Today's front pages

Italian PM Mario Monti will explain his “exit strategy for the crisis” during today’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, as part of the round of shuttle diplomacy between eurozone leaders to discuss the crisis before the EU summit in October.

Monti on Europe: my road map – La Repubblica

Catalonia, drowning in its own debt, has requested €5.02 billion from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund, a financial mechanism to support the regions. Applying for the cash, the authority said the money "is from the Catalans and belongs to them," adding that it would be used entirely to repay debts. Meanwhile, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy is meeting EC President Herman Van Rompuy, but denied talks of a bailout.

Catalonia’s bailout: €5.02 billion – La Vanguardia

Michelle Martin, who was sentenced to 30 years in 2004 for complicity in the kidnapping, rape and murder of several little girls in the 1990s, has been released from prison following an appeal court ruling. She had been in custody for 16 years since her arrest in 1996 and now plans to live in an Order of Saint Clare convent in Malonne, southern Belgium. Her ex-husband and accomplice, Marc Dutroux, is hoping for a similar decision to enable him to leave prison, however, the Belgian federal government is considering ways to prevent his release.

Martin is free, debate over Dutroux boils over – De Morgen

On August 28, 52 days after having been suspended from his post by the Romanian parliament, President Traian Băsescu returned to the Cotroceni, the official presidential residence. His return follows a ruling by the country’s constitutional court, which said that a referendum to impeach him was invalid. The duo behind the impeachment initiative, Senate President Crin Antonescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta, are respectively on holiday in Italy and on an official visit to South Africa.

Băsescu in Cotroceni, Antonescu in Naples – Revista 22

The French government is to create 150,000 "contract for the future" jobs, which will benefit from a 75 per cent state subsidy for a period of three years. The jobs will be for poorly qualified or unskilled 16-25 year-olds from isolated rural areas and impoverished urban neighbourhoods. The measure, which will cost €1.5 billion, is reminiscent of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin’s socialist government initiative to create 310,000 youth jobs in 1997.

Hollande relaunches subsidised jobs – Le Figaro

The Irish government must reform the welfare system to eliminate poverty traps and broaden the tax base, according to a new European Commission report, which urged authorities to consider all options ahead of the 2013 budget. It praised the structural reforms, which are tied to the €78 billion bailout package offered by the EU-IMF-ECB troika, but pointed out unemployment benefits that did not reduce over time, failed to encourage jobseekers to find work.

EU warns government over need to reform welfare system – The Irish Times

The Paralympic flame was lit in Stoke Mandeville, in the UK, the spiritual home of the disabled sport movement, at the start of a 24-hour torch relay that will end with the opening of the Games at London’s Olympic Stadium. The Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are due to attend the ceremony, which will launch almost two-weeks of sports ending on September 9.

A new flame – Britain ready to fall in love with the Games all over again – The Guardian