♪ >> welcome to the "journal" on dw. i am a ben fajzullin. >> and i am brent goff. a big boost to the eurozone increases its rescue fund to 800 billion euros. >> of violence in the middle east as palestinians mark their annual land day. >> and fill up before it is too late. the run of gas stations here in europe. ♪ >> the eurozone firewall has just gotten a whole lot higher. the countries that share the euro have agreed to increase their emergency fund from 500

billion euros to 800 billion euros. >> a meeting of finance ministers of the eurozone, there was some quibbling about the exact sum. in the end, germany's position prevailed. >> austria briefed reporters on the outcome, causing a little tension according to eu diplomats. >> austria's finance minister was in such a hurry to reveal the news that she violated diplomatic protocol. she appeared before reporters ahead of the euro group chief and said the financial fire wall would increase to 800 billion euros. >> year was locked in this amount and it is no longer an issue. >> the amount represents a victory for german finance minister wolfgang scheuble, who resisted calls for a bigger increase. he warned that more money will not solve the crisis. >> if you want to convince the financial markets, we have to understand the language.

for the financial markets, it is more important that we fix our problems. >> that was a clear message to paris. french finance minister had wanted to enlarge the eurozone a safety net to one trillion euros. >> the greater the sum, the greater the disincentive for speculators. >> the german was able to get france and board for less, but whether the 800 billion will prove sufficient is another question. >> 800 billion euros may sound like a lot of money, but it is not as much as what the imf has been calling for for the eurozone. our correspondent is in copenhagen. she joins us from there. the imf, the u.s. wanted to see a one trillion euro european stability mechanism. is 800 billion euros enough to stop the debt contagion? >> well, that is what the

ministers of finance hope. it is already a good sign that they found an end to the endless debate on how high the fire wall should be, and everyone presented himself as a winner. wolfgang scheuble said because he could avoid the fire wall, it should be boosted to one trillion euros. the others present themselves as a winner because not as much money than originally intended. also those who wanted one trillion euros are winners because the ministers of finance stressed that 800 billion euros means more than one trillion dollars. everyone is a winner, but it is still unclear how the markets will react to that message. >> what about his proposal for a financial transaction tax? >> well, it seems like a tax on financial transactions does not work, not even the eurozone members who intentionally said they can move forward as a eurozone are now too fond to do it. to break the deadlock, wolfgang

scheuble propose something else, a smaller sister of the financial transaction tax, something like a tax on the stock exchange, market exchange. something like what happened in london. but it is not clear yet who will actually participate in what transaction exactly to be included in this kind of tax. still a lot of work to do. >> sounds like it. thank you for joining us from copenhagen. >> spain is one of the countries in the eurozone that could one day need to dip into the emergency fund. in fact on friday, the eu top economic official warned us spain is in a very difficult situation. >> the government has announced a new draft of cuts and tax hikes, and the people do not like it. >> a growing number of the spaniards are taking to the streets to vent their anger. barcelona's of the worst of it on thursday. but the government is sticking with its austerity program. the new budget plan for 2012

envisioned savings of 27 billion euros, trimming the deficit to just 5.3% of gdp. it hopes to meet the eu deficit limit of 3% next year. but that will not be easy. >> spain's overriding duty is fiscal consolidation in order to meet guidelines set down by the european union. we will not achieve that goal at any price. so we will continue to provide services to those who needed them the most. and we will also seek to promote economic recovery and job creation. >> some experts fear that the extreme budgetary savings will hinder economic growth. estimates put spain back in recession for the first quarter of 2012. >> all right, there is good news from the deeply indebted country of portugal. the government says it has reduced its budget deficit to

