The following are the top stories in Malta's newspapers on Saturday.

Times of Malta leads with the testimony of doctors who on Friday told a court that a girl who "miraculously" survived a vicious attack by her mother's ex-partner was stabbed in the heart and lost up to 40 per cent of her blood.

It separately reports that Malta’s already low fertility rate is forecast to continue shrinking, according to a major study showing that the population of almost every country in the world will drop by the end of the century.

The Malta Independent leads with news that Malta is willing to recognise Palestine as a state.

It also reports that a court has rejected a challenge by Yorgen Fenech for police to probe Melvin Theuma for perjury. 

In-Nazzjon reports that Robert Abela voted with EU leaders to bolster defence expenditure, after weeks of claiming the PN wanted to go to war.

L-orizzont meanwhile leads with comments by Abela at the Brussels summit where he said Malta had protected its neutrality. Separately, the newspaper reports that Project Green collected 30 tonnes of bulky refuse from four sites.