European press review

The release of five Western hostages by rebels on the remote Philippine island of Jolo, and Libya's role in securing their release, makes the headlines of Europe's papers.

Elsewhere, Russia's bad luck continues. Fire ravages Moscow's Ostankino TV tower, and a collision in central Russia between a passenger boat and a barge leaves six dead.

Philippine hostage joy tempered

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau says the release of Western hostages must not make people forget about the explosive political situation in the Philippines.

In the paper's view, the release of the hostages is a cause for joy, even though the crisis has been exploited both by Libya and the media.

"But this affair", the paper warns, "must not be crossed off once it has had a reasonably happy ending, because the hostage-taking on the island of Jolo points to an explosive political situation that has built up in the southern Philippines over the years, unnoticed by the public".

Berlin's Die Welt agrees, but it adds that the chances for resolving the region's problems have been hampered by the way in which the crisis has been handled.

"The new weapons and renewed confidence of the Abu-Sayyaf wastrels", the paper says, "is going to set back the development and pacification of the southern Philippines... by years".

France's Le Figaro points out that despite the release of some of the hostages held by rebels on the Philippine island of Jolo, seven other Westerners are still in captivity.

"The joy of the freed hostages was tempered by the fact that their companions were left behind," the paper says.

On the negotiating role played by Libya, the paper believes that Tripoli intends to reap what it calls "the diplomatic dividends" of its mediation.

"After seven years of sanctions, Col Gaddafi has secured for himself a brilliant return to the international stage," the Paris-based daily adds.

The Belgian daily Le Soir also looks at how Libya might benefit from the role it played in the hostages' release.

"This feat", the paper says, "rehabilitates Libya's image 12 years after the bombing (blamed on Libya) which caused a PanAm jet to crash over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people".

However, the Brussels-based paper adds, Tripoli had hoped to pull off an even more impressive coup by securing the release of all the Western hostages held prisoner by the rebels.

Russia suffers further losses

"Russia now loses its largest telecommunications tower," laments Barcelona's La Vanguardia, in what has already been a sad week for Russia following the Kursk nuclear submarine tragedy.

"There are fears for several firefighters after the lifts in the tower break down," the paper says.

The paper adds that the fire at Moscow's Ostankino TV tower, one of the largest structures of its kind in Europe, has left millions of Russians without television.

Madrid's El Mundo also highlights Russia's misfortune.

"The Russians are witnessing a similarly agonising situation to that of the Kursk submarine," it says.

Madrid-based ABC points out that August, a month which has been marred by one disaster after another for Russia, is still not over.

"If this wasn't enough", the paper says, "six people died and 16 others were injured in a collision between a passenger boat and a barge on the Votkin Reservoir, in the Perm region in central Russia".

"There are still four days left in a month which started with the explosion in a Moscow underground walkway (12 dead and more than 100 injured), and the tragedy of the Kursk nuclear submarine (118 dead)," the paper concludes.

Ridicule Russia at your peril

The Portuguese weekly Expresso, published at the weekend, warns the West that it humiliates Russia at its own peril.

"The western media have fallen into the habit of accusing Russia of holding on to old Soviet habits, ridiculing the Russian armed forces... and showing the greatest contempt for all things Russian," it says in an editorial.

"Russia is a great country with a huge territory, huge pride, and huge natural and human resources, and any destabilisation there would rebound on the West," it adds.

"Humiliating Russia can only serve to accumulate tensions and hatreds... the consequences of which will have to be reaped sooner or later," the paper concludes.

Military mishap costs Israelis dear

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune turns its attention to the deaths of three Israeli servicemen who were killed as they searched a village in the West Bank for a member of the Islamic group Hamas.

"If there was any lesson from the shoot-out here that left three Israeli soldiers dead and a well-known Palestinian terror suspect wounded, it was that the gulf between Jews and Arabs still yawns wide even as they struggle to make peace," the paper's correspondent writes.

As the Israelis mourned what the paper terms "their costliest military mishap in nearly a year", it quoted Palestinians as saying that at last they had got the better of the powerful Israeli Army in a firefight.

However, the paper quotes the Israeli Army chief of staff as saying that the soldiers may have been killed by so-called "friendly fire", adding that the Palestinian suspect ended up badly wounded and in the custody of the Palestinian authorities.

"Whether either side really came out on top from the incident ... is arguable at best," the paper concludes.

Hungary seeks Rome's blessing

The Hungarian Nepszava sees the official celebration of the Hungarian millennium - the 1,000th anniversary of the coronation of Hungary's first king, St Stephen - "a deliberate, well-considered and well-planned symbolic campaign" for reviving Catholicism as a state religion.

In a church procession attended by top state officials on 20th August, St Stephen's crown - a state symbol for some - was ceremoniously joined with the Catholic relic of St Stephen's scull in the House of Parliament, the paper says.

"The organisers of the millennium celebration were fully aware of what they were doing when they deliberately confused the state holiday with the religious holiday," the paper says.

"The aim of all these gestures is the reincarnation of the so-called Christian-National course" in the hope of gaining some kind of hereditary continuity for the right-wing government, the paper says.

German Catholic Church's reticence

Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says the German Catholic Church must admit to its involvement in the Nazi system of slave labour and compensate the victims.

The paper points out that the Protestant Church has already done both, while the Catholic Church is still considering the issue.

"The Catholic Church", it insists, "was part of the Nazi war economy".

In the paper's view, all Germans share overall responsibility for the German past.

"Those who do not assume this responsibility", the paper warns, "act against the spirit of democracy and against the interests of this country".

Beginning of the end for Milosevic?

Vienna's Der Standard says presidential elections in Yugoslavia next month could mark the beginning of the end for Slobodan Milosevic.

For the paper, "the villain from the Balkans", as the paper calls him, is lagging too far behind in the opinion polls to be able to catch up with his main opposition rival.

It points out that electoral defeat would be a blow to Milosevic's omnipotence.

"Rivals in his own party", it says "would see an opening for themselves and take advantage of it, and the repressive system might break up from inside".

"This", the paper concludes, "would be the beginning of the end for Mr Milosevic".

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