>> hi, everyone. welcome to "the journal". here's a look at what we have coming up for you. the defense minister steps down after his integrity is battered. chaos on the border. tens of thousands of attempting flee violence. the world's top auto makers at the geneva auto salon. one of germany's most popular politicians has resigned.

defense minister karl-theodor zu guttenberg announced he would be stepping down. this after mounting pressure over plagiarism accusations. the move is seen as a major blow for chancellor angela merkel who had thrown her support behind this popular politician. >> in the end, the fallout from the plagiarism scandal was too much. the man in whom so many of conservatives had invested has resigned. because of the possible damage caused to this office, to the parties supporting me, i take the same step i have demanded and would demand of others. >> he was unwilling to take that step initially. as charges of plagiarism mounted, he moved from denial to partial admission. and he accused the media of

paying too much attention to the scandal. >> public and media pressure has almost exclusively focused on the person of zu guttenberg and his dissertation instead of the damage or wounding of 13 soldiers. this is a drastic was placement of attention that is damaging to those to whom i am responsible. >> he leads his successor -- leaves it to his successor with a daunting task. >> shortly after the resignation, chancellor merkel said she was sorry to see him go and said she would not be naming his replacement just yet. >> karl-theodor zu guttenberg leaving the chancellor's office. he had been there to explain the reasons for his resignation to angela merkel.

the chancellor herself spoke to reporters. >> i deeply regret his resignation but i also have understanding for his personal decision, and i am sure that many people in this country will feel the same way. >> the foreign minister knows only too well the pressures that politicians have to do with. his response reflected that. >> days like this are not just political in nature. they have a human dimension to them. >> for the leader of the party, this was an emotional moment. >> i urge everyone to respond with due respect to the step he has taken. in recent days, this respect has not been displayed by all sides. >> that was a dig at the german opposition who welcomed the resignation.

some pointed out it need not be the end of his political career. >> karl-theodor zu guttenberg still has opportunities and is young. not only because he has accepted the consequences of his errors. one in 10 -- thought he intended to sit out the criticism with the help of the chancellor. the issue has come to an end but it should have come sooner. >> government officials are thinking about who could take over his position as defense minister. >> our political correspondent is here with me in the studio for more background and analysis. thank you for being with us. we know that chancellor angela merkel supported him throughout this. this is a major setback for her. >> it is a major setback for the chancellor. she lost her most popular minister. it is an important time. this is super election year in

germany. there are seven major votes across the country at the regional level. these are important in germany and the conservatives have lost one election in hamburger over a week ago. there are three more votes at the end of this month. that is an election conservatives cannot afford to lose and the strategic problem with the chancellor has that within her conservative ranks there will be those who are fond of karl-theodor zu guttenberg and they are disappointed he had to go the way he has been. there are those who have the questions and they will be equally disappointed he clung to office with the support of angela merkel for so long. she might not have the backing of those people for these key elections. >> what happens to him now? he was until today the most popular politician.

>> he might remain so. we will have to wait until we have reliable figures. early polls indicate that over 50% of germans wish he had stayed in office and had fought his fight longer. most people agree he is going to be waiting in the wings for an occasion to return to politics. people are beginning to talk about how the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes. how long will people's memories be? he will return or try to. let me strike a note of caution. one of the elder statesman said yesterday it before he had resigned, his career has been under shadow and he will not escape that shadow. pretty much say across the board yesterday he might return to politics into my office but he will probably never be german chancellor and he had been cast as chancellor material. >> it will be interesting to see what happens after this. thank you for that analysis.

we will have more on the german defense minister's resignation and the fallout coming up later. the refugee crisis in libya is escalating as thousands of people tried to flee the unrest. a team leader for the u.n.'s refugee agency said the numbers were daunting. 15,000 people a day are attempting to cross the border into to nation or egypt. gaddafi remains defiant the request to relinquish power. >> all these people are bent on fleeing libya to get away from the fighting and the violence. tens of thousands are flocking to the border with tunisia. these soldiers on duty are overwhelmed by the masses. most of those fleeing to two nations are egyptians who worked in libya. but not all of them have a id, which is worsening the situation.

