Today's European papers speculate about whether the current high temperatures are a heat wave or climate change, the French Government intervenes to rescue an ailing engineering group from collapse and the German press is dismissive of a new tax reform.

Elsewhere, Vladimir Putin makes an impression in Malaysia and at home, while in Ukraine the police are cracking down on illegal sirens and flashing lights.

Heat wave or climate change?

"Too hot to go to work", read the front-page headline in France's Liberation.

We know that we will get more of this kind of weather if we don't stop ... global warming Information

"This hot weather cannot last much longer, for if it does", the paper stresses, "it means that it's not a heat wave but climate change".

Copenhagen's Information takes a longer-term view of the "extreme" weather currently gripping Europe.

"Last year's floods were extreme," it says, adding that "we will not know for certain whether both are due to the greenhouse effect caused by mankind or the whims of nature before it is too late."

"We know that we will get more of this kind of weather if we don't stop... global warming," the paper says.

"Above all, political leaders have a duty to protect people's safety... this was also Tony Blair's justification for the war in Iraq."

France's new industrial policy

The French Government on Tuesday rushed to the rescue of the ailing engineering conglomerate Alstom with a plan to inject 300m euros into the flagship firm to prevent its collapse.

"Who would have thought it?" exclaims Paris's Le Monde, surprised at what it calls "an undeniable turning point for capitalism in France".

By coming to Alstom's rescue, the paper says, "the state is introducing a new industrial policy that dares not speak its name".

With this rescue bid, it points out, the government "runs the risk of attracting the wrath of the European Commission", and of being accused at home "of nationalising the losers and privatising the winners".

An article in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune sees the rescue bid as a sign, as the paper puts it, of Paris's "continued willingness to bail out ailing French companies".

German tax reforms

Several German papers dismiss a tax reform project designed to boost the income of municipalities as too complicated and economically unsound.

"Is it possible for a government to go on holiday and from there to endanger the economic recovery, fragile signs of which have only just begun to emerge?," asks the Berliner Zeitung.

"It is, as we have known since Monday," is its answer.

The paper notes that under the plan doctors, lawyers and architects will in future have to pay trade tax but will in turn be eligible for income tax reductions.

"Isn't German tax law complicated enough already?" it asks.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the plan leaves many questions unanswered.

"This mishmash won't be reduced as a result of the municipal finances reform, it will get worse," the paper warns.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung calls the project "anything but a great reform".

Private investigations

Following revelations that experts from the Swedish Defence Research Agency secretly travelled to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, Stockholm's Aftonbladet asks what kind of culture characterises the agency.

The paper says there have been two major derelictions of duty:

"Firstly, the Swedish Defence Research Agency did not inform the government... Secondly, the [agency] was commissioned by the television company WTN [World Television Network]."

"[The experts] signed a confidentiality agreement which gives WTN exclusive rights to the results of their investigations," it adds.

"What would have happened if they had stumbled upon incontrovertible evidence that Iraq had recently had weapons of mass destruction?" the paper asks.

"Would they then have declined to inform the government? It's reasonable to think so as they would otherwise have breached their confidentiality agreement."

The paper describes the whole episode as "absurd".

Putin in Malaysia

The main thing is that the Russian president made a lasting impression on Malaysians Gazeta

According to Russia's Izvestiya "the main event" of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Malaysia is the $900m contract for Su-30MKM fighter aircraft.

"Russian defence officials think rather well of the contract," it adds.

Gazeta agrees, adding that "the Russian army has only five fighter aircraft of this generation, because the Defence Ministry does not have the money to buy them."

"But the main thing is that the Russian president made a lasting impression on Malaysians."

"Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, having received the Order of Friendship, hinted that Russia was now much closer to him than the USA," it adds.

All clear

Kiev's Fakty reports that Ukrainian traffic police have detained 59 private vehicles with illegally installed sirens and flashing lights.

"Motorists use them to make their trips around Kiev's busy streets easier the same way that government officials and police notoriously do," it says.

Not all the sound or light signals are installed legally.

"For some drivers it has become prestigious to use flashing lights on their cars," it adds.

"Another Renault stopped by the inspectors had expertly installed blue flashing lights under the radiator cover," says the tabloid.

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