“Kerviel case boomerangs,” headlines La Tribune, after the Société Générale trader was sentenced to five years in prison, three without remission, and €4.9 billion in damages and interest for having caused a record €5 billion loss in early 2008 by taking dicey market positions. The verdict, which heaps all the blame on the rogue trader, has “put doubts in people’s minds”, according to the French financial daily: “By handing down a far-fetched condemnation, the judges run the risk of discrediting the bench itself.(…) By coming down with all their might on the fall guy, even if he is guilty, they are liable to be decried for dispensing biased justice, protecting the powerful and abusing the powerless.” On the other hand, adds La Tribune, “If their aim was to clear the Société Générale, they missed, handing them instead a victory that won’t help whitewash their reputation.” Jérôme Kerviel intends to appeal the decision.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.