Japan nuclear crisis continues
One week after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, people there have been standing in silence for a minute to remember the victims.
The number is now officially higher than that of the Kobe earthquake in 1995. More than 16,000 people have died or are unaccounted for.
Meanwhile the problems at the Fukushima nuclear plant continue. Firetrucks have started to spray water onto reactor number three in a bid to cool down the spent-fuel storage pool.
Officials say they hope to fix a power cable to at least two of the six reactors in the hope of re-starting water pumps.
In the meantime seven trucks with water cannons are taking it in turn to bombard the reactor with water.
The International Atomic Energy Authority has asked for more detailed information from the Japanese in order to assess the situation.
Residents within a 20 kilometre radius are still unable to return to their homes.
Away from the plant the rescue and clear up operation continues. The freezing temperatures and snow have only added to what was already an unimaginably difficult task.
Clinton urges Bahrain to allow peaceful protests
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called on Bahrain to show restraint and “hold accountable” those who used deadly force against anti-government protesters.
Clinton said she told her counterpart Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa of “our deep concerns about the actions of the security forces” in deadly protests.
“We call on restraint from the government to keep its commitment to hold accountable those who have utilised excessive force against peaceful demonstrators,” said Washington’s chief diplomat.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon echoed Clinton’s comments, describing the violence as “deeply troubling.”
“It must stop,” Ban told reporters in New York. “Those responsible must be brought to justice.”
Bahrain’s military put tanks onto the streets of the capital Manama to restore order after anti-regime protests in the city’s Pearl Square.
Demonstrators, largely Shia Muslims, want constitutional reform and a greater say in how the country is run.
Bahrain has been ruled by a Sunni royal family since the 18th century, although 70 percent of its population are Shias.
Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Country Strong’
In “Country Strong” Gwyneth Paltrow is a country singer fresh out of rehab who is trying to pull her life, her career and her marriage back together.
To play the role she had to learn guitar and immerse herself in the world of country music.
EU considers immigration emergency
Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Moroni, has voiced fears of an immigration tsunami caused by revolution in the Arab countries of the Mediterranean.
This brought Moroni’s counterparts from Greece, France, Spain, Cyprus and Malta, for a meeting in Rome to plan policy strategy and proposals. The six want a special European Union solidarity fund. All 27 EU interior ministers will meet this Thursday in Brussels.
Moroni said: “A humanitarian emergency risks carrying to the shores of our country 300,000 refugees. This humanitarian emergency cannot be left to our countries alone to handle.”
With the upheaval in Tunisia, even before Libya’s uprising, the Italian island of Lampadusa struggled to deal with a wave of 5,000 Tunisians.
Dior suspends designer Galliano amid anti-Semitic row
He is in the spotlight ahead of Paris fashion week – but for all the wrong reasons.
Flamboyant king of the catwalk John Galliano has been suspended by design house Dior amid a probe into an alleged assault and anti-Semitic remarks.
Paris police called to a bar in the trendy Marais district found the British couturier hurling drunken insults at a couple, according to a police source. Reports say he was taken to a police station for an alcohol test, found to be over the limit and then escorted home.
A lawyer for Galliano, Dior’s chief designer, has vehemently denied the allegations.
The fashion house is due to present its autumn-winter collection next Friday in the French capital.
Sudan
Groups of Sudanese students inspired by events in Egypt and Tunisia used social network sites to organise small pockets of protest at the end of January. They were dispersed quickly by security forces who arrested and, it has been reported, beat student leaders. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will not run for re-election in 2015, according to his ruling party. He took power in a military coup in 1989. Opposition groups remain cynical of his pledge.
Population: 39.1 million (2008 census)Human Development Index1: 154thUnemployment: 18.7%
1 HDI is calculated according to factors such as schooling, life expectancy and gross national income and is used by the UN’s Development Programme for its Human development reports.
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Irish leaders clash on economy in TV debate
Ireland’s shaky economy dominated the first TV debate between party leaders ahead of a general election next week.
The poll was called after the country was forced to accept a multi-billion euro bailout from the EU and the IMF last year.
Opinion polls suggest the opposition Fine Gael and Labour parties are likely to form the next government.
Labour’s leader Eamon Gilmore attacked his rivals over the rescue of Anglo Irish bank in 2008, which he said had tied the banks to the state, making the financial crisis far worse.
“All of the other parties on this platform – Fianna Fail and the Greens who brought it in, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein – supported that bailout on that night. It was the biggest bank robbery in the history of this country, and it was the banks that robbed the people,” he said.
Deeply unpopular over his government’s handling of the crisis, Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Fianna Fail is standing down.
Criticism intensified last month with revelations he had played golf with the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, months before it was bailed out.
The election was called early after the Greens pulled out of the governing coalition.
The polls suggest about a fifth of voters are undecided. But many blame Fianna Fail for the collapse of Ireland’s economy.
The outcome will affect the rest of Europe. Fine Gael has pledged that if elected, it will seek to renegotiate the international bailout.
“We don’t know what’s true and what’s not true”: Manama witness
Like in Tunisia, like in Egypt, protesters in Bahrain are using social networks to publish their personal stories of the chaotic situation on the ground. Fatima Alarab is a recruitment coordinator who has recently returned to Bahrain after 15 years out of the country. Her family only came back once a ban on political opposition had been lifted. She has been describing her experience of the unrest in Manama via her Twitter account @FatiAmeer.
On Thursday evening, euronews spoke to her by telephone. She told us that nothing is clear:
“The situation here is quiet. We don’t know where we are headed. There are lots of rumours but we don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. We’re in a confusing situation. I’ve been contacting people in hospitals; there was even a rumour that the army was going to the hospital but that didn’t turn out to be true.”
She explained what she and other protesters want:
“We want the regime down. We are not afraid because this government is not legal. This revolution has been started by the people of Bahrain. It was started by the young and then the other political societies joined in.”
Bahrain’s foreign minister has said police action was necessary to pull the country back from the “brink of a sectarian abyss” but Fatima rejects the idea that the unrest is founded on differences between Bahrain’s Shi’ite majority and its Sunni ruling elite:
“No Way. Yesterday we were chanting all day and all night ‘No Shia. No Sunni. We are all Bahrainis.’ We had lots of Sunni there participating in the protests. We are all one country.
“We want the whole government down. We don’t want those criminals any more.”
Farkhad Rasulev ??� Chairman of Commission for inbounds Travel development – Ministry of Tourism ??� Uzbekhstan
Euronews travelled to ITB Berlin, the world??�s leading travel trade show, to speak to representatives from countries worldwide and get a first-hand look at the latest trends in the industry.
Insurance rules gender-based premiums out
The European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers cannot charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender. The decision is likely to hit young women drivers because, contrary to popular opinion, up until now, having fewer accidents than them, they have paid lower premiums than men.
The ruling comes in response to a test case brought by Belgian consumer group Test-Achats which had argued that the existing rules contradicted EU principles of gender equality. The European Court of Justice agreed.
The ruling will not only affect driving insurance however. Retirement annuities are also likely to be affected because in the past they have been lower for men than for women, taking into account men’s shorter longevity.
