European press review

Russian President Putin's admission of guilt for the Kursk submarine disaster competes with Gulf Air crash in the Gulf for space on Europe's front pages.

The return of violence to Northern Ireland in the form of internecine Protestant feuding is also a top story in many foreign news sections.

Plane crash

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune reports on Wednesday's crash of a Gulf Air Airbus A320 carrying 142 passengers on a flight from Cairo to Bahrain.

It says that an air traffic controller at the Bahrain airport "described watching the plane circle the runway twice in an attempt to land, then on the third attempt plunge into the sea and explode into flames".

"The controller said he saw no flames or sign of trouble before the crash and could not explain why the plane circled before landing. He said the plane's crew did not report anything unusual," the paper adds.

Sackcloth and ashes for Putin

An editorial in the French Le Monde notes the comprehensive coverage given by the Russian media to the "anger, frustration and bitterness of the Russians towards their leaders" over the Kursk tragedy.

"The Kremlin and the military have sadly remained faithful to the modus operandi of the Soviet police state at its most pathological, with their obsession with secrecy, their systematic mendacity and their attempts to manipulate public, opinion," it adds.

Soviet syringe

This enduring attachment to Soviet methods is illustrated "to caricature lengths", as the paper puts it, by the image of a mother or wife of a member of the Kursk's crew angrily addressing a navy spokesman while another woman injects her in the arm with what the paper assumes to be a sedative.

Madrid's La Razon also latches on to this aspect of the tragedy. Its front page carries a photo of the woman being sedated, under the headline "Soviet methods used against the families of the Kursk's crew".

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau explains that a memorial service for the crew had to be cancelled after the families refused to attend it without the bodies of their loved ones.

"Such a military ceremony would have been even more embarrassing than Putin's week-long silence at his sunny Black Sea resort," the paper says.

The paper sees the prospect of something positive for Russia coming out of the tragedy if the anger against the authorities leads to a feeling of self-belief that could create a proper opposition and thus help the country become democratic.

Austria's Die Presse says that President Putin's meeting with the bereaved families became "a kind of people's tribunal".

"For someone like Putin, this meeting must have been a hellish experience," the paper says. "When had Russia ever witnessed such a thing?"

It adds that the way the Russian media lashed out at the president is equally astonishing and "even more unprecedented" than his ordeal with the families.

Madrid's ABC says that the Russian president's televised admission of responsibility and guilt "was an attempt to weather the storm of criticism of his conduct" during the crisis. "However it hardly seems enough to satisfy the families of those who lost their lives in the Kursk," it adds.

China's ageing submarines

In another report, ABC says that China's "elderly submarine fleet" is "in even worse condition" than its Russian counterpart. Maintenance "suffers from serious shortcomings", and "the Chinese lack the know-how" to deal with a disaster like the Kursk's.

The paper quotes specialists as saying that "nearly half of China's 50-strong submarine fleet is obsolete and has not sailed for years".

However if disaster ever struck a Chinese submarine the world would never be told, the paper believes. "China would never acknowledge it", because "to do so would be seen as an admission of weakness".

Muammar the peace-maker

The French L'Express says that Libya's mediating role in the Philippines hostage crisis has given Muammar Gaddafi "a golden opportunity" as he seeks "to speed up his return to a state of international grace".

The paper says that as far as Africa is concerned Libya's rehabilitation is "as good as achieved", largely thanks to a busy year "trying to reconcile all foes, whether it be Ethiopians and Eritreans, Somali warlords, the Sudanese government and its adversaries, or the warring brothers in the Democratic Republic of Congo".

As for Europe, "most governments want a full normalization of relations", the paper notes. "In Paris, Rome or Berlin, the appraisals are similar: Gaddafi has calmed down, Libya has become one of most peaceful and reliable states, and it is in Europe's interest to encourage this changed behaviour."

However the fact that European governments must be mindful of public opinion, complicates matters somewhat: "The European public are not at all sympathetic towards the Guide of the Libyan Revolution," the paper says.

Mad dogs and Irishmen

The Swiss Le Temps comments on the return to prison in Northern Ireland of Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair after allegedly breaking the terms of his early release by becoming involved in a violent feud with rival Protestant paramilitaries.

The paper notes that the man it describes as "the mythical leader of the Ulster Freedom Fighters" is appealing against the authorities' decision. But it hints at an element of relief when it quotes Adair as telling the officer who arrested him: "You've probably saved my life."

"The Unionist community finds itself increasingly at bay and anxious over its future in a Northern Ireland closer to Dublin than ever before," the paper says.

However "the peace process has made important advances" and "several former paramilitaries have taken up their seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly", the paper points out.

"In spite of the murderous aspects to which the local people are unfortunately accustomed, the new battle of Shankill would appear to be peripheral" to the peace process as a whole, the paper concludes.

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