>> you're watching the "journal" on dw-tv. >> welcome. >> here are the headlines this hour. an explosion at a cafe in morocco, the government says the blast was a terrorist attack. tornadoes rip through the southern united states, the deadliest twisters there in 40 years. and if you're heading to london for the royal wedding, you better hurry. lots of folks are way ahead of you. it is being called a terrorist attack. 15 people are dead after an

explosion in the center of morocco. it happened at a popular tourist cafe in the city's main square. the interior minister says it has all the hallmarks of a suicide bombing. >> the explosion just before noon for the facade off this cafe and completely stroit the upper floor. officials don't know what triggered the blast. one theory is when gas canisters in the cafe were detonated. crowds gathered outside as emergency crews raced to rescue the living and recover the dead. the sudden influx of patients caught the local hospital off guard. staff are working flat out to treat them. >> every doctor and all of the medical team are here on duty. i want to thank my colleagues who come here at the last minute. >> a number of foreigners are among the dead and injured.

an attack here on the square, a popular tourist destination suggests that foreigners were the target. the square is famous for its market, souvenir vendors and entertainers. thousands of visitors come here each day. the cafe is especially popular because it offered a view of the square. >> the interiorinisy i sayi thathe ast looks like an act of terrorism. for more, i spoke with our correspondent in northern morocco, i asked her how the gwaft is backing up that -- government is backing up that claim. >> there are elements to justify this, but it's true that officials have said this is a terrorist attack, the option that seems to prevail on concerning at attack itself and how it happened is that a

suicide bomber actually would be responsible for this explosion. the woman, the owner of the cafe was saying that she saw someone coming in asking for an orange juice and having a big backpack, and a few minutes later, the explosion happened. the suspicion is very strong that this is actually an attack of a suicide bomber, but as i said, little is still known. nobody has actually claimed this attack and the ministry of interior is actually right now briefing the press so we should be able to know more within the next minutes. >> ok. what do we know, lisa, about the victims in this bombing? >> well, actually moroccan television has confirmed that there are six fringe civilian

among the 15 people who were killed. they have no more details about the rest of the people who have been killed. three moroccans apparently were among them and other sources are mentioning that there is one dutch person and a tunisian, but nothing is confirmed yet either. this is still a temporary figure, so, again, we have to wait and see until all of the authorities concerned have figures. >> a story that is still developing. lisa for us in northern morocco on this story. thank you very much. in libya, fighting between rebels and forces loyal to muammar gaddafi has spilled over into neighboring tune. gaddafi's forces have reportedly regained control of a border crossing. libyan officials say that some rebels retreated into tune knew

in thisia. and they had rocket attacks. in cities across yemen, thousands are protesting what they call a savage massacre. crowds gathered in the capital where wednesday people killed people in a demonstration. protesters are calling for the long-time ruler to step down immediately. he is expected to sign on sunday a deal brokered by gulf states that call for his removal in 30 days. syrian president bashar al-assadad is losing more suppo within his old ranks over the regime's violent crackdown. over 200 members of his baath party resigned on wednesday. tanks are now patrolling most of t country. groups say morthan 450 people have been killed in anti-government protests since march. the u.n. security council tried this week, but failed to agree on a statement condemning the

violence. >> opponents of syrian president bashar al-assad say they won't back down despite the regime's violent protest. this video posted on youtube purportedly shows a protest march in the country's largest city. the demonstrators are looking to the international community for support, but they could be waiting in vain. the u.n. security council convened wednesday but failed to pass a resolution condemning the actions of syria's leadership, not to mention they agree on sanctions as germany and other western states had called for. >> mr. president, the continued violence against peaceful protesters is completely unacceptable. it has to stop immediately. all announcements of reforms are undermined by the ongoing violence. >> china and rsia disdisagreed and block a joint resolution. >> in our view a real threat to

