Starting off with Russia’s Moscow Times, the front page is dominated by the Kremlin’s announcement on Thursday that it had ended its counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya.

This means an end to a strict security regime imposed in September 1999 when Russian troops poured into the republic to crush separatists. Travel was restricted and press freedom curtailed.

The decision marks the official end of the second Chechen war, although open hostilities stopped several years ago.

It’s also a boost to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Kadyrov is quoted as saying it’s a victory over terrorism and extremism. The front page photo shows children wearing national costume dancing in the streets of Grozny to celebrate.

The image in Liberation is a stark contrast to that of the Moscow Times: a photo of the war-torn Chechen capital in 2005.

The article says that despite the end of the conflict, a climate of fear persists.

In this report, campaigners for human rights say that abuses are still being carried out and that the current order in Chechnya is down to an unhappy combination of Russian military might and repression.

Moving onto France now and Le Figaro’s front page has some alarming crime figures.

Paris, overseas territories and the sunny south east of the country are apparently the most dangerous regions.

Graffiti is rife in the north and threats of violence in the Alps and sexual harassment and abuse are most common in Paris and Belfort in the east.

Piracy is a subject which continues to dominate headlines around the world.

The USA Today devotes several pages to the issue and has a map showing boats currently being held, the nationality of the ship’s owners and where the crews come from.

At least 15 ships and 300 crew members are currently being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia, according to the International Marine Bureau and NATO.

So far there have been 79 attacks this year, compared with 111 for all of 2008.

The Wall Street Journal (Europe and Asia editions)

Pirates vs. the Rest of Us

Both the European and Asian editions of the Wall Street Journal carry an interesting editorial on piracy.

It says that the rescue of US captain Richard Phillips proved a vital boost to national self-confidence.

But the point of the article is to use the pirate assault on the American flagged ship, one man’s bravery and a subsequent daring rescue a metaphor of the world today.

“The world is awash with pirates,” says journalist Daniel Henninger, “some are little pirates but many others are big.”

He compares terrorists to pirates and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran to acts of piracy which should be tackled in the same no-nonsense way as the US Navy handled Captain Phillips’ rescue.

The article quotes Barack Obama who said that those who commit acts of piracy should be held accountable for their crimes, and says the same should be applied to North Korea, Iran and al Qaeda.

He concludes that each weakly answered pirate advance erodes public confidence in the West’s promise of an ordered world”.

Finally, the Daily Mail is just one of the dozens of newspapers to talk about Britain’s latest reality TV star. Her performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ on the television show 'Britain’s Got Talent' has became a YouTube hit.

The Daily Mail calls Scottish spinster Susan Boyle the most unlikely of showbiz sensations.