4.2% of gdp. >> that is well below its target of 5.6%, but most of those savings come fromo 1comeff measures like the transfer of state pension funds to the treasury which it will have to pay back. without those one-off savings, the deficit would have been closed to 8%. to france, where police have arrested 19 people in a crackdown on suspected muslim extremists in the country. it comes after a man claiming to have links to al-qaeda killed seven people in the city of toulouse. >> french president nicolas sarkozy says more steps are on the way as the country fights radical islamists. >> one of the 19 suspected islamist extremists arrested in the raids. officers also seized the weapons, including assault rifles in cities across france. police are now investigating whether the suspects are part of a terrorist network. however, president and nicholas sarkozy says authorities do not believe the individuals are

connected to the toulouse attacks. nicolas sarkozy stressed the importance of fighting the threat of terrorism in france in a tv interview. >> we will continue operations like the one this morning. further operations will allow us to expel people from france's inaction -- national territory to do not belong here. >> in the interview, he said the offense in toulouse had traumatized friends. he compared the mood to that of americans following the september 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. a lawyer this month, an islamist gunman killed seven people in and around toulouse -- toulouse, including three jewish schoolchildren. nicolas sarkozy announced after the killings that french authorities would investigate all suspected islamist extremists in the country. >> israeli troops have killed a palestinian man in gaza amid violence during rallies against israel's settlement policies.

>> palestinian and arab israeli protesters clashed with security forces in its various buses including truslow. >> it was during annual land day demonstrations which commemorate the death of six arab israeli protesters back in 1976. >> palestinian protesters clashed with israeli security forces in several areas. violence flared in jerusalem and at several checkpoints to the north and south of the city. half a million israeli settlers live on land the palestinians considered occupied territory. many palestinians are worried the settlers are pushing the masai. they call for a global march on jerusalem and have the backing of militant group hamas. >> when crowds converged on jerusalem from 80 countries, they send a strong message to the israeli occupation that nobody can accept all they're doing rangers live. >> march 30 has been a day of protest since 1976 when six arab israelis died in protests over

the confiscation of their land. israel and as a huge security presence this year but was unable to prevent violence. many here still see protests as the best way to draw attention to their cause. >> ok, let's look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. syrian forces continue to shell the city of homs as well as launching assaults and other opposition strongholds. activists say at least 33 people were killed in clashes across the country on friday. international peace envoy kofi annan says syrian forces must withdraw from urban areas immediately. >> the leader of last week's coup in mali, captain amadou sanogo, says he plans to build free elections swiftly and a return order. the west african countries have demanded that the coup leaders hand back power to civilians in the coming days. otherwise, they're threatening to close mali's borders and

oppose economic sanctions. >> and french oil company total says it is planning to drill relief wells to stop a leak at its platform in the north sea. it is also looking to possibly plugging the league. the rig was evacuated earlier this week on fears it could explode. >> all right, and business news, european shares had just finished their best first quarter in six years. >> the results were better in frankfurt as traders tried in a wave of optimism. >> investors are often cautious at the beginning of a new trading year, keeping stock prices steady. bu not this year. stock prices in germany and elsewhere have been surging. january alone saw the dax jumped by 10%, and it did not slow down much in february and march. the strongest first quarter for the index since 1998. >> the first quarter of 2012 was one of the best quarters the dax

has ever recorded. we have seen gains of more than 20%. that is more than even the biggest optimists had bargained for. >> the surge in the financial markets is being fueled by easy money from the european central bank. it has pumped more than one trillion euros of cheap credit into eurozone economies. some analysts fear the excess liquidity could impact inflation. others expect indices to rise even further. >> and that deal to boost the eurozone's pella fun we mentioned earlier gave an added push to equities -- we talked about earlier given added push to equities. >> let's go to the frankfurt stock exchange. >> at the german stock market, a volatile week ended with strong gains which were up only momentarily reduced. economic data from the u.s. were once again disappointing, fueling worries about a worldwide recovery. but traders have been relieved

with the agreement to strengthen the euro fire wall, which will protect mainly the huge countries. they now have more time to bring in other household economies. but confidence will not come back immediately despite higher guarantees. traders still see the danger that the euro crisis may worsen again. >> all right, let's run through those market numbers. >> if we have to. but it is my pleasure. the main german index and the euro stoxx 50 made up some ground today. they are putting on a healthy 1%. a positive finish for the quarter. >> in new york, the doubt in positive territory, 13,208. the euro tacking on muscle against the greenback, $1.3339. >> this could change the workers in china work and how much they make. apple says a major chinese supplier is going to limit work

hours and high pay. >> it comes after a report that revealed worker abuses at apple's supplier foxcon. >> the independent audit turned up a long list of labor abuses. among the more heinous was forcing employees to work beyond the legal limit of 76 hours per week. and working them more than seven days straight. >> we found about 15 findings. some of these are violations of the apple code and the code of conduct. some of them are violations of the labor law. some largest areas of weakness, gaps in the management system. it has the risk of noncompliance. >> apple and foxcon technology group agreed to implement a broad series of changes. that means tens of thousands of hires to limit forced overtime. but they hope it will also set a standard for western companies doing business in china.

