Berlusconi calls curtain on election farce
It had started like a farce, with PM Silvio Berlusconi's party's lists and candidates excluded from regional elections due next 28 March because of procedural mistakes. But as laughter died and the government found out it was about to lose in the Rome and Milan regions, it resorted to a surprise move: a tailored retroactive decree that changed application rules to save its candidates. The opposition, which had until then kept quiet, was shocked but couldn't find a common line: some cried unconstitutionality and took to the streets in protest, others considered withdrawing from the race. Opposition daily La Repubblica strongly counters the latter strategy: "We are facing an unprecedented drift towards legal self-righteousness, as if the country didn't exist. The opposition should vote them off this notion."
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.