Berlusconi wiretap law clear first hurdle
Today’s front page of La Repubblica is blank, to protest “an act of violence against the democratic system”. The Roman daily is furious that the Italian senate has approved PM Silvio Belusconi’s “gag law” on wiretapping, against which it has led a vigorous campaign. The law, passed on 10 June, sets a 75 day limit on wiretaps, forbids the publication of nothing but short summaries of recorded conversations, and imposes sanctions of up to €450,000 for editors in breach. Transcripts of recorded conversations have landed government members in hot water recently. In May, economic development minister Claudio Scajola was toppled over a public works corruption scandal. Silvio Berlusconi, whose sexual dalliances have been exposed through wiretaps, looks like he is winning his war against a press he complains enjoys “too much freedom”. “Now the curtain falls”, comments La Stampa, criticising a law dictated by “politicians’ urgent desire to shield themselves from scandal and to obtain a quiet future of impunity”. The Berlusconi government now intends to push the law through the lower chamber off the back of a vote of confidence.
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.