French press review 2 February 2011

All the papers lead, without exception, with the ongoing protests in Egypt, as they have done for most of the week. Indeed, it’s becoming difficult to work out whether they are today's, yesterday's or even tomorrow's papers.

Catholic La Croix has put all its chips on the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, leading with "Egypt prepares for the post-Mubarak era." Perhaps given that Mubarak has said he will not stand for re-election, the headline makes sense to a certain extent.

Communist l'Humanité, always one to salute popular revolt, runs the headline "Once upon a time the revolution".

Just to give you an idea, over the past few days, l'Huma has run 'Mubarak Out!', 'End of a Reign' and 'Egypt Explodes'. The headline writer there must be having sleepless nights as he tries to come up with tomorrow's.

Just like leftist Libération, La Croix has a full page picture on the front page of the crowds in Tahrir Square in central Cairo. It's like one of those Where's Wally comics - thousands of people in the shot, we've just got to spot the one with the stripy jumper.

The headline on Libé reads 'Egypt Stands Up'... It says the calm of the 2 million people that took to the streets across the country was incredibly impressive.

Even business daily Les Echos, which doesn't normally lead with non-financial news, puts Egypt as its top story with the headline "The hour of transition has arrived".

On the inside pages of Le Figaro comes the somewhat disturbing news of what a certain vaccine against the H1N1 strain of the flu may have done to children in Finland.

According to research carried out by health authorities there, 54 children aged between 4 and 19 who were given the Pandermix shot showed symptoms of narcolepsy - that horrible disease where one falls asleep without warning.

The incidence of the disease, which remains extremely rare, tripled in Finland since the outbreak of the H1N1 virus.

This comes as authorities in France are coming under increased scrutiny over the Mediator scandal. An anti-diabetes drug that remained on the market for years despite reservations from independent researchers. The medicine may have caused the deaths of hundreds of people.

Elsewhere La Croix reports on the 400th day of captivity of the journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier who are still being held in Afghanistan with three of their fixers.

In a piece that is almost a call to support the men, it says we must continue talking about their ordeal; as a group in Paris did yesterday, calling on president Sarkozy to put pressure on the Afghan government to secure their release.