>> hello. you are watching "france 24." these are the headlines. close to 700 people get a recommended death sentence in egypt over support of ousted president mohamed morsi. the muslim brotherhood leader is among those sentenced. the u.s. and the year new sanctions against russia over ukraine ass in pro-russian militants are holding a team of international observers hostage for a third day. the algerian president is sworn in for a fourth term.

he makes his inaugural address from a wheelchair following the sick to he was too participate in. also coming up, the scandal rocking the nba. withers players protest black socks and armbands after the owner allegedly made racist comments telling a woman not to bring african-americans to the games. work is underway for what is meant to be the tallest building in the world. that is the kingdom tower in saudi arabia. it should end up at an epic one kilometer high. this hour in egypt

where 700 people, including the leader of the muslim brotherhood, have been sentenced to death over support of ousted egyptian president mohamed morsi. the court that handed down the verdict also changed 500 other death sentences given last month into prison sentences. for more on the situation, let's bring in jpeg -- jacob in cairo. what is the chance the new death sentences could be commuted like the 500 sentenced to death last month and changed again today? they justmentioned, commuted the last 500 sentences. it is unclear if all 600 of these people will die. the 500 who got their sentences people gothe 529 life sentences. these people will probably spend a lot of time in jail. it is very unclear.

we have a high-ranking member of the muslim brotherhood. no high-ranking members have been sentenced so harshly so far. we have some people who might have been tangentially involved. they also might get their sentences commuted. it is unclear right now. >> let's talk about what the government strategy might be behind the decisions. on the one hand, they seem to be stern and then stepping back off. what might the thinking be? >> it is unclear the unified government has -- interim government has one unified strategy. the interim government and police hate the muslim brotherhood. sentences may be coming from high the government or the judges may be acting independently. they want to be hard on the muslim brotherhood to consolidate control. however, they are facing international condemnation for these harsh actions.

many egyptians are uncomfortable by the fact it seems arbitrary and brutal. whether they step back or not is unclear. we don't know if the interim government has a unified strategy about these things. >> thank you. the progression mayor of the second largest city -- the mayor of the second largest city in been sought in the back and is undergoing emergency surgery. pro-russian separatists in ukraine took another town. they seized the police headquarters in a city building in an industrial city in the eastern region. that comes one day after rebels stormed the television and ordered it to start broadcasting a russian channel. the team of international observers taken hostage by the separatists three days ago were paraded in front of the media at a press conference this weekend.

seven are still being held after one was released on medical grounds because he is diabetic. and u.s. to finance our preparing to decide on the names of more russians to be targeted in further sanctions on mask out it of destabilizing ukraine. barack obama announced the latest sanctions during a news conference in the philippines. the full list will be announced in washington later today. it is included to -- expected to include russian -- wealthy russians close to the president. the russian oligarch is skeptical of sanctions. he says any western sanctions against russia are likely to take immediate effect. unlikely unlikely -- to take immediate effect. >> they are stepping up the pressure on vladimir putin. last month, they slept financial and visa sanctions on

individuals close to the russian president, including his chief of staff. obama announced the latest round of u.s. sanctions this monday. the full list will be detailed later in the day. it is expected to further hit putin's inner circle. >> we will be moving forward with an expanded list of individuals and companies affected by sanctions. areas oflso focus on high tech defense exports to russia that we don't think are appropriate to be exporting in this climate. >> on the list are reportedly the heads of top oil companies. but the russian opposition figure has doubts as to how strong the sanctions will be. >> russia's gold and foreign currency reserves and the energy

distribution system all lead us to the conclusion the situation will not be critical for the russian economy in the next three to five years. >> obama expressed uncertainty as to whether the latest round of sanctions will work. washington is considering ramping up to a third phase, embargoes against the russian energy and financial sectors. but brussels is cautious. russiae.u. comes from and russia is its third-largest trading partner meaning europe could feel the effect of embargoes. the president has been sworn in for a fourth term. he made his inaugural address from a wheelchair following a campaign he was too sick to participate in. he has hardly been seen in public since a stroke put him in hospital in paris for three months last year. opposition groups had promised

to boycott the inauguration today. to get more on what happened, let's bring in our reporter from algiers. tell us about the inauguration. >> the president was in a wheelchair. he made a short speech. he said he appreciated the and thankedlgerians the international observers. at the end of the speech, the president left the room with the same doctor that helped him on the day of the elections. he did not smile. he hardly looked to the audience. and seemed to have trouble turning the pages of his speech. but he made his speech. that had not happened for two years. at the end of the speech, there was long applause.

there were many representatives including the leader of the national assembly. members of the opposition were not in the audience. >> the opposition said it would boycott the inauguration. did that happen? were there any protests from the opposition? >> there were not any that we could see on the national television. we could see the image on the national television. there were no protests. there were no opposition members. >> thank you. to israel where holocaust date is underway. everything came to a standstill there this morning as sirens wailed in remembrance of the six million jews who parish in the nazi holocaust during world war ii. the ceremonies came one day

before the peace talks in the middle east reach their next deadline. annualsrael holds its holocaust memorial day, the recognition of the world war ii genocide has once again taken center stage. the palestinian president was quoted as saying the holocaust was the most heinous crime in modern history, comments that were brushed aside by the israeli prime minister. >> i think it is an overture to american and world public opinion to try to placate and smooth over the fact he made a terrible step away from peace. he made a giant leap backward because he embraced hamas that calls for the extermination of jews worldwide, for the eradication of israel, and acts on a daily basis against peace. signed aeek>>, abbas that thel with hamas