regional security could arise from outside interference in syria's domestic situation. >> the international community is unable to send a clear message on syria leaving anti-government protesters there vulnerable to further brutal attacks by the authoritarian regime. >> the surprise deal to end decades of rivalry between the two main palestinian factions is under fire. israel h condemd th agreemensayi thait crosses a red line because power would be shared with hamas which has called for the destruction of the jewish state. u.s. lawmakers say that they may have to review palestinian aid agreements and palestinians themselves wonder whether the two sides can really work together. >> guests at this cafe in gaza say they were busy discussing the real madrid barcelona soccer match. the news from cairo was met with much skepticism even many

year would like to see steps towards reconciliation of the two movements. >> we hope that they are serious and there will be some progress, but experience teaches us that the two parties in gaza and ramallah do not really mean it. >> after five long years of skirmishing between the two sides, many palestinians wonder what reconciliation night look like. >> and netanyahu had threats to the palestinians, they make the conciliation that clears up h much israel is getting benefit from the split and this internal conflict between the palestinians. >> the details of the deal are not known, one issue likely to prove problematic, how to integrate the two security apparatuses, one in the west and one in the gaza strip. >> the security issue is very complicated. we know that it is the most

important in negotiation. i think there is a plan that we can deal with this slowly step by step. >> the deal is set to be signed in cairo next week. people here are keen to see whether it will be worth the paper it's written on. >> all right, to the united states now where president barack obama has announced a major reshuffling of his national security team. in the run-up to the retirement of robert gates, secretary of defense. at a press conference in washington, he named c.i.a. director leon panetta as the next defense secretary. you see him right there. army general david petraeus will be panetta's successor at the c.i.a. petraeus is currently the commander of nato forces in afghanistan. germany's defense minister has asked the u.s. not to bring home too many troops from afghanistan when the drawdown planned for this summer begins. he conveyed germany's concerns that talks in washington with

his u.s. counterpart, robert gates. german troops in northern afghanistan rely had heavily on u.s. army support. he said that a rapid pullout of u.s. personnel could undermine blic support in europe for the mission there. in the united states, more than 200 people are dead after a monster storm unleashed tornadoes across much of the south. the death toll is the highest from tornadoes in the country in almost half a century. neighborhoods, businesses were flattened in states stretching from arkansas to virginia. the winds ripped off the roof at this scrap metal yard. this footage was filmed from the relative setyof a car. 100 climter an hour winds whipped through the university town of tuscaloosa.

the mayor said the storm wiped up block upon block of houses. tuscaloosas in a state of alabama which bore the brunt of the storm, but the storm also swept across arkansas, mississippi, and georgia causing widespread destruction. close to a million people are without electricity in alabama when power lines went down, the three reactors at a nuclear power plant shut down automatically and without incident. these old generators are keeping the plant's cooling systems operational. the storm took many by surprise. >> i knew i was in deep trouble when i saw the building coming across the highway here. i didn't realize anything until then. i told the wife, i said, i got to go. she goes why? i said tornado. the next thing i knew, i was rolling. >> cleanup efforts are now

underway and emergency workers are finding more and more bodies under the rubble. >> i guess when your husband tells you a tornado is coming, you better take action. >> i think so, too. >> amazing stories. let's talk some business. >> exactly. we're going to talk about jobs. the german unemployment has fallen to a two-decade low and some analysts say that it could keep falling in the coming months. expectations are high that the country's robust recovery will continue for some te. the number of people out of work has fallen to 3,078,000 which takes the unemployment rate in germany down to 7.3%. it's a decline of 132,000 in march and the german government seems quite satisfied with those figures. >> germany's labor minister called the latest decline in the unemployment figures unspectacular, but solid.

