The Guardian (UK)
Ahmadinejad, Durban and another fine mess

The press across the world is splashed with the mass walk-out at the UN anti-racism conference in Geneva following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech – where he branded Israel as racist. An article in Britain’s The Guardian says that delegates shouldn’t have walked out – they should have stayed to argue their case. It says walking out achieved nothing and staying and arguing against the Iranian president would have achieved far more. It calls the conference part-farce, part-tragedy and likens it to a Laurel and Hardy sketch – destined for disaster for months. It’s also on the front page of The Jerusalem post (Israel). They say Ahmadinejad has buried the Durban process. It reports on protesters who declared "a racist cannot fight racism", and carries comments from ministers saying his speech is offensive and unacceptable.

In France’s liberation it's also the front page – the paper talks of an appalling start to the conference with an anti Semitic speech. In Al-Quds Al-Arabi an editorial in the London based Palestinian paper supports Ahmadinejad – saying he was only telling the truth. There’s also a cartoon showing an Israeli trying to hide from the sun – basically suggesting the truth will out!

In Sud Quotidien (Senegal)
A Victory for the defence

Something dominating the papers in Senegal is the release of nine men who had been imprisoned in the country for six months for being gay. This paper talks about the details of the case. They were sentenced to eight years in jail after being found guilty of "indecent conduct and unnatural acts". The men - who are part of an anti-HIV/Aids group - were arrested in December at an apartment. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had expressed his concern at the original verdict. In le Quotidien Le solieil it talks of how homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country where gay people remain marginalised. The defence team argued at the beginning of the appeal last week that the case against the men was based mainly on anonymous tip-offs. The accused were not caught in the act as the prosecution had suggested during the trial, argued the defence.

EL Mundo (Spain)
Russian and Chechnyan babies are swapped at birth

In Spain’s El Mundo  there’s an article telling of two babies that were swapped at birth in a hospital in Oriol in Russia. What’s interesting is one of the baby boys was Russian and the other from Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya. These children lived in the wrong households for two years before the mistake was discovered by one of the mothers on a visit to the hospital. The children were then swapped back – this is two years on. The article says it shows nationalism isn’t something genetic as both boys were happy in their surroundings – that sort of thing is brought on by the way you’re brought up.

Independent (UK)
Berlusconi and his new golden girl are laid bare

Italy’s prime minister is in the spotlight but in a slightly different way than normal. This story is in a lot of the press today but let’s have a look at the UK’s Independent. Here you see an image of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi naked with his Minister for Equal Opportunity Mara Cafagna – a painting that’s now in a gallery in Italy. A slightly controversial picture because two years ago he told her that he would marry her if he wasn’t married already – that was on TV. His wife then demanded a public apology! The artist says that he’ll donate the money to the victims of italy’s earthquake if the prime minister buys the painting – something that seems unlikely at the moment.