Eurotopics.net

A Russian television crew has been killed in the Central African Republic. The three reporters had travelled to the war-ravaged country to shoot a documentary about a group of Russian mercenaries known as the Wagner group for an online news organisation owned by exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Government-critical Russian media don't believe the official statements issued on the incident.

The retirement age in the Netherlands is to be raised to 67 by 2021. Now a publication put out by the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute has sparked a debate on the subject. According to the report, people with lower qualifications should be able to retire earlier than the more highly educated. Commentators take widely differing views on the subject.

The public prosecutor's office in Estonia has launched an investigation against the Estonian branch of Danske Bank. For several weeks now the bank has faced allegations of having laundered up to nine billion dollars, most of which came from Russia. Journalists are appalled by the authorities' slowness in reacting to the affair.

An attack against discus thrower Daisy Osakue has sparked a debate about racism in Italy. The athlete suffered an eye injury when unknown assailants hurled an egg at her from a car. The UN Refugee Agency reports an increase in xenophobic attacks in the country, and the opposition says Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's refugee policy is partly to blame. Europe's press agrees.

Tehran has not responded so far to Trump's surprise offer for talks between the US and Iran. However, the US president has said he is confident that the Iranian head of state Hassan Rouhani would soon accept the offer. European commentators say a compromise on the Iran deal would be a sensible outcome but that Trump's tactics could get in the way of a solution.