European press review

Newspapers express shock over the blast that devastated Victory Day celebrations in southern Russia.

Debate reignites over the euro's performance. And France is advised not to turn its nose up at what the British have to offer.

Deadly attack

Under the headline "Death on Victory Day", Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung condemns what it calls the "cynical" timing of yesterday's fatal blast in the south Russian region of Dagestan.

While the USA still feels it is at war with terrorism, Europeans tend to think that the worst is over and that America exaggerates

Le Monde

The attack, it notes, came almost precisely at the same time as Russian President Vladimir Putin was speaking of the defeat of Hitler's Germany and the dangers of terrorism during the celebrations on Moscow's Red Square.

The "deadliest terror attack in Russia" for over two years is how the Paris-based International Herald Tribune describes the bomb blast, which saw 36 people killed - 13 of them children.

An "angry" President Putin, the paper notes, blamed the attack on the separatists rebels fighting Russian forces in Chechnya.

Wake-up call

France's Le Monde is preoccupied by the similar scene of carnage witnessed two days ago in Karachi.

The suicide bombing is a "harsh wake-up call" for France, the paper says, coming as it did just a few weeks after the blast in Tunisia which saw 14 German nationals killed.

The fact remains that the terrorist infrastructure has not been totally destroyed

Le Temps

This is also a "wake-up call for a Europe which, after the outburst of solidarity with the United States in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, would now quite like to return to its previous tranquillity," the paper says.

"While the USA still feels it is at war with terrorism," it says, "Europeans tend to think that the worst is over and that America exaggerates."

Anti-Western war

Switzerland's Le Temps sees the Karachi bomb as a "cruel reminder" that "no amount of talk about insecurity or fears about the rise of extremism in our societies can wipe away the reality... that a war is being waged on the West and its allies by a network of radical Islamic movements".

We wanted to close our eyes and forget. Now blind violence has woken us up again

Le Temps

"Whether the culprit was al-Qaeda or a local Islamic group," the paper says, "the fact remains that the terrorist infrastructure has not been totally destroyed.

"People kept saying that the war against terrorism would be long," the paper continues, "but we wanted to close our eyes and forget. Now blind violence has woken us up again."

The Tribune de Geneve, however, rejects the idea that the terrorist attacks in Kaspiysk and Karachi, along with the latest suicide bombing in Israel, may have a common thread.

The targeted governments, the paper says, "feel the need to close ranks and rally to the common outlook... put forward by the American administration after the September 11 attacks".

While the paper recognises the need to strengthen international security co-operation, it doubts whether those behind the attacks have much in common.

"Their causes are different," the paper stresses, "as is the degree of international legitimacy of their demands."

Euro 'success story'

Far from becoming enamoured of the euro, Germans are finding it a pricey pleasure

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Views remain divided as to the success of the euro, which on Thursday received the prestigious Charlemagne Prize for outstanding contributions to European integration - a prize usually awarded to people.

Germanys' Frankfurter Rundschau fears that expecting the euro to not just aid the economy, but also to promote political and social integration may be too much to ask of a currency.

"It is not the euro but the politicians and bankers responsible for it that should strive to be deserving of the prize," the paper says.

Austria's Der Standard adopts a more positive outlook on what it terms the "baffling success story" of the euro.

"The euro is now as much part of everyday small talk as the weather," it says.

Moreover, the single currency is also "psychologically pleasing" - although "that pleasure will only last if everyone has enough of it in their purses", it adds.

A commentary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, however, says the euro is proving too expensive and hard to get used to.

Consumers are nervous, retailers disappointed, restaurants lack customers and taxi drivers are frustrated

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"Far from becoming enamoured of the euro," the paper says, "Germans are finding it a pricey pleasure."

"Everyone you talk to," the paper says, "has a story of how the changeover to the euro was used to manipulate prices."

Also, "when we make a large purchase, almost all of us quickly do the mental sums to convert to Deutschmarks. We simply have not developed a feel for the new money."

In short, it says, "consumers are nervous, retailers disappointed, restaurants lack customers and taxi drivers are frustrated." Worse still, "people feel they have less money than before."

Meanwhile, nothing seems to have quenched pro-EU initiatives in Poland.

Thursday saw Warsaw launch an information campaign to promote European Union membership.

Gazeta Wyborcza quotes Prime Minister Leszek Miller as saying that the campaign is intended as a "beacon to guide citizens to the right choice in the integration referendum".

Mr Miller added, however, that he wanted the 18-month-long campaign to highlight "both the good and the bad sides" of EU membership.

British remedy

Finally, an article in Le Figaro suggests France's new prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, could do worse than to take a leaf out of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's book.

"Every country is looking for remedies to the problem of rising crime," the paper says.

We must forget our national pride and borrow the idea from our British friends

Le Figaro

"Tony Blair has decided to start where the life of the citizen begins," it continues, referring to Mr Blair's plan, announced last month, to station police officers at some of England's toughest schools.

"In these hard times, we must forget our national pride and borrow the idea from our British friends."

Mr Blair's plan would evoke in France a consensus similar to that witnessed in last week's elections - a consensus that would be hard for the opposition to argue with, the paper says.

"It would be hard to imagine (French socialist opposition leader) Francois Hollande coming out against measures inspired by his Socialist International comrade Tony Blair," it adds.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.