>> other factors will have to raise their effort to be able to attract and retain workers. so we will begin to see this ripple through the entire electronics sector. apple will set the bar that everyone else will have to meet. >> that means production costs for the iphone and ipad will rise significantly. and those costs will be passed on to the consumer. >> all right, here in berlin, looks like the former german president christian wulff is going to get office staff and a driver for at least the next year. " the parliamentary committee agreed to give christian wulff the privileges, despite criticism from opposition parties who argued he does not deserve the. christian wulff, seen here with his wife, stepped down in february in response to the threat of legal probe into corruption allegations. he came under fire for not disclosing favors from wealthy friends when he was state premier of lower saxony. time to take a short break. >> in a minute, we will be

hearing from a german soldier injured in afghanistan. what does he think about the efforts to bring peace and security to the afghan people? >> stay with us for that. ♪ >> dw on the internet with a new address and a completely revamped online presence. journalistic quality in 30 languages. in seinfield, diverse, and in multimedia format. -- insightful, diverse, and multimedia format. visit us at dw.de. >> i like berries. >> i would like a banana parfait. >> pistachio. >> vanilla. >> the next time you eat out,

helping the 850 million people in the world to go hungry. donate the cost of a dessert to the world food program. >> welcome back. in it -- an afghan policeman poisoned and then shot dead nine of his colleagues early on friday. was this a man gone berserk or does this expose a country struggling to take the reins of its own security before international forces leave in two years? >> we have a german major general who commanded multinational forces in afghanistan. he was injured during his tour of duty. he says despite many problems, there has been progress in the region. >> the major general richard home last month after completing service as isaf's regional commander in northern afghanistan. the end of his deployment was overshadowed by violent protests following the burning of copies of the koran by americans.

despite the unrest, he says the security situation in the north is stable. >> there was a significant improvement in the security situation in the north over the course of 2011. but there were a number of individual events which caused concern, including the killings of senior figures. >> he was badly injured a year ago. a bomb exploded in government buildings in the northern . two of his colleagues were killed along with a number of afghans, including two regional police chiefs. despite these setbacks, training afghan security forces remains a top priority for the international community. >> our work will never stop improving the quality of the afghan forces. but i have seen real progress in the past year. we need to stick with it.

>> international forces have begun the process of leaving afghanistan. soon, afghans will have to handle security alone. >> well, germany is facing a massive shortage of skilled workers, but many who move here to work, the authorities do not recognize their qualifications. >> engineers end up as cleaners. doctors washed dishes. professors end of driving taxicabs. >> a new law could change that. it aims to cut through the red tape to recognized for a qualifications. >> we met a group of migrants who could have benefited from the change. >> everyone in this room is a qualified medical doctor. all they want is to work in their chosen profession. but they are not allowed to come despite a massive shortage of skilled health care workers. this is one of them. the gynecologist came to germany from afghanistan 15 years ago.

since then, she has faced a bureaucratic battle to get her qualifications recognized. they all tell the same story, going from department to department, receiving conflicting information, and being told it would have to retake their exams. that is why they are back in college. >> that i had been allowed to stand on my own two feet 10 years ago, she says, the state would not have had to pena's single penny. but they did. the unemployment benefits for 10 years, because i had no other choice. it has been very frustrating for all of us. and a big mistake for the country. >> the new law aims to speed up the process of recognizing qualifications are earned outside germany. it will also bring into line at the different rules apply different federal states. but there's still more to do, says the chorus leader. >> what has not been addressed is the funding of training courses that a person is deemed to have knowledge deficits. a lot of migrants, like doctors here, are not able to pay for

the training of their own pocket. >> rafi also sees the new law as a first step. he says more training courses are needed. he arrived in germany from afghanistan 18 years ago. he had to wash dishes to make ends meet. recently he passed his exam and is now working as a general practitioner a hauberk hospitala hamburg hospital. >> i am glad that after 18 years i have reached my goal. it feels good, and i am happy to be able to help the patients. >> his new bosses have to have him on the team. he says he would like more immigrants, because they are a valuable asset. >> on the one hand, they enable us to provide better treatment for our foreign patients. because with their help, we can overcome the language barrier.

