The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says Maltese officials have been rapped by the world Olympics body. It also features concerns by the Chamber of Commerce over the economic consequences of the Budget not being approved.
The Malta Independent also features the case over the Olympic Committee.
In-Nazzjon says the tourism sector is continuing to show confidence and growth. It also reports how the victims of sexual abuse have requested compensation from two former priests, the government, the church and the Home where they used to live.
l-orizzont says the social partners are of the view that should the Budget be rejected, the cost of living increase should still be given immediately.
The overseas press
Börzen Zeitung reports that the European Central Bank has revised down its eurozone growth forecasts for this year and next as "economic weakness extends into 2013". ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank expected the bloc's economy to shrink by about 0.5 per cent this year, before recovering later in 2013. Earlier, the ECB held the benchmark eurozone interest rate at the record low of 0.75 per cent, as had been expected. Mr Draghi said rates had been left unchanged due to higher energy prices, rising taxes and the fact inflation fell from 2.5 per cent to 2.2 per cent last month. Interest rates are the main tool used by central banks to influence demand and therefore prices in the economy.
There were reports of fresh clashes in Egypt's capital Cairo this morning after President Mohamed Morsi appeared on state TV to call for talks to defuse an ongoing political crisis. Aljezeera says protesters have set alight two offices of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – one of them headquarters in Cairo. President Morsi appeared on national television to justify his decision to use force against anti-government demonstrators. He invited all major political factions for a meeting tomorrow to discuss what he called “the way forward”.
Guatemala Times reports American software millionair, John McAfee has been admitted to hospital in Guatemala hours after having an asylum request rejected. His lawyer said he had suffered a heart attack. McAfee is wanted in neighbouring Belize in connection with a murder inquiry. He denies any wrongdoing.
Bloomberg says Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has consulted President Giorgio Napolitano about the future of his government after former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi threatened to withdraw his parliamentary backing. After a six-hour Cabinet meeting in Rome, Monti told reporters he had been in touch with the president and was awaiting his valuation. Monti’s government is hanging in the balance after Berlusconi’s Pdl said it passed from supporting the government to “a position of abstention”. The shift came before a confidence vote in the Senate that prompted Monti to travel from his office to the chamber to cast a ballot.
Russia says it would be forced to retaliate against a new American law imposing sanctions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations. In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry called the law "a performance in the theatre of the absurd". Alexei Pushkov, the head of the lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, told news agency Itar-Tass that Moscow could pass a "corresponding law". The Bill will now go to President Barack Obama to sign.
Ynetnews quotes Hamas official Ismail al-Ashqar saying that the terrorist group was seeking a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court against Major-General Eitan Dangot, coordinator of government activities in the territories, for what it sees as his responsibility for the Gaza blockade. He said the blockade was a crime against humanity, directed against women and children. Dangot's office said in response that it did not respond to claims by a terrorist organisation that hurt its own population and uses it as a human shield.
Parenthood is good for your health. That’s one way of looking at the data in a new study that compares death rates among couples with and without children. After examining data on more than 21,276 Danish couples who tried to get pregnant, researchers calculated that women who gave birth to a child were four times more likely to be alive at the end of the study period compared with women who remained childless. The authors of the new study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, also noted the benefit to men was smaller but still significant: those who fathered children were twice as likely to be alive compared with men who remained childless. The couples in the study all sought treatment for infertility; some of those who didn’t get pregnant using IVF went on to adopt children.
L’Equipe says European football’s governing body, Euefa, has decided to spread the matches of its championship finals in 2020 throughout the continent instead of holding them in just one or two countries. The idea was suggested partly to spread the financial burden.
A 27-month old baby girl, Adalynn Willet, who has spent all her life in a hospital, went home for the first time yesterday. The New York Daily News says she was born with her intestines and liver outside her body and the toddler has endured 28 surgeries – and average of one every month she's been alive. Adalynn's heart has stopped twice, but somehow she has fought off countless potentially deadly complications.