"France in the front line," headlines Le Figaro in the wake of the death in Niger of two young French hostages, who were captured on 7 January in Niamey. According to official sources in Paris, the pair were killed by their captors in the course of a shoot-out with French and Nigerien armed forces. "Once again, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) appears to be responsible for this tragedy," writes the Paris daily. This latest incident follows hot on the heels of the AQIM’s assassination of a French aid worker in Niger in July, and the September kidnapping of five French employees of nuclear giant Areva in the north of the country. "It is now obvious that French citizens have become preferred targets for Islamic terrorists operating in this part of the world," remarks Le Figaro, which continues to voice support for French military intervention in the region, in spite of the failure to save the two hostages.
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.