France and US in trade battle
"Trade dispute prompts political crisis" reads the headline in Le Figaro. The French daily reports on the diplomatic quarrel between France and the United States that has emerged two days after EADS, the parent company of Airbus, and its American partner Northrop Grumman withdrew their bid for a 36 billion euro contract to supply the US Air Force with aerial refuelling tankers. In 2008, the Pentagon opted to award the contract to EADS. However, this decision has now been cancelled and the European consortium insists that the terms of a revised call for tenders have been skewed to favour Boeing. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to discuss the issue with Barack Obama when he visits Washington later this month. The decision to rearrange the call for tenders has been roundly criticised by a number of French MPs and the European Commission as "protectionist" and "deliberately tailored" to accommodate the American aircraft manufacturer. That's an opinion shared by The Wall Street Journal, which notes that "after this debacle", every bidder will know that rules guaranteeing free and fair competition for US military contracts "can be violated with enough political pressure."
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: 
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. 
Agree to new austerity measures or risk being kicked out of the eurozone: that’s the alternative presented to Athens on the day the euro group is meeting. It’s a situation Greek politicians have failed to avoid, regrets To Vima.