French oil giant Total has always justified its presence in Burma/Myanmar with the assertion that its business is beneficial to local populations. Not so, says a report entitled "Total Impact " published by Thai-American NGO Earth Rights International (ERI) on 10 September. Libération notes that ERI accuses Total and its American partner Chevron, of being the main funders of the junta, which has ruled the country since 1962. ERI has revealed that between 2000 and 2008, the site of the Yanada gas field in the south of the country enabled the junta to rake in US$4.83 billion (or €3.31 billion). "Instead of being included in the Burmese budget (…), these sums are held by the generals in secret off-shore accounts in Singapore," reports the French daily. The ERI investigation has also revealed several cases of "forced labour and executions" at the Yadana site. In conclusion Libération regrets that "Europe has always excluded hydrocarbons, and on that basis Total, from sanctions" against Rangoon.
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.