EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT – Deutsche Bank prepares to spin off Postbank in strategic rethink. 1,100-branch retail network under threat. Weak markets and tighter rules take toll.

WSJE – Lender eyes selling off Postbank. Deutsche Bank AG’s executive board is leaning toward disposing of Postbank, a mass-market retail operation, and cutting around €200 billion ($216 billion) in investment-banking assets as it puts the final touches on a review of strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.

INYT – Warning signs about a pilot set on dying. Germanwings disaster reveals airline industry’s denial of suicide risks.

FRANCE

Le Monde – Social dialogue: Rebsamen law makes efforts to displease no one. “Le Monde” reveals the contents of the text to be presented by the Labour Minister in the Council of Ministers on 22 April

Les Echos – Hollande wants a new allowance for students. Allowance for workers under 25 would also be allocated to students and apprentices. The President wants to help young people find work. The government is hesitating on the exact limits of this high-cost measure.

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine – Refugee disaster in the Mediterranean sea. A ship from Libya capsized, causing the deaths of hundreds of refugees. Pope Francis calls on international community for more support.

Suddeutsche Zeitung – More massive deaths in the Mediterranean sea. Presumably 700 refugees crowded into a 30-meter-long boat drowned just off the Libyan coast. The Italian Government calls on EU partner countries for help.

ITALY

La Republica – Migrant’s apocalypse, the Mediterranean Sea transformed into a cemetery. Following the shipwreck of a boat off the coasts of Sicilia, 950 people have died. According to the UN, this is an unprecedented hecatomb.

Il Sole 24 Ore – Mayors’ reputation surprisingly on the rise. According to a recent IPR Marketing-Il Sole 24 Ore survey, Italian mayors are increasingly popular among citizens. The mayor of Firenze Dario Nardella is the most popular with a 65% rate of positive opinion.

POLAND

Gazeta – Apolitical judge. Former Presiding Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal call for debate on the exchange of a third of the Tribunal’s members to avoid political appointments.

SPAIN

El Pais – Horror in Europe after the worst shipwreck in Mediterranean Sea. 700 people disappeared in a fishing boat from Libya heading to Italy.

Expansion – Record in the real estate sector. €2.5 billion investment in the first quarter. The sector may do better than it did in 2007.

UK

The Times – We will hold UK defence to ransom, warns SNP. Sturgeon issues demands before manifesto launch.

The Guardian – Hundreds feared dead as migrant vessel capsizes. Disaster near Libya triggers call for action to halt trafficking crisis

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