>>e're seein cle signs that we ve rched the end of the crisis and that we're entering a new phase of high demand for skilled workers. >> they are worried about the high number of unfilled vacancies in some sectors. germany currently lacks 120,000 engineers and scientists. she hopes an influx of qualified people will make up the shortfall when the country opens its labor markets to eastern europeans on may 1. >> we're hoping hard-working skled workers will come who want to work legally, young mobile people. >> except particulars worry the labor market here will be flooded by people willing to accept low wages, undercutting locals in the process. >> deutsch bank shares saw a rally driving up the dax. the banking giant started the year with a bang posting the second best quarterly profit

ever. >> the sky is the limit for deutsch bank. germany's biggest commercial bank is on course to reach targets for this year. the c.e.o. now looks set to land a whopping 10 billion euros in pretax income. the retail investments have clearly paid off. it was investment banking that provided the lion's share of profits, 2.6 billion euros and it's retail business jumped five-fold and brought in nearly 1 billion euros. they did lose money speculating on interest rate movements, all the same, the bank retains its position as one of the global big hitters. >> the market was happy with the deuth bank news to s the least. our reporter has more reaction from the frankfort stock exchange. >> traders were very impressed with the results of the deutsch bank and the share price.

it was the top dog in the dax with a wide berth to the next followers. people here, especially impressed, because the deutsch bank performed where the other banks in the first quarter showed wkness. and the private clients and the corporate business picking up as well. contributing to the mood, the dax reaching the new high for the year, not least because of support from the share. s&p pulling the dax from the other end losing drastically after its results. making good money, but not meeting the high expectations. >> let's get a closer look at the market numbers now. in frankfort, the dax closed at 74.75. the euro stock ended the day at 3405. the industrial average was 1,763 and the euro at three-year highs against the dollar at $1.4820.

gasoline prices are at a three-year high here in germany. the price for a liter of super has hit 1 euro.60. they attribute the high prices to the increases on the recorder dam stock market where they buy their oil. crude oil prices have been surging in the recent weeks. and higher oil prices mean bigger profits for companies like oil giant shell. the net profit rose 60% to 6 billion euros. the multinational says the gains are due to lucrative market conditions and wide-ranging measures to improvovproduction efficiency. shell says these cost-cutting measures will also continue. and brent has more on our top stories? >> we want to recap. the morocc government i saying the bomb blast has the

hallmarks of an activity attack. 15 people are dead, among them 11 foreigners. stay with us. we'll be back withmore news in one minute.

>> welcome back, everyone. no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion in morocco today which killed 15 people. a bomb went out off in a cafe in a popular tourist area. the government says it was a suicide bomber carrying out a terrorist attack. could this have a connection to an-government protests that we have seen in morocco this year? they have announced reforms including elections and a new constitution. we have more. >> mohammed the sixth is the sole ruler of morocco. he is both the political and religious leader and the army's commander in chief. he can appoint prime ministers and dismiss the government.

despite some tentative attempts at reform, morocco is still far from being a democracy. the press enjoys relative freedom, but is not allowed to criticize the king. that's where free speech ends. women's rights have been strengthened. in morocco, women are allowed to get divorced, but the courts are not independent. human rights abuses and the suppression of political opposition are hardly ever prosecuted. protests that flared up in recent weeks were tolerated. the king even responded by announcing new reforms aimed at strengthening parliament and giving the courts more independence. but these reforms don't come close to solving the country's problems. morocco is the poorhouse of north africa, unemployment is almost 10%, although much of the population of 32 million is young and well educated, prospects of finding employment

are slim. experts estimate 20% of morocco's youth are unemployed. many are leaving the country. unlike other north african countries, morocco can't fall back on natural resrces otr than it' phosphate reserves. most moroccans are dependent on the textile tried and tourism, not interviolating prospects for young educated moroccans. >> the first of may is a big day because on the first of may, a seven-year-old restriction of eastern europeans working in germany and us industryia will expire. up to now, finding work was possible with a special permit. estimates of people who will take advantage of the opportunity range from 14000 to 800,000 in the next two years. we begin our report on the german-polish border. >> this bridge across the river

