Today's front pages

The great festival that began with the stirring resonances of Danny Boyle's opening ceremony came to a poignant end with a light-hearted pageant of British popular culture. The Games ended with the US topping the final medal table with 46 golds, followed by China with 38 golds. GB came third with 29 golds - their best tally since 1908.

Goodbye to the glorious games – The Guardian

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sent her assistant for European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip Gordon, to Bucharest to express Washington’s concern over the threat to the independence of Romanian state institutions represented by the Victor Ponta administration. On August 10, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, informed Romanian authorities of his disquiet with regard to political developments in the country.

Help, Barroso! Help Hillary! – Jurnalul Naţional

Police in the Danish capital have abandoned a plan to increase the number of video surveillance cameras from the current level of 40 installed units, having concluded that they do not make an effective contribution in the fight against crime.

Copenhagen drops plans for increased surveillance – Berlingske Tidende

PM Mario Monti said the economic development, environment and justice ministers will arrive in Taranto, in southern Italy, on August 17 to try to resolve the dispute over the partial shutdown of the ILVA steel plant, which stopped some activities following a court decision at the end of July on health and environment grounds. This triggered protests by thousands of workers, afraid of losing their jobs.

Monti sends ministers to Taranto – Corriere della Sera

The measures adopted by the government to reduce the deficit to the target fixed by Brussels – 5.3% for this year – will mean that an average family, made up of two married working adults and two children, will have 3,218 euros less, that is a 10.5% drop in their annual income per capita.

Adjustments will cause families' incomes to drop by 10.5% – El Economista

The ongoing trial of the members of the punk band Pussy Riot “marks a new lowpoint in the witchhunt targeting the opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wants to create an old school repressive state”, writes the magazine.

Putin’s Russia: a soon to be immaculate dictatorship – Der Spiegel

One in every five universities ended 2011 with a financial loss, according to new figures released by the Ministry of Education, while their overall income dropped by 25 per cent compared to the year before. It is one of the effects of a declining birth rate, DGP reports.

“Universities get poorer as student numbers drop" – Dziennik Gazeta Prawna