The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times leads with the setting up of a €100m credit fund by HSBC and reactions to it. It also reports that unions have announced industrial action to disrupt exams at the university and the Junior College.
MaltaToday says agreement between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and PL leader Joseph Muscat on the Valletta project has angered PL insiders.
In-Nazzjon quotes the Prime Minister saying the country should not fear taking decisions for its future.
The Malta Independent says Maltese economic growth is per capita stronger than the average in the eurozone.
l-orizzont leads with a GRTU business survey which found that a large majority of respondents had reported a sharp drop in profit in the second half of this year.
The Press in Britain…
The Sun says a Dutch company is set to take a stake in the Royal Mail.
The Daily Star claims 50,000 postal workers could lose their jobs if a plan to partially privatise the Royal Mail goes ahead.
The Daily Express reports the British pint, mile and ounce were saved as Brussels finally quit trying to kill them off.
The Daily Mail reports that Investment bank Goldman Sachs is to pay £4.3bn in bonuses to its City workers.
The Times leads with the US Federal Reserve’ cutting of interest rates to virtually zero as part of a series of drastic measures to stave off deflation and a crippling recession.
The Financial Times says US Federal Reserve moved deeper into uncharted waters as it slashed interest rates from one per cent to virtually zero.
The Daily Telegraph says taxpayers face paying billions of pounds more to prop up Britain's banks because Gordon Brown's bail-out has failed.
The Guardian quotes a new poll which shows that Labour has cut sharply into the Conservatives' lead as voters turn to the government to protect them from the economic storm.
The Independent and The Daily Mirror lead with the life term sentence inflicted on Sean Mercer, a teenage gunman, who was convicted of the murder of Rhys Jones.
The Daily Record says a doctor who worked in Scotland's NHS is set to be jailed for life for trying to murder thousands of holidaymakers at Glasgow Airport.
The Herald claims the men who brought Islamist terror to Scotland were just a millimetre away from mass murder.
The Scotsman reports that Scottish Nationalist Party ministers have issued a challenge to Westminster by refusing to cut the pensions of public sector staff who were over-paid for 30 years.
And elsewhere…
Le Monde quotes President Nicolas Sarkozy telling the European Parliament in Strasbourg that during his six-month EU presidency he had kept the 27-nations united during Russia's military intervention in Georgia, the tough negotiations on plans to fight climate change and the financial crisis.
Berliner Morgen Post says the German government is planning a second economic stimulus package once US president-elect Barack Obama takes office early next year.
Meanwhile, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quotes government sources as saying that the German economy could contract by three per cent or more next year. This would constitute the worst recession in German postwar history.
Ukraine Observer says parliament has formed a new ruling coalition after months of political infighting. Leaders of three centrist parties including those of President Viktor Yushchenko and rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, signed a coalition agreement in Kiev. Under the deal Tymoshenko remains prime minister, but she has promised changes in her cabinet to help counter the effects of the world financial crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reports that US stocks rallied on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve rate cut, with the Dow Jones up more than four percent. In an unprecedented move to fend off the growing threat from a long-lasting recession, the US Federal Bank Reserve slashed its base lending rate from an historic one percent to virtually zero.
Al-Thawra says Yemeni security forces have surrounded a remote mountain town where tribesmen are holding a German woman and her parents hostage. One of the kidnappers is reported to have demanded $200,000 to recompense him for lost land.
According to Die Welt, the police have detained two new suspects linked to the stabbing of a police chief in the German city of Passau.
Le Parisien quotes French authorities saying the explosive devices cleared from a department store in central Paris had no detonators and therefore posed no immediate threat. Police cordoned off and searched the Printemps store after receiving a tip-off a from a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
Sydney Morning Herald says the government of Papua New Guinea has declared a state of national disaster following persistent tidal waves and unusually high tides. More than 75,000 people were forced to flee their homes as houses, food and water supplies were destroyed.
Jerusalem Post reports that a bus carrying Russian tourists crashed near the Israeli resort of Eilat, killing at least 24 and seriously injuring 23 others. Eight people are still unaccounted for. The tourists had just arrived in Israel and were on their way to their hotel when the bus fell 80 metres into a ravine. It is not immediately clear why the bus left the road.