European press review

With the Russian president still suffering from the media fall-out over the Kursk tragedy, Corsica risks causing a casualty in the French cabinet and Europe suffers a late summer outbreak of "silly-seasonitis".

Humourin' Putin

In the aftermath of the Barents Sea tragedy, the Hungarian Magyar Hirlap questions the wisdom of the western powers indulging the Moscow leadership in its belief in Russia's right to world power status.

"The West acknowledged Putin's ramblings that Russia's role of a world power should be restored or even enhanced", the paper says, explaining that the West's thinking is that "this is just empty rhetoric with no money to back it, so why worry?"

For Washington, London, Berlin or Paris, "treating Putin as an equal partner costs them nothing, and is certainly better than dealing with the unknown.

"The West is convinced, just as it was in Yeltsin's time, that a Russian status quo is preferable to real change with its inherent burden of risk and unpredictability," the paper adds.

"Only the future will tell whether this is sound reasoning or utter thoughtlessness," it concludes.

A spin is a spin by any other name

Also in the light of the Kursk crisis, a commentary in Turin's La Stampa suggests that the West has a cheek to accuse Russia of using disinformation in the military field and points out that both sides do it, although the methods vary.

As the paper sees it, in the former communist world, cultural and technological backwardness combines with the tendency of old habits to die hard to produce a form of disinformation by omission.

"In the West, on the other hand, the political and military authorities prefer the new, affluent, hypermediatic system known as news management," it says.

"To this end, they actually resort to major advertising agencies - as was the case in the Gulf and Yugoslav wars - to co-ordinate the flow of war news in the same way that they would handle a commercial product."

In both cases, however, the goal is the same: "To keep the journalist's attention away from the real facts."

This is a "global phenomenon", the paper concludes, and "it's called the militarisation of consensus".

Barak on the verge

The French Le Nouvel Observateur notes that during his recent international tour, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had the "unpleasant surprise" of hearing most of his hosts urging him "to resume the dialogue with Israel and above all to postpone the unilateral proclamation of a Palestinian state" on 13 September.

"He will no doubt have to resign himself to this advice, which places him in a delicate position with his own supporters," the paper says.

However it doubts whether Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak will be able to exploit this "small diplomatic victory".

"Nothing is less certain," the paper says. "His government can be brought down at any moment, and even his closest collaborators are deserting him."

"At the edge of the abyss, Ehud Barak is striving against all odds not to betray anxiety, and his eternally fixed smile is still there on the corners of his mouth."

They burnt witches, didn't they?

The Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung considers the spreading of the mob movement campaign against paedophiles from Britain to Italy and Belgium.

Under the headline, "Bringing back the stocks", it wonders if the widespread belief that Europeans have a more civilised outlook on crime and punishment than their American cousins is still justified.

Noting that Belgian and Italian newspapers have followed the lead of Britain's News of the World by publishing lists of alleged paedophiles, the paper points out that "the consequences have been as least as serious as in the Middle Ages" with people finding themselves "besieged, spat and sworn at, and hunted down - sometimes to the death".

"Using medieval methods against brutal perpetrators brutalises us in turn," the paper concludes.

Corsican fall-out

As the new political season kicks off in Europe, the Belgian Le Soir wonders whether French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement will resign over his differences with Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on Corsican autonomy.

"A third resignation in the tumultuous career of this maverick politician" is "quite likely", the paper says, "unless Lionel Jospin plays musical chairs" and gives him another portfolio.

Mr Chevenement should be mindful of the fact that due to the lack of "political weight" of the party he set up - the Citizens' Movement - "he cannot expect to regain his current influential position", unless he stands for president.

As for Mr Jospin, the paper concludes, "he is in a big mess". Given the resignation of his "brilliant" economy minister Dominique Strauss-Khan at the end of March and the scheduled departure of Labour Minister Martine Aubry, "the prime minister would lose the third pillar of what he once regarded as his dream team".

Sick as a parrot over Gibraltar

Madrid's La Razon, is not exactly over the moon over Gibraltar's bid for affiliation with Uefa, the governing body of European football.

"Gibraltar is obviously seeking sporting recognition as a means to achieve the international status it lacks as a British dependent territory," the paper says.

As far as the editorialist is concerned, this is out of the question, even in a game of two halves: "Gibraltar ceased to be Spanish because it was taken as war booty, and it must be returned to Spain," it stresses.

As for the Gibraltar authorities, "cosy in their little tax haven that seems to be beyond the reach of international law", they "are seeking sporting legitimacy as a step to political sovereignty".

"It must be made clear to Uefa that such recognition would be seen by Spain as an intolerable slap in the face," the editorial concludes.

Locking the gates

A front page report in the Swiss Le Temps says that the small Brazilian town of Iracemopolis, population 15,000, is taking "radical steps" in response to "horrifying TV reports" of urban violence in major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

"Soon Iracemopolis will be entirely surrounded by a razor-wire fence two metres high and almost nine kilometres long," the paper says. "There will be gates with 24-hour guards and closed-circuit TV cameras."

In its present fenceless state, "the town's jail has three inmates, and its 16-strong police force has little or nothing to do," the paper quotes the Brazilian magazine Veja as saying.

Coats will never be thick again

"Do you talk to your coat?", asks Berlin's Die Tageszeitung. Pointing out that refraining from so doing is probably the wisest course of action at the present moment, the paper says that nevertheless the time may soon come when your coat will talk to you.

It explains that a material being developed by Belgian scientists will warn the wearer if there are people in the vicinity when out walking at night.

However the paper warns against the pitfalls of wearing clothing more intelligent than the wearer, and stresses the potential for misunderstandings between large numbers of coats which, no matter how clever, will lack the ability to make moral judgements on who is and is not a threat.

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