The paper clip, 3 February

Hungary's Népszabadság describes the confusion about whether the US and the EU would, as Spain hoped, hold a summit in May as a “fiasco” and a “wake-up call” to Europe from Barack Obama. It quotes analysts who say the US is signalling its dissatisfaction about a lack of European solidarity with the US's efforts in Afghanistan. Népszabadság itself wonders whether Spain's call for an end to the embargo on the sale of weapons to China was a factor. The Guardian says “confused management of the EU” is part of the reason why Barack Obama will not attend the planned EU-US summit in May. It says Europe has “failed the first test” of new arrangements introduced by the Lisbon treaty. Hospodárské noviny (Czech Republic) is among the other papers with a report. European Voice had the story yesterday.

The asylum application of Jovan Mirilo, a Serb who passed on incriminating video footage, has been turned down by the Austrian authorities, writes Der Standard. Mirilo provided human-rights activists with footage of a Serbian unit killing prisoners from Srebrenica during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, tangible proof that Serbian – and not just Bosnian Serb – paramilitaries were direct participants in the genocide perpetrated there.

In the biggest security operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the war ended in 1995, hundreds of special police yesterday raided the village of Gornja Maoca near the northern town of Brcko, Nezavisne novine reports. Seven suspected Islamic extremists, including one foreign national, were arrested and a substantial cache of weapons seized. The village had been outside the control of the Bosnian authorities, and children were schooled according to Jordanian curricula.

The trial against the suspected killers of Ivo Pukanic, a prominent journalist and publisher, has begun in Zagreb, Jutarnji list writes. Pukanic was killed together with Niko Franjic, an employee of his newspaper, Nacional, when his car exploded in 2008. Four men are standing trial in Zagreb, while others have been detained in neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia. The man who is believed to have detonated the bomb that killed Pukanic surrendered in the Bosnian Serb capital of Banja Luka yesterday, Nezavisne novine reports.

Austria wants to use a CD containing stolen data about accountholders with Swiss banks to investigate tax evaders, Der Standard writes. The German government is currently considering the modalities of buying the data, and Austria would “of course” be interested in using data relating to Austrian citizens, a spokesperson for Josef Pröll, finance minister, told the paper.

Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovakia's prime minister from 1998 to 2006, has announced that he will leave parliament at the next election, which will be held this summer. Dzurinda, who is 55, is leaving amid a scandal about funding for the party a few years ago. Dzurinda said he was leaving in order to ensure that the forthcoming election is not dominated by the issue of party funding, rather than about the government and scandals of Prime Minister Robert Fico. Sme has a report. Slovakia's Pravda reports that Fico has raised the possibility that his knowledge about the funding for Dzurinda's SDKU party could lead to his assassination. “I have things that give me cause to fear that someone might shoot me. Money pays a role,” the paper quotes him as saying.

The Irish Independent says new figures show there has been huge surge in unemployment. It says 13,300 more people joined the dole queues in Ireland last month - pushing the total to 436,900.

De Telegraaf says the Dutch drugs policy is dividing the government coalition under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. His Christian Democrats are proposing tougher criminal penalties and other rules with the aim of shutting more coffee-shops that sell hash and cannabis. The Labour party coalition partners are against the move for tougher criminal penalties. The centre-right party fears such a crackdown will force many drug sellers to go underground, which they argue will cause more problems.

The Guardian has an interview with Rajendra Pauchauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who said that it would be hypocritical for him to apologise for a mistaken claim about melting Himalayan glaciers because he cannot be responsible for every word in the IPPC's 3,000-page report.
 
The Daily Telegraph reports that the British government is considering plans to cut the number of senior generals, admirals and air marshals. The Times reports that the government has backed away from a fight with the churches over its equality bill, after an attack by the Pope on plans for equal rights for gay people.

The Times of Malta looks at possible replacements in parliament for John Dalli, who is set to be the commissioner for health and consumer affairs. Only two potential candidates remain, a mayor and a local councillor, but neither has officially put himself forward for the position.

Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza writes that a think-tank that advises Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has issued what amounts to a “bold challenge” to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by outlining a vision of a 21st-century Russia that is part of NATO and the EU. The title of the paper “The political future of the country: Back to the Constitution” is itself a challenge.

Gazeta Wyborcza looks at the situation of the Bulgarian journalist Lidia Pavlova, who believes that the police are not taking seriously enough the dangers she has been facing in her efforts to uncover organised crime in Blagoevgrad. Pavlova is bringing a private case against two brothers thought to lead the local mafia.

The NRC Handelsblad reports on a bomb attack at a girl's school in north-western Pakistan that left at least six people dead. Another 70 are reportedly wounded.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has made an apparent U-turn and now agrees to the idea of enriching uranium abroad, writes Die Presse. The scheme was one of the options proposed by the international community to find a way out of the current impasse over the country's enrichment programme, which Iran claims is for peaceful purposes. The United States and the European Union have stepped up their pressure on Tehran in recent weeks.

A senior Iranian official has announced that nine additional opposition supporters are to be executed, Die Presse writes. Two men were executed for their support for the opposition last Thursday.

The UK's Office of Fair Trading wants the proposed merger of telecoms firms Orange and T-Mobile to be investigated by the regulatory authorities in the UK rather than merely subjected to scrutiny by the European Commission, the Guardian writes. 

The European Commission is seeking clarifications from Maltese authorities that no “illegal state aid” was used to attract the aircraft-maintenance company SR Technics to Malta. The Times of Malta says Antonio Tajani, the commissioner for transport, sent an official letter to the government seeking clarifications on the multi-million euro deal, which was announced last year.

British households and businesses face “unaffordable energy bills” unless radical action is taken to safeguard the country's supply, according to an energy regulator. The Daily Telegraph looks at a report into the future of Britain's energy market, which warns that bills could rise by up to 25% over the next decade unless measures are taken.

De Morgen reports on the roll-out of faster internet services in Belgium, saying it marks the step to limitless downloading. The new service will, however, force customers to buy new modems, the price of which are expected to be high.