Russian papers reflect concern about the likely impact of the Columbia shuttle disaster on their own country's space programme.

The rout of Gerhard Schroeder's party in its first electoral test since his narrow return to power last September attracts comment in Germany, while Czech papers ponder the post-Havel interregnum.

Plugging the gap?

The leading Russian daily Izvestiya casts doubt on the national space agency's confident assertion that Russia stands to benefit from the loss of the US shuttle.

The Columbia tragedy puts the International Space Station's existence under threat - and with it the Russian space programme Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Even agency sources acknowledge that the Russian Progress ships which ferry cargo to the International Space Station have a capacity of just 3-5 tonnes, compared with the Columbia's 100 tonnes, it notes.

"Further comment, as they say, is superfluous," it adds wryly.

The heavyweight Nezavisimaya Gazeta provides some anyway.

"The Columbia tragedy puts the International Space Station's existence under threat - and with it the Russian space programme, which is geared principally to servicing the ISS," it says.

But two experts interviewed in the same newspaper are more optimistic about the future of manned space flight.

General Yuri Yashin, an ex-head of the presidential State Technical Commission, says Russia and the US would suffer if they abandoned manned flights.

An end to space exploration, he believes, "would inflict great damage on the development not only of the space-rocket sector but of industry as a whole - ultimately, such a decision would halt the development of the military sector".

Lt-Gen Valeriy Subbotin, deputy head of a space research institute, agrees that "machines will never replace human beings" but sounds a note of caution.

With a yearly budget of 8-10bn roubles ($251-314m) against Nasa's $14bn, "we can't develop our own manned programme independently", he warns.

German rebuff to chancellor

The weekend also spelt disaster for the party of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Sunday's regional elections, the first since he was re-elected five months ago.

Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel says the SPD's defeat in Hesse and Lower Saxony cannot be understood in isolation from last September's bitterly-contested general elections and the subsequent months of government turmoil.

Whether the voters like it or not, the coalition must break the logjam preventing reform Der Tagesspiegel

"Of course this was an anti-Schroeder election," the paper says.

But whatever the voters' exact reasons, it adds, the governing SPD-Green coalition must not use the result as an excuse to delay reform further.

"Whether the voters like it or not, the coalition must break the logjam preventing reform. It must finally and courageously drive forward a consistent policy of reforms," it declares.

Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says the opposition CDU has gained what it calls "triumphant victories".

Such protest votes are nothing new, "but their vehemence is", it adds.

The more the voters back the right-of-centre opposition in regional elections, the paper says, the closer they come to achieving a two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament.

"Such a majority means: everything grinds to a halt in Germany," the paper says, explaining that the CDU/CSU would be able to reject every law that the governing coalition managed to pass through the lower house.

Hard act to follow

One politician with no such worries is Vaclav Havel - but the departing Czech president leaves a vacuum for the country's press to mull over.

A short period without a head of state is no problem for us, but it would be good if this period were not protracted Hospodarske Noviny

Following parliament's repeated failure to appoint a new president, part of his powers are to be assumed by Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and parliament speaker Lubomir Zaoralek, reports Lidove Noviny, adding with some disquiet:

"The concentration of powers in the hands of two men who have not been known for their openness will be all the more dangerous if this lasts for many months."

The Hospodarske Noviny daily is in two minds, first declaring confidently that "a short period without a head of state is no problem for us", before adding that "it would be good if this period were not protracted".

Another paper, Mlada Fronta Dnes, is more confident, believing it is better to have no president than for a successor to be appointed in haste.

While it would be better to have a head of state in place with an Iraq war and an EU membership referendum looming, it says, "we can easily wage a war and vote without him".

Little terrors

Back in Russia, Izvestiya highlights a rise in bomb threats to Moscow schools.

The police have been called out on more than 550 false alarms this school year - and the local education authority has spotted a trend:

"Most calls come at the end of the quarter, when exams are starting," a spokesman reveals.

The police have given heads some advice on deterring the hard core of 100 or so pupils who are costing the state up to 30,000 roubles per incident: all lessons missed during the evacuations will have to take place in the holidays and at weekends.

Their teachers' reaction to this suggestion is not disclosed.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.