m.
The overseas press:
The Irish Independent reports Ireland would hold a referendum on whether to accept the European fiscal treaty which tightens controls on member states' budgetary decisions. Announcing the decision in the Dail following advice from Attorney General, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he was confident the public would vote in favour of ratifying the compact.
Deutsche Welle says Germany's Constitutional Court has declared the eurozone bailout parliamentary commission "largely" unconstitutional. According to the German Constitutional Court Justices, the commission is exclusively empowered to approve the purchase of bonds on the secondary market through the EFSF but its mandate cannot be extended to the extension of loans or to the opening of preventive lines of credit to states with financial difficulties.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick was challenged during his presentation of the "China 2030" dossier in Beijing. As reported on agichina24.it, a few minutes after the start of the news conference, the "independent researcher" stood up to hand a brief note to Zoellick and then started criticising the World Bank. The man shouted that the World Bank carried no guarantees for the Chinese people and would damage China's interests. China, he said, did not want to end up like the United States with bank privatisation. He said that the Wall Street Bankers were cheats and parasites: "They have damaged the US and now they want to ruin China."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the 400-page World Bank report described China's economic model "unsustainable" and called on the Asian giant to boost market competition, support marginalised private enterprise and diminish the role of government-owned companies. The report outlined a host of recommendations, including reforming taxes and improving the rights of rural residents.
CBS reports a study has found that incinerated remains from victims of the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001 ended up in landfill waste disposal sites. The remains, which were handled by the mortuary at Dover air base in Delaware, could not be identified.
Il Tempo says some of Western Civilization's most important documents go on show today when the Vatican puts on display around 100 items from its Secret Archive to commemorate the 400th anniversary of its founding. Pope Clement VII's letter to the English parliament regarding Henry VIII petition for divorce and the bull of excommunication against Martin Luther are among the documents to be exhibited at the "Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed" show at Rome's Capitoline Museums. The exhibition runs through September 9.
The bad news is that almost 1.3 million cancer sufferers in EU countries are expected to die from their disease this year; the good news is that although the overall number is up slightly from 2007, cancer death rates have fallen significantly in the past five years. Writing in the Annals of Oncology, a team of Swiss and Italian researchers predict that 717,398 men and 565,703 women in the EU would die from cancer in 2012. In 2007, the disease killed 706,619 men and 554,515 women. Breast cancer deaths in middle-aged and younger women are forecast to drop by 9 per cent overall, and 13 per cent among younger women aged 20 to 49.
Reuters reports some five million people worldwide will today celebrate their birthday on a date that appears on calendars once every four or sometimes eight years. Leapers – those born on February 29 – face a range of troubles over their birthdays, from computer confusion to police suspicion during traffic stops to hearing about delivery room negotiations to alter their birth certificate to a day earlier or a day later. Because of their quadrennial birthdate, leapers have been known to invite people to their Sweet 16 party to mark their 64th year. These mathematical gymnastics have been executed since about 44 BC, when Julius Caesar instituted the leap year system to correct a defect in the calendar that would otherwise put the seasons out of sync.