>> most of them take our money. we're running for our life. we do not want to die. >> the situation in libya remains explosive. in benghazi in these, rebels are preparing for more fighting. they fear khadafi is ready the last of the troops loyal to him to wage a counterattack. >> there's no way i am going back. >> there are similar images to be seen on libyan state television. it is troops and showing off their weapons and one of the libyan leader's son's the the city whe-- said they were confident they would win. >> we will fix the affair. >> the possibility of violence

and civil war is sparking a greater flood of people fleeing. the international community is undecided as to how to respond, but the u.s. says it is not ruling out military intervention. >> washington has said it will move planes and warships closer to libya. our washington correspondent will tell us with that mission will entail. >> there are some midsize ships in the area. they're still discussing the matter. it seems unlikely any military action will be taken. what the u.s. wants to avoid is they intervene militarily because of oil. these military ships will assess some human -- humanitarian actions.

they're not saying so openly at the moment because they want to foremost, build up pressure on gunboat diplomacy. >> there has been talk about imposing a no-fly zone. what is the latest on that? >> it is not off the table. privately, u.s. officials are saying it would be complicated and military members are saying it would involve taking out anti-aircraft installations in libya which in other words, means bombing. on top of that, the u.s. would do that within the framework of nato, who would need the backing of the un and countries like russia and china, who are unlikely to back such a measure in the security council and have veto power, a no-fly zone seems to be rather unlikely. >> thank you for that. from washington. witnesses are reporting confrontations between security

forces and protesters in tehran. fierce clashes occurred near tehran university. the police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. the demonstrators are protesting against the alleged imprisonment of two opposition leaders. their current whereabouts are not clear. and i government protests have increased across iran in the past few days. -- anti-government protests have increased across iran in the past few days. now the latest from the biggest technology fair. >> the model is work and life with the clout. storing data and software programs online rather than on this computer hardware. numerous products and services are capturing a visitor interest. some of the products will be in your local shop soon and others will take awhile to get there. >> tablet pc's with touchscreens

and computing capacity are the attraction. this is the first one to run on the android operating system. the great hope of the rivals of ipad. 1 million tablet pc's are said to be sold in germany alone. the prospect pleases manufacturers and telecom companies alike. >> we're very happy with our growth rate. there has been a 30-fold increase compared with our normal non-commenced -- non- commercial customers. >> private visitors are a focus at this year's fair. an entire exhibition hall has been given over to digital life, where the huge range of computer games has attracted the most visitors. >> the geneva motor show was under way in demand is high. the industry has lined up 170

cars. car makers have their eyes on swiss deals and emerging markets. they're concerned about the situation in africa and the middle east but their outlook is optimistic. >> the 125th birthday was made by -- the vehicle was made by karl benz. the chief executive welcome them. >> we're pleased these countries are exploring more democracy. stability in the region is important. but not at any cost. >> car sellers hope the democratization process will result in more prosperity and

more sales. they are worried still. >> of course, we're concerned about developments. we have local suppliers in some places so we are monitoring events. we know it is serious and we are a little worried. >> higher gas prices have not dampened demand for luxury cars. >> carmakers drove german stock up courts. >> under way to the auto fair in geneva, carmakers had growth figures. they went up by 15% in germany in february. this shows that carmakers are back on track in germany and the upswing is going on. shares of german car makers took the lead on the frankfurt floor. they started some profit-taking especially the -- profit-taking,

especially the w shares. this session driven down by a major sell-off in saudi arabia. people still feel that this may lead to higher oil prices. quex let'>> let's take a look at stocks. the euro stock 50 under 1% of the close at 29.83. the dow industrials are currently don't -- currently going down. the trade of the euro is 1.71. pellow labor market picked up pace as -- in spite of the cold weather. there are 2 million people unemployed. a rate of 7.9%. companies are hiring again thanks to a boom in new orders. consumer confidence is surging

and strong economic growth fuelled expectations. >> shocking news from the fashion world. >> attention on paris but not necessarily positive. not just because of the ready- to-wear shows. christian dior has fired its head designer john galliano after his arrest last week for allegedly anti-semitic and racist remarks at a cafe. a video emerged of the british fashion designer seen here on his way to a police interview. in a similar outburst at the same cafe, saying that he loved hitler. the actress natalie portman who was paid by dior to promote fragrances' condemned galliano for his remarks. stay tuned for "in depth". more on the resignation of

germany's defense minister. stay with us.

>> two to go the first headlines head, suggesting that the defense minister had plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis. the accusations grew and the pressure mounted. germany's most popular politician gave in and resigned. he still enjoyed huge popularity among many voters. social networking sites like facebook have filled up with pages supporting the defense minister and calling for him to come back to politics. ironically, the internet was also ultimately responsible for his demise. the modern information age, tracking other people's mistakes is easy as cut and paste. >> in mid january, a

professor found eight passages without accompanying citations of their sources and accused him of plagiarism. the minister dismissed that as absurd and said he would supply the massi -- as footnotes. karl-theodor zu guttenberg was known as the teflon minister and it seemed that some relished the opportunity to find a chink in his armor. scholars began posting their findings on the internet. more passages emerged without clear citations including sections listed from lectures and newspapers. even reports compiled by the parliamentary research service were found. on february 18, the minister responded. >> my dissertation is not plagiarized and i vehemently reject the accusation it is. it was written with painstaking effort over the course of seven years alongside my duties as a young father.

