The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times follows up the death of a Sudanese migrant after an assault in Paceville. Its heading is A smile snuffed out.
The Malta Independent says the legal framework against racism is not enough. It also says that a VAT Department employee alerted the department to a bribery attempt.
In-Nazzjon says 4,400 families who send their children to private independent schools saved €8m in tax credits over four years. It also says that the number of medicines given free by the government has increased.
l-orizzont highlights a Labour Party press conference which slammed cost cutting in various areas of the health sector, notably Mt Carmel Hospital and primary healthcare.
The overseas press
France 24 reports that riot police in Toulouse have set off explosions outside an apartment building early this morning in an effort to force the surrender of a gunman who boasted of bringing France "to its knees" with an al-Qaida-linked terror spree that killed seven people. Hundreds of heavily armed police, some in body armour, surrounded the building where the 24-year-old suspect, Mohamed Merah, had been holed up since the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday. Associated Press quotes authorities saying the shooter told negotiators he killed a rabbi and three young children at a Jewish school on Monday and three French paratroopers last week to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army's involvement in Afghanistan, as well as a government ban last year on face-covering Islamic veils.
Meanwhile Haaretz reports that thousands of mourners attended the funeral in Jerusalem of the four victims in the shooting at a Jewish School in Toulouse. In attendance were French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai and other Israeli politicians. Before the funeral began, the families of the four victims – Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, aged six and three, and seven-year-old Miriam Monsonego – gathered around the coffins carrying the bodies of the victims, which arrived in Israel on Wednesday.
Le Soir says Belgium's king and the Dutch crown prince have joined thousands of mourners in an emotional homage to some of the victims of last week's fatal school bus crash in a Swiss alpine tunnel. Of the 28 crash victims, 17 were from Lommel – 15 students and two staff members. Six of the victims were Dutch. A separate memorial is scheduled for today in the town of Heverlee, home to the other seven children and two adults killed in the crash.
CNN reports the UN Security Council has unanimously supported a six-point Kofi Annan peace plan aimed at ending the ongoing violence in Syria. The plan, which calls on President Bashar al-Assad to end the violence against his people, was passed with the backing of both Russia and China, key Syria allies which had previously blocked UN measures against the country. It warns of further international action against Syria if it does not end the bloodshed and allow aid workers to reach the wounded and others in need.
Euronews quotes British Chancellor George Osborne saying his annual budget would help the poor, stimulate growth and erase the deficit within five years. But he admitted the fiscal pain would continue for the people of Britain with unprecedented spending cuts and tax increases, to reduce the UK’s sky-high debts. Osborne’s decision to scrap an age-related tax allowance for pensioners is the lead story for most papers. The Guardian reports that 4.4 million tax-paying pensioners are to lose £84 a year to fund a tax cut for 300,000 of the richest families. Under the heading “Till death us do work”, Metro says children born today may have to wait until they are 80 before they can retire.
Corriere della Sera reports that Italy's largest trade union, the CGIL, has announced it would hold a general strike over government plans to reform employment laws which would make it easier for companies to sack staff and offer them fresh incentives to take on new employees. Prime Minister Mario Monti, who said he wanted the EU-endorsed changes approved by the end of the week, said the changes will help create more jobs and boost competitiveness, while protecting Italy from the eurozone debt crisis. The unions say the new changes only increase the uncertainties for workers.
El Universal says the Mexican Supreme Court has voted 3-2 against the release of Florence Cassez, the Frenchwoman sentenced to 60 years for kidnapping in 2009. She had appealed over an irregularity in her trial proceedings. Mexican police had been accused of violating her right to consular assistance and staged her capture for television cameras, violating the right to presumed innocence. Victims rights groups strongly opposed freeing her.
Al Jazeera reports mutinous soldiers have attacked Mali's presidential palace in an apparent coup attempt in the West African country. The soldiers staged a mutiny against the government's handling of a rebellion in the country's north, which has displaced thousands of people. Calls for calm poured in from abroad as the United Nations, France and United States expressed alarm at the unfolding drama.
Science Translational Medicine reports US scientists have discovered a biological clue to male baldness – raising the prospect of a treatment to stop or even reverse thinning hair. In studies of bald men and laboratory mice, they pinpointed a protein that triggers hair loss. Drugs that target the pathway are already in development and the research could lead to a cream to treat baldness.