The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press
The Times reports how Dom Mintoff is in critical condition in hospital. It also says that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has not ruled out resigning from the PN before meeting the prime minister this evening.
The Malta Independent gives prominence to a fresh call for Malta to stop the immigrants detention policy, especially for children. It also carries comments by Francis Zammit Dimech that the government should seek to complete its full term.
In-Nazzjon leads with the press conference by Paul Borg Olivier who accused Joseph Muscat of a political frame-up of Richard Cachia Caruana.
l-orizzont says the GWU is considering legal action after Transport Malta fined drivers for not wearing their tie, despite having been ordered to do so by the GWU. It also focuses on the disions within the PN and attempts by party officials to discredit Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The overseas press:
CNN reports the US has said the killing of senior Syrian officials in a bomb attack yesterday shows that President Bashar al-Assad was losing control of his country. The White House said that President Obama had discussed the growing violence in Syria in a phone call to President Putin of Russia. It said differences remained on how to achieve a political transition as soon as possible. The UN Security vote on sanctions against Syria has been postponed by 24 hours after Russia said it would not accept a resolution that could be enforced by military action.
Al Thawra says President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, and his defence minister, Daoud Rajha, were killed in the attack in central Damascus. The suicide bomber struck during a meeting between government ministers and security officials in the heavily-guarded National Security headquarters, amid the fourth day of fighting in the national capital. Syrian state television described the blast as a "terrorist bombing" and said a number of other people were wounded, including the interior minister. The rebel Free Syrian Army and a rebel Islamist group both said that they carried out the attack.
The Jerusalem Post reports Israel has vowed to strike back at Iran for a brazen daylight bombing that killed at least seven people on a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. The blast, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas, has also wounded more than 30 others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that all signs pointed to Iran’s involvement and he promised a forceful response. Israel has accused Iran of being behind a string of attacks in Europe, Asia and Africa in recent months.
News International says the world's most wanted Nazi war criminal has been arrested and put under house arrest by authorities in Hungary. Laszlo Csatary, 97, stands accused of organising the World War II deportation of some 16,000 Jews from the ghetto of Kosice, in present-day Slovakia, to their deaths at the Auschwitz extermination camp.
According to the EU Observer, the European Commission has warned Romania that it must adhere to the rule of law and democracy after the country's president was impeached in parliament last month because he allegedly overstepped his authority by meddling in government business and the judicial system. A referendum will be held on July 29 to determine whether Basescu should be removed from office. The EU has been concerned about the speed of the impeachment process and the fact that the government tried to pass emergency decrees to make it easier to remove Basescu.
Associated Press reveals a group of international jurists has been commissioned to reinvestigate the 1961 death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, one of the Cold War's most enduring mysteries. Hammarskjold's plane went down over the thick forests of Northern Rhodesia, now known as Zambia, on the night of September 17, 1961. He had been in the midst of negotiating an agreement to end the deadly fighting between the government of Congo and its independence-minded, mineral-rich province of Katanga.
CBC says whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has claimed it was running out of money, saying it had only €100,000 left for 2012, which would be depleted in a few months if it did not get any further donations. According to the organisation, the group needs a million euros immediately. WikiLeaks criticised credit card companies Visa and MasterCard for undermining the organisation by stopping to forward donations in 2010. The WikiLeaks platform was founded by Australian Julian Assange who has sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex allegations.
The BBC quotes the international charity Save the Children saying significantly more children worldwide are going to school compared with a decade ago and less are dying in infancy. However, the charity’s Child Development Report also warned that the number of children who are hungry and malnourished has risen because of high food prices and global inequality.
USA Today reports the state of Texas has executed its first death row inmate with a single lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital. Yokamon Hearn, 33, was convicted for the carjacking and murder of a Dallas stockbroker in 1998. Hearn is the sixth inmate to be killed this year in Texas, but the first after the state stopped using a cocktail of three lethal drugs for executions. Death penalty opponents say inmates die more slowly by the single-drug method.
A revolutionary discovery is rewriting the history of underwear: Some 600 years ago, women wore bras. Der Kurier quotes the University of Innsbruck saying archeologists had found four linen bras dating from the Middle Ages in an Austrian castle. Fashion experts describe the find as surprising because the bra had commonly been thought to be only little more than 100 years old as women abandoned the tight corset. Researchers said that one of them looks similar to a modern bra – its cups decorated with lace.