and our foreign doctors are highly motivated, and that is very welcome. >> she wants to take her exam soon. she hopes the new law will lead others -- will mean others will not have to wait as long as she has had to to practice their professions. >> the cost of crude oil is causing pain for motorists around the world. ages feel hungry economies are picking up the pace, pushing up prices. >> then there is a political tension in a number of oil producing countries in the middle east because some countries are talking about releasing strategic reserves. >> analysts said that would be a purely political move. whatever the case, where does that leave the motorists? >> no long lines here. in san paulo these days, only those with no other choice continue to tank up. the price at the pump has reached 1.40 euros per liter.

>> the tax on fuel is really high. >> i have to drive my daughters to school, this woman says. it cost me 20% of our income. >> fuel prices are skyrocketing in europe as well. italians now pay on more than 1.90 euros per liter. many are leaving their cars at home and switching to public transport, which is cheaper. >> we have the highest prices in europe. i do not think that is right. >> i have to fill up because i use my car for work, but these prices are very steep. >> rising fuel prices could also impact the upcoming election in france. to bring costs down, officials are considering tapping petroleum reserves. countries, including the u.s., britain, and japan, are also discussing the plan. >> a planned increase in fuel prices has led to protests in

indonesia. >> thousands of people tried to storm the house of representatives complex in the capital of jakarta. police fired teargas and water cannons to disperse the crowds. the indonesian government is planning to cut the fuel subsidy. that will make prices jumped by a third and could lead to an increase in the cost of many consumer products. it is a direct story in britain, where motorists are stocking up on petrol with a fuel tanker drivers threatening to go on strike. >> huge lines across the country forming out of gas stations. sales have surged by 170% in the last two days. the panic buying began when the government issued a warning that thousands of gas stations might have to close if the strike goes ahead. >> ok, enough about petrol. you probably remember the film "schindler's list." about a german businessman who saved thousands of jews by employing them in his factories. >> one of those factories located in what is now the czech

republic is about to be torn down, and that is prompting protests. >> this is one of the less people here who was alive and this factory helped save 1000 people. these walls, he says, could tell a story. but demolition crews are waiting to tear this place down and turn the building's history into dust. this factory once belonged to oscar schindler. >> in 1945, the jews here were supposed to go on a death march. they were guarded by ss men. but schindler got the ss guard struck. the jews survived because of the liquor. >> the film "schindler's list" is a powerful testament to the suffering of the jewish people

during world war ii. oscar schindler saved jews from almost certain death in concentration camps by employing them in his factories. but for some of the people who live there today, the factory no longer has the same historical significance. >> the factory is crumbling anyway. it is still there, the place where should was, but i do not think it has much significance anymore. >> they disagreed but the pair now about nine -- the parent now live in israel but they met at the factory. they say it is a miracle they survived and the what the site to be preserved. >> it is not just important for us or for schindler, but also for the czech people. it is part of their history. they suffered.

they must think about future generations, about their children. >> the town's mayor can see the factory from his balcony. he would like to say it or build a memorial, but there is no money for that. >> among young people, there are some who deny there were any concentration camps or crimes against innocent people. this factory is a reminder of the truth. it is important. >> there are memorials for schiller here in the czech republic, but he says that the generation of holocaust survivors passes, these buildings must become a permanent reminders. >> all right, another story from history. just a few days remaining to bid for a huge number of artifacts from the titanic. it is being sold off as a single lot in new york. >> auctioneers are selling over 5000 items that were salvaged from the wreckage, from five

china to perfume flasks to jewelry. the winning bidder will also gain the rights to the ship itself which sank in 1912. the collection has been valued at close to $200 million. >> imagine that, getting yourself a ship. >> i wonder if celine dion will be there? >> all right, you're up-to-date. that is all we have got for the moment. we will be back at the top of the hour. >> stay with us. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