The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Malta's MEPs managed to swing the vote for Tonio Borg. It also reports that Israel and Gaza have agreed a truce.
The Malta Independent says Tonio Borg had secured European Parliament backing.
In-Nazzjon also leads with Tonio Borg's triumph at the European Parliament.
l-orizzont says Tonio Borg was approved with humiliation, in view of the letter he sent to MEPs and the questioning he was subjected to. The 'humiliation' claim was made by an opinion writer Andrew Azzopardi.
The overseas press
Israeli Radio reports that 12 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit Israel in the first hours that followed a ceasefire agreement ending hostilities in the week-long Gaza conflict which killed more than 160 Palestinians and five Israelis. The attacks caused no injuries or damage. A ceasefire agreement was announced in Cairo on Wednesday, requiring both sides to halt fire immediately and for Israel to start opening Gaza's crossings if the truce held for 24 hours. The New York Times says the UN Security Council has called on Israel and Hamas to uphold the agreement urging them to act seriously to implement its provisions in good faith.
EU leaders begin talks on the bloc's seven-year budget, with many of them calling for cuts in line with the savings they are making nationally. Countries that rely heavily on EU funding want current spending levels maintained or increased. The UK and some other net contributors say cuts have to be made. According to The Independent, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, is trying to broker a deal between the leaders of the 27 EU nations. In an attempt to satisfy the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, who are urging budgetary restraint, Van Rompuy has cut the original €1,047bn seven-year budget proposed by the Commission to €973bn. But this has provoked a backlash from France, Spain, Italy and other countries who are fighting to keep their EU farm subsidies and funds for poor regions. The bargaining in Brussels will continue tomorrow, if not longer.
Kathimerini reports that Greece has reacted with dismay to the EU’s failure to agree to release vital rescue loan funds for the debt-ridden country, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras warning it was not just Greece’s future that hangs in the balance. The delay prolongs uncertainty over the future of Greece, which faces a messy default that would threaten the entire euro currency used by 17 EU nations. Samaras stressed that Greece has done what its creditors from the EU and International Monetary Fund required.
France 24 says former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be questioned at a court in Bordeaux later today as part of an inquiry into whether he illegally accepted funds for his 2007 presidential campaign from L'Oréal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt. He has repeatedly denied the accusations.
Libyan Herald announces that gunmen have shot dead the security chief in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi while he was returning from work. Three men opened fire, killed him and then fled the scene. The country's second largest city has witnessed a series of assassinations and car bombs over the past months by unidentified assailants targeting mainly security officials who worked under the rule of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Egyptian protesters have firebombed an Al-Jazeera office in the third day of violence in central Cairo. Youths and security forces have been clashing in the area since Monday, with protesters hurling stones and firebombs and security forces firing shot and tear gas into the crowd. Some protesters had been accusing the satellite broadcaster of bias in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.
ABC reports Australian troops have withdrawn from their operating bases in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province and handed control to the Afghan military. Meanwhile, the remaining Australian soldiers in East Timor will begin pulling out of the country today.
The Nation says an explosion during a religious procession in the city of Rawalpindi has left at least 16 people dead and several others injured in an attack by a suicide bomber. It was the third attack in Pakistan on the eve of the D-8 summit, designed to boost trade and investment between Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey,.
Scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they also yawn. Writing in the journal Plus One, researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses said they think yawning is a developmental process. Nadja Reissland of Durham University's department of Psychology, who led the study, said the function and importance of yawning in fetuses is still unknown, but the findings suggest it may be linked to fetal development and could provide a further indication of the health of the unborn baby.