On the occasion of the Afghanistan conference in Kabul the daily The Irish Times examines the possibilities for a solution to the war in Afghanistan: "A more realistic perspective on the war is emerging even among those most committed to fighting it. Afghanistan's problems of rampant insecurity, endemic corruption, widespread poverty and weak government persist. Most Afghans do not want Nato there and support efforts to reach a political deal with the Taliban, based on the assumption that it is not a unified resistance run by al-Qaeda, but a coalition of regional and local opponents who could be attracted to an alternative path. Any negotiated end to the war will have to take these realities into account. It will also have to involve neighbouring states - Pakistan especially - more centrally because of the overlapping interests and loyalties between Pashtuns on both sides of that border." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Afghanistan, » Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced at the beginning of the Afghanistan conference that by 2014 local troops will have replaced the international peace-keeping forces in the country. The daily Berlingske Tidende asks whether this is feasible: "Karzai is being extremely optimistic in view of the serious situation in Afghanistan. Add to that the widespread corruption in the Afghan government and the future cooperation with moderate Taliban elements - even leaving out the hard core - and you get what could become an explosive cocktail. It is in no one's interest to resurrect the government which ruled until 2001. That is not what the Western soldiers have been fighting for. Nevertheless all possibilities must be appraised that could lead to peace, even the art of defining the term 'moderate Taliban'." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Denmark, » Global, » Afghanistan

The international Afghanistan Conference in Kabul will produce nothing but new attacks and vague promises, the left-liberal daily Der Standard predicts: "This was what happened at the so-called Peace Jirga in Kabul in June. This meeting among Afghans representing different interest groups - not all of them were there - was a stage for President Hamid Karzai to demonstrate his good intentions but failed to produce concrete results, and some observers fear that it actually caused new rifts. Things won't be so bad today, but the Kabul Conference is primarily a show. Here the warlords and paymasters swear their commitment to what many see as a lost cause. In addition to the old promises there will be no lack of proclamations that soon the Afghans will have to assume the responsibility for their affairs. And no one knows exactly what that means or what will happen then." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Gudrun Harrer

The ninth International Conference on Afghanistan won't improve the situation in the country, writes the daily Delo and fears that the war may actually intensify: "The Afghan government, which effectively controls only a quarter of the country, will support the international community's decision to keep the 140,000 soldiers on Nato's Isaf mission in the country. … In this way Washington, which has already made the war in Afghanistan its own war entirely, as well as London and Brussels will legitimise their military presence and the war. This will have the effect of making the new Nato chief commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, even more aggressive and less willing to compromise in the coming months, as happened in Iraq." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Bostjan Videmsek

The EU Commission presents its progress report on justice and internal security in Bulgaria today, Tuesday. The daily Trud criticises the overall situation but is happy for the Interior Minister: "Zvetan Zvetanov is leading 1:0 against the judges. According to the report, the government is fighting crime and corruption but the judicial system is hampering its efforts. But that's not 1:0 for Bulgaria. There are few EU states that would allow Brussels to nanny their judiciaries in such a way, and even be told that without outside help they wouldn't get anywhere. … In the past year [commissioner candidate] Rumiana Jeleva (you may remember her) lobbied ahead of the Belgian EU Council presidency for the dismantling of the EU mechanism for monitoring Bulgaria's judiciary and internal security. Jeleva is no longer in politics, but the mechanism is still in place. And it looks like it will remain there for some time to come." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Vesselin Jelev

Greek journalist Sokratis Giolias was shot dead in front of his home in Athens by unknown persons on Monday. The police suspect a left-extremist terrorist group is responsible for the crime. The 37-year-old journalist was the director of private radio broadcaster Thema FM. The blog Preza TV condemns the murder and fears civil rights will be curtailed: "There is no worse form of fascism than to deprive someone of their right to life. To shoot him in cold blood and believe that in doing so you're a rebel hitting back at the system. This system in which you yourself live and which the citizens will support all the more passionately because of this crime. … What the terrorists have achieved is … that the government will introduce new forms of anti-terrorist measures under the pretext of fighting terrorism. … Today, with the blood of an innocent man, the first page in a new form of violence that someone wants to set in motion has been written. This tragic farce should not be allowed to continue." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Press freedom, » Greece

The French city of Grenoble has been rocked by three nights of rioting after the police shot and killed a presumed robber on the run. The failed policies of the Sarkozy government are to blame for the unrest, writes the left-liberal daily Libération: "Sarkozy has failed lamentably with his 'Marshall Plan' for the banlieues, which has not stopped shrinking in scope. With its reductions in the number of local police, its budget cuts and its 'security first' strategy, the right-wing has only widened the gap between the young people in the cités and the leading figures in the Republic. To reduce crime and illegal trafficking ... you've got to understand their causes and not just play the fireman each time a blaze breaks out. What we urgently need right now is a new educational, social, economic and cultural policy proportional with the problems faced by the banlieues." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Social affairs, » France
All available articles from » Fabrice Rousselot