it no doubt contains errors. >> he said initially he would stop using his doctoral title. three days later, he said he would give up the title entirely. the example of plagiarism -- examples of plagiarism continued to emerge. >> i stand behind the dissertation. i wrote it myself. >> the university of pyrif bayr responded. it was not them abroad about his downfall. in addition to 400 indications of plagiarism posted on the internet, there was criticism from academia. more than 20,000 doctoral candidates and other scholars foist their outrage in a letter to chancellor angela merkel who had tried to separate karl- theodor zu guttenberg's academic

work from his political work. as the calls for resignation increase, he finally bowed to them. >> the enormous force of the media attention on myself to which i have contributed but also the nature of the debate has not been without effect on myself and my familial -- and my family. >> the general tone of commons said he should have gone earlier. >> during his short time in office, zu guttenberg had to weather several crises and he usually came back on top. here is a look at the rise and fall of karl-theodor zu guttenberg. karl-theodor zu guttenberg's political ascendancy ended as

quickly as it began. the young politician in 2009 was appointed economics minister at the height of the financial crisis. he immediately made his mark arguing that struggling car maker opel should be allowed to go bankrupt. that did not seem to harm his career. after federal elections, he became defense minister. he took over the office in a time of crisis. as parliament investigated and nato airstrike in afghanistan, ordered by a german commander. >> the air strikes and military strikes were an appropriate military response considering the overall threat. >> one month later, he changed his mind on this key issue. >> from today's perspective in light of the documents and those that were kept from me at the time, i would say it was not militarily appropriate. >> his handling of the controversy over a fence on the

german navy's training ship followed a similar pattern. after a female cadet fell from the rigging and died, he sent a team of investigators and warned of jumping to conclusions, only to reach his own conclusion one day later. >> i have given instruction the commander of the ship should be relieved. >> a harsh decision from a man who liked to portray himself as one of the troops. he made regular visits to german shoulders -- soldiers in afghanistan. the media savvy minister was popular among voters. even after the scandals had, he remained top of the popularity poll. analysts say it was his image as a decent and honest politician that attracted people. >> i can only say it is important to remain independent in thought and deed. >> it was questions about his honesty and decency that finally brought the politician down.

>> we have some more background for the first story. i am joined by our correspondent, peter craven. honesty and decency seemed to be the buzz words. you think he had a choice but to resign? >> i do not think so. the opposition has been against him in recent days and that is what you would expect. a lot of sections of the media in germany have been against him, including important conservative sectors. many thousands, tens of thousands of academics have been against him, they have been up in arms about his conduct in the academic sphere and a leading conservative ranks have -- conservatives have broken ranks and they have criticized his behavior in recent days. people have been pressing for charges to be filed against him in the court. all that adds up to him having

his back against the wall. >> what kind of void does he leave as germany's most popular politician? is there anyone who can fill his shoes? >> they will find someone who can step in to that job alone. it is not an enviable task. a mass of miles down sequence of reform taking place. the defense ministry is viewed as a bit as and ejector seat kind of job. when you look at the german politics, what it amounts to is 2 angela merkel. she is dominant and perhaps too dominant and she could become too isolated. it could be dangerous. >> given his immense popularity and even still, some people are talking about possible comebacks at a later date. is it too soon to talk about that? >> people are talking about it. ordinary germans and people in the party ranks, there is a huge yearning among ordinary germans

for him to come back sooner rather than later. he has created his image of himself as the special one of german politics. the kind of politician that speaks to the people in their common tongue. will he be able to retain that aura of being the special one or not? that is the big question. >> what effect will this have on the public image of politics and politicians in general? >> and my be instructive. -- it may be instructive to hear two words. disenchantment with german politics. those are the words you hear. you will hear them more after all this. >> you are right. thank you for your comments. with that, we wrap up "the journal". thanks for joining us.

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lake bled,slovenia's leading mountain resort, comes complete with a fairy-tale island, cliff-hanging medieval castle, a lakeside promenade, and this region's most sought-after cream cakes. slovenes travel from all over the country to sample these famous cakes, first cooked up right here. while lake bled has all the modern resort-town amenities -- including shops, restaurants, and hotels -- its most endearing qualities are its stunning setting, its natural romanticism, and its fun-loving wedding parties. [ accordion music, singing, and clapping ] saturdays are wedding day here in bled, and the lake is festive with wedding parties.

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