Latest update: 22/07/2011 

- European Union - eurozone - Famine - Greece - marriage - Monaco - Phone-hacking scandal - Prince Albert II - Somalia - terrorism


The Grimaldi soap: Prince Albert in a lather

Much of the press leads on the Brussels summit on Thursday which ended in agreement on a second Greek bailout. Reaction is largely positive - the eurozone has been brought back from the brink. But there's criticism, too, about the direction Europe is taking. There's also the latest in the UK's phone hacking scandal, and a look at a royal spin in Monaco. That's the focus for Friday, 22nd July 2011.

By Nicholas RUSHWORTH

Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins slams Thursday's eurozone agreement in his piece: "Monetary union, always unworkable has set in train a European disaster". He argues the eurozone - after the Brussels summit - is one step nearer to a doomed fiscal union. “This is the true turning point”, he says, towards a “brittle unitary state”. “If European politics starts to implode and returns to xenophobia, manned borders, ethnic cleansings and trade boycotts, that start is now,” he says.

The Guardian’s front page headline is “James Murdoch misled MPs, say former News of the World editor and lawyer”. Two former News of the World executives claim the evidence Murdoch gave to a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday in relation to an out-of-court settlement was "mistaken". Meanwhile, James’s dad, News Corp CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch, is the target of the cartoonists. The International Herald Tribune has a cartoon with the words “NEWS” in very large letters and underneath a forlorn Rupert Murdoch saying: “How was I supposed to know?” USA Today International shows him standing up in a rubbish bin saying: “Phone hacking goes against everything I stand in … er … stand for”.

The Huffington Post headlines “Somalia: Famine, Al-Shabaab Complicate U.S. Food Delivery In Face of Severe Malnutrition”. It says international organisations are looking for alternative solutions to work around American restrictions on delivering funds to terrorist organizations. Many of those in need are in areas controlled by the Islamist militant group al Shabab. A comment piece in the Bahrain paper The Gulf Daily News says this “first famine of the 21st century was not a horrible surprise sprung on the world”. The writer Jennifer Gnana says the extent of desertification was known fourteen years ago. She acknowledges the lawlessness and extremism in Somalia but argues the world has failed Somalia.

And the Grimaldi soap continues. Britain’s Daily Telegraph leads “Prince Albert II of Monaco dismisses marriage rumours”. He has said they're being spread by people who are "jealous" of his family and lavish royal lifestyle. And the Monaco Times leads: “A prince indignant”. It reports that Prince Albert II briefed the press immediately on return from his honeymoon in southern Africa, saying the constant rumours were "simply not acceptable". South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock – now Princess Charlene – and Albert slept apart one night on their honeymoon, and there were reports the bride attempted to leave Monaco two days before their wedding.

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