oder joins poland and germany. it's been open to visitors from poland since it joined the e.u. in 2004. soon they'll be allowed to work in germany as well. construction companies are worried. 2/3 of them fear cheaper competition from the east. this man owns a construction company in berlin and is concerned about the coming changes. >> i don't think you have to have studied economics to see what will happen when the city fills up with more workers and companies operating with much lower costs. obviously it will force out even more of the local construction companies. >> but the professional care sector is taking a differs stance. the number of old people in germany is climbing and they need looking after, but there aren't enough kehrers here. the sector is lookingorwa to an influx of extra hands fr eastern europe.

>> some of them will have no chance of a livelihood at home. obviously eastern europeans have their own countries and they won't turn their backs on them easily. their families and friends are there. i'm not scared about being swamped. if some do come, we'll take them on with our wages and conditions. there won't be any wage dumping. >> wage dumping is a big concern for the construction industry. the sector's minimum wage was introduced to guard against that possibility. all building firms in germany are legally bound to pay it. but it's difficult to enforce and eastern european companies doing business in germany will also have the advantage of lower taxes and social contributions in their homelands. a limited number of eastern europeans were already allowed to work in germany and that's already had an effect. >> opening the labor market like this has weighed heavily

on wages in the nonskilled sector. that has resulted in a lot of local employees to cut back on spending which they wouldn't have had to if they had been working at standard rates. >> but the professional care sector sees itself as a winner. this church-run care company began training its new staff in poland and romania sometime ago. that has benefits outside germany's borders as well. >> i expect the opening to draw us closer together, that europe will grow closer together and that mutual understanding will grow helped by the exchanges, the visits, the internships. that's what i hope for. then europe's chances are much better. >> whether the opening is seen as a threat or a blessing depends very much on people's jobs and perspectives. >> russia is one of the world's

biggest oil producers. at the moment people are lining up to buy gasoline in remote parts of the country. in order to alleviate the shtages, the condemn lynn has put a moratorium on oil exports. >> here in sigh heria, gas has become a scarse commodity. lines like this have become a common sight in many parts of russia. that spurred moscow into action. the kremlin has temporarily banned the sale of oil and gas overseas and increased the export duty. >> we simply cannot allow fuel shortages in russia in any part of the country. >> but the kremlin itself may have played a role in causing the shortages. moscow put pressure on the oil companies to lower prices for the domestic market. that made exports more profitable. >> some oligarche is s just

don't understand that rush had that has a bigger need for the gasoline. >> the government shouldn't regulate the prices. it should deregulate. >> but some analysts critize russiaor not producing enough fuel to satisfy its home market. they say too much crude has been exported. >> well, i already have my outfit picked out for tomorrow. >> you and i are not going down the aisle. we don't want to confuse our viewers here. she is disappointed. it will be the royal event of the year when britain's prince william and kate middleton tie the knot in less than 24 hours. by this time tomorrow, the secrets around the wedding, the dress, the kiss, sarah's dress, will be known and ctures will abound. london is now in last-minute preparation mode. >> princess to be kate middleton was seen to be

leaving westminster abbey after the wedding rehearsal. london is gearing up for the big day. some dedicated fans are braving the weather on the streets outside the ab by. they don't want to miss a thing. >> it's part of our history. i was sad when i learned about it and it was quite warm. you hear the wind how long in the night. >> it is estimated 2 billion people will watch the ceremony on television. but friday won't be sunny for long. heavy showers are set to blight much of the day. thousands of police will be on duty. they want things to run as smoothly as the last big royal wedding. >> it just remembers when charles and diana got married. i was very little then, obviously. i watched it on the tv. i live in london, why don't i just come and see it. >> and thousands are doing the same. tomorrow these well wishers

will line the streets and fill the parks for a ratio of royal pomp and pageantry. >> we'll be covering all of it for you tomorrow. thanks for watching.