Tools of torture doing roaring trade
Several European countries, including the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Germany, have sold "tools of torture" to third party countries in violation of EU law, according to joint report released March 17 by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation, writes euobserver.com. Thumb cuffs, electric shock cuffs, spiked batons and other torture instruments were exported despite a EU law enacted in 2006 forbidding such trade. The EUobserver notes the countries cited in the report apparently used loopholes in the law to make the sales, for example exporting instrument components separately or giving them names designed to fool customs agents. "Those who wish to practice torture always find the means," comments Zbyněk Petráček in Lidové noviny, pointing out that the equipment cited is also regularly used by security forces in the exporting nations. A human rights sub-committee will be making a progress report on the application of the law on 18 March.
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.