Berlusconi's "national hero" in the hot seat
Guido Bertolaso, the all-powerful boss of Italy's civil defence, who has recently distinguished himself by criticising the American relief operation in Haiti, has been placed under investigation by a Florence court in the wake of allegations that he tampered with public calls for tender, including those for the latest G8, on behalf of friendly entrepreneurs, who offered him free dates with call girls. "He is untouchable," Silvio Berlusconi proclaimed when rejecting Bertolaso's resignation. The latter refutes all accusations. The idyll between the Italian government leader and his righthand man has grown stronger over the past few years as Bertolaso has been given the task of tamping down the many emergencies that have shaken Italy. "This investigation goes to the heart of Berlusconiism," writes La Repubblica, revealing yet another dimension of "an opaque system that benefits sycophants and restricts opportunities for others."
In a time of crisis with high unemployment, young Lithuanians are following in the footsteps of their emigrant ancestors. Tens of thousands have left the country in search of a better life, mainly in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The weekly Veidas reports: 
The new Eurogroup meeting on February 9 is not enough to banish the spectre of a Greek bankruptcy. While Athens may largely be responsible for the crisis, the EU and its partners are not blameless themselves. La Stampa argues that their confused messages and the absence of any strategy have transformed a resolvable problem into an explosive chaos. 
Two camps, two theories, and two visions of France: 18 years after the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis, the precise role played by Paris is still the subject of heated debate, fueled by the findings of successive criminal investigations.