In recent years the battle lines between the Spanish central state and its regions have been drawn ever tighter. In his Blog Del Alfiler al Elefante for the left-liberal daily El País Lluís Bassets explains how international developments have reinforced this trend: "The divisive policies of the neo-conservative George Bush, supported by [Tony] Blair and [José María] Aznar also made an impact. They broke up ties of solidarity and intra-European balances. Each went his own way in an open re-nationalisation of European policies. Faced with the vanishing of Europe's promises the three big states, Germany, France and the UK, wanted to regain their protagonist status. And the dream that the old nation-states would adjust themselves to European unity and a post-national world evaporated. Could anyone have believed that the old nations of the Iberian Peninsula would remain impassive faced with these recent developments in our world? The worst thing about it is that in the end this centrifugal force conceals a trap: Europe is becoming smaller and less important, and the same but even more so will happen with all its components, great and small, with the state or without it." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Social movements, » Federalism, » Separatism, » Germany, » France, » United Kingdom, » Spain, » U.S.
All available articles from » Lluís Bassets

The aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing have signed contracts running into the billions on the opening day of the international airshow in the British city of Farnborough. Even if the competition from China, Russia and Canada is also keen to capitalise on the boom market, the European and US market leaders needn't worry about their position, writes the business paper Handelsblatt: "Developing and manufacturing aircraft and establishing a worldwide service network demands a very long-term approach not all newcomers can afford. Nevertheless at least one company will be successful enough to start nipping at the heels of the market leaders. This sector can tolerate one or two new entrants. Both Boeing and Airbus expect the market to continue growing at a fast pace. Global air traffic is set to double in the next 15 years, and the aircraft needed to meet this growth will have to be produced by more than two manufacturers. Otherwise there won't be enough planes to meet the demand created by the boom in air traffic." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Africa, » Europe, » North America, » Global
All available articles from » Markus Fasse

Hungary's right-wing nationalist government rejects the austerity measures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has demanded it introduce. Budapest is obviously prepared to accept the devaluation of the forint that came after its talks with the Fund were broken off, the conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung observes: "The IMF has already warned how dangerous a collapse of the forint would be for Hungary's public debt. The Orbán government doesn't seem to have grasped this. When its representatives announced at the beginning of June that they had proof of budget deficits to match those in Greece in the hope of gaining ground in domestic politics, the forint lost almost five percent of its value compared to the euro within two days. Later they backtracked, but with a minus of 6.5 percent within three months the forint had performed worse than any other currency up to Friday. If it doesn't reach an agreement with the EU and the IMF Hungary will hardly be able to regain the confidence of the markets. Particularly with a government that allows itself this kind of caper any investors will wish the country had an international security net." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Hungary

The turnover figures registered by the Polish shipyards in Gdynia, Gdańsk and Świnoujście were considerably higher in the first two quarters of this year than in the same period one year ago. This is a clear sign that Poland's entire economy will soon have put the crisis behind it altogether, writes the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita: "Our firms are overcoming the negative effects of the 2008-2009 crisis with increasing speed. Businesses are producing and exporting more and more. Evidence of this can be found not only in the statistics but also at the Polish shipyards. They are the litmus test of our economy and are shipping an ever increasing amount of goods. Their hope is that the prosperity levels from before the crisis will once again be reached in half a year at the latest. Businesses are not hard put to present better figures than even a year ago, because at that time a large number of them cut their production. Now it is easier to show a considerable improvement compared with that low. But the positive trend is becoming increasingly noticeable even over and above that." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Poland
All available articles from » Aleksandra Fandrejewska

Rating agency Moody's lowered Ireland's credit rating on Monday. At the same time Hungary is in a clinch with the International Monetary Fund and Spain has defaulted on its payments. Moreover there is growing concern about the publishing of the results of the stress tests on European banks on Friday, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Dark clouds are gathering on Europe's horizon and the tension is growing. For the results of the stress test performed on Europe's 91 major credit institutes will be published on Friday after the financial markets close. In the meantime there is growing fear and criticism, in particular of the method, which doesn't take account of differences between nations and therefore risks measuring different situations by the same standards. Others say that the stress tests are too lax, that the six-percent-hurdle for Tier 1 [core capital] is too low, that the great majority of the banks will pass the test with only few exceptions, including the nationalised German real estate financing institute Hypo Real Estate." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Financial Markets, » Banks, » Europe
All available articles from » Vittorio Puledda

Numerous youths have drowned or perished in traffic accidents this summer in Estonia. The daily Eesti Päevaleht blames the deaths on increased alcohol consumption and calls for stricter laws: "Why must alcohol be available at petrol stations, as if it were just another thing you needed for your car like motor oil or windshield washer fluid? Is the idea to ban boredom from the motorways? The typical scenario for fatal motor accidents starts when five young men between 18 and 25 drive up in an old car and want to buy more booze for a party. How many lives could be saved if petrol stations simply stopped selling alcohol? Perhaps the odd local petrol station would go belly up, sure, but it would quickly be replaced by part of a more reasonable chain that earns its money with other services." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health and Medicine, » Trade, » Estonia
All available articles from » Barbi Pilvre

A court in The Hague has dismissed a lawsuit by the Dutch music and film industry association Brein for increased protection against Internet piracy. Brein wanted to force providers to close Internet sites offering illegal products. A just sentence, writes the tabloid De Telegraaf: "Much money is invested in the making of films, music and software. When these products are stolen the businesses lose their profits. Nevertheless Brein's demand that providers must close their websites goes too far. Closing websites constitutes a serious encroachment and imperils the freedom to provide and collect information. Such interference is only justified in the absence of any other way of combating severe grievances. As understandable as Brein's frustration about the pirates is, the seriousness of the theft does not justify closing parts of the Internet." (20/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Press freedom, » Netherlands