European press review
"Train of hate" reads the front-page headline in
France's Le Figaro, referring to Friday's anti-Semitic attack on a woman and her
baby on a train just north of Paris.
"The cowardice of the attackers was matched by
the cowardice of the passengers," the paper says, after other passengers failed
to intervene when six men attacked the woman, whom they accused of being Jewish.
Liberation is also horrified that no
eye-witnesses came forward after the attack.
The paper says the incident brings back memories
of World War II when the French "allowed their police to round-up the Jews and
pretended to know nothing about where they were being sent".
Saving Yukos
As the fraud trial of Russian oil magnate Mikhail
Khodorkovsky resumes, the country's press is preoccupied with what will happen
to the embattled oil firm Yukos, in which he is the main shareholder.
Events taking place around the company show that the implementation of the 'shares for taxes' deal has begun
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Events taking place around the company show that the implementation of the 'shares for taxes' deal has begun
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Interfax news agency had quoted a senior Yukos
source as saying Chief Executive Stephen Theede had offered to voluntarily pay
$8bn in back taxes if the company is given three years to make the payment.
But, according to the business daily Vedomosti ,
the proposal appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
"In the words of a Vedomosti source in the
government, the authorities are not planning to hold any kind of talks with
Yukos," it says.
The broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta disagrees.
"Representatives of the authorities are not
admitting that they are holding talks with Yukos... but events taking place
around the company show that the implementation of the 'shares for taxes' deal
has begun."
Spotlight on Sudan
Germany's Berliner Zeitung focuses its attention
on Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's visit to Sudan.
The paper holds out little hope that the visit
will encourage the Sudanese government to end the violence in the western
province of Darfur.
People who support the violence "of almost
genocidal proportions" in Darfur will not let anyone tell them what to do, it
says.
But it does not believe that Mr Fischer's trip
will be completely in vain, adding that "at least it will mean that the
phenomenon of officially-sanctioned mass murder in Africa will be reported".
Feeding the wolves
The Czech paper, Lidove Noviny , concentrates on
domestic affairs, as Stanislav Gross - the new leader of the country's Social
Democrat Party - continues talks on forming a new government after the
resignation of prime minister and party leader, Vladimir Spidla.
The paper believes Mr Gross will have his work
cut out.
He is now in the "unenviable" position of being
"a wolf that has won the fight for the pack leadership," it says.
"He has pushed the old leader away, with the help
of the others, but now he has to secure some prey for his fellow wolves that
would justify the fight." The European press review is compiled by BBC
Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early
printed editions.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3885563.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3885563.stm
Published: 2004/07/12 05:43:59 GMT
© BBC MMIV
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3885563.stm
An anti-Semitic attack in France and the future of Yukos are among the issues which concern today's European press.