u.s. and the e.u. consider a terrorist organization. since then, he has tried to reassure the international community vowing the new unity government would recognize israel. israeli authorities have made it clear they would not negotiate with the government backed by hamas and pulled out of u.s.-brokered talks, this is the peace deal is on the verge of collapse the day before the official deadline. assad hasa, president officially registered to run in next month's residential election, an election he is widely expected to win. to beote june 3 is set held as usual despite the raging war that has gone on for three years and left 150,000 dead. republic,tral african foreign troops have evacuated over 1000 muslims from a neighborhood in the capital. as the convoy departed for the safety of the north, scores of

locals swarmed into the former muslim stronghold to loot the remaining houses. byerim authorities supported french and african peacekeepers are still struggling to restore order to the country. thomas waterhouse explains. the trucks form a line along this road. over 1300 muslims have been waiting to be evacuated from the northern capital neighborhood. finally, the chance to leave came on sunday. >> with the rebels killing all the muslims, we cannot stay here. we have to leave to save ourselves. >> escorted by foreign peacekeepers, the 18 tracks left for the relative safety of the north.

once the convoy had finally taken to the road, locals rushed in to loot what remained. 15 minutes later, they were gone. some of the departed muslims who could not carry everything with them preferred to burn their possessions rather than see them fall into the hands of the christian enemies. >> it is regrettable but we can't do anything about it. we can do anything about it because they are the ones who brought weapons. we lived together for many years, but they are the ones who brought weapons to kill us. >> this mass exigence of the muslim committee has called controversy here. the central african government has stated the operation was carried on without its knowledge. it has now called into question the neutrality of its peacekeeping partners. the evacuation intensified the religious divisions of the country. >> the french president has discussed and offered to buy the french engineering giant.

the u.s. giant ge is now in a bidding war with the german firm for the lucrative power generation business. e will also beand sitting down with the head of siemens today. >> general electric and siemens are in a bidding war to take french power generator. it will represent about 15 billion euros in 2013. they have offered guarantees and put money on the table. the american energy giant says it is willing to pay 10 billion euros for the deal. it promises to inject money into french plants. pickett also tensely -- it could also potentially keep many of the french activity -- italy's since the activities are different -- french employees since the activities are different. >> the problem with siemens' offer is the company activities

are similar. they produce the same product. more people are likely to lose their jobs if siemens is chosen over general electric, whose activities are different and compatible. >> siemens denies and has reportedly pledged not to fire anyone in the next three years. it estimates the power generation arm at up to 11 billion euros. the german company also offers to swap assets, transferring israel activities to france, strengthening its transportation arm. a deal with siemens could lead to the creation of a new european energy giant, an option the french president had already called for. >> you are watching "france 24." let's take another look at the headlines. close to 700 people getting recommended death sentence in egypt over support of ousted president mohamed morsi. the muslim brotherhood leader is

among those sentenced. prepare new e.u. sanctions against russia over tensions in ukraine as pro-russian militants are holding a team of international observers hostage for a third day. president is sworn in for a fourth term. he makes his inaugural address from a wheelchair following a campaign he was too sick to participate in. it is time to take a look at what newspapers have been saying around the world. one of our big stories is the bids from different companies to take over the french engineering firm. let's start with what the papers have had to say about that. >> we will look at the financial paper. the headline says the sale symbolizes the decline of french

manufacturing. it ends upher way, in foreign hands. some people in france say the company should have been nationalized in the same way the american government took over general motors. but there is no chance of that happening anytime soon. >> the french government has been active in the talks. >> last week, the economy minister moved to protect france's interests and said it would look for other options. the paper says to stop the, patriotism -- economic patriotism junk. france has not become business friendly. there are just teed up options for companies in the country in a deadly ecosystem. m.p.'s can either decline or be sold off. that was a similar angle picked up by another paper. it says there is disenchantment

in france between the government and big companies. >> let's come back to another big story. the crisis in eastern ukraine. the e.u. and u.s. are set to hand down new sanctions and an effort to de-escalate tensions. >> what is interesting is they will reach the top leader in russia, vladimir putin. it has been suspected he has a secret fortune but they have been unable to discover it. numbers have imploded -- floated up to $70 billion. but last year the russian president only declared an income of over $100,000. if he has $70 billion, that would make him the richest head of state in world history. the article has linked into commodities trading groups, oil and railway groups. some say the u.s. is sending a clear message they may have some -- found the secret fortune and a way to get to it.

the idea is if they can find the secret fortune, he may not be able to shrug off sanctions so easily. >> until that is confirmed, a lot of people think sanctions are not much. journal"all street says the sanctions are to water down to haveatered an effect and could have collateral damage on the european economy. the brookings institution says for the past 10 years, putin has increased military spending by 79%. >> there are also concerns that is russia grows more isolated, putin is looking to consolidate his power. >> this is coming down to how you control information. say the internet was a cia project. he has been an advocate of what he is calling internet sovereignty.

countries at other taking a similar stance, brazil is at the forefront of the movement. also countries like iran are using it to filter outside influences from reaching its citizens. it is not clear why he would want to do this. he wants foreign tech happenings like google and facebook to store their data on russian customers on russian soil. the irony is russia is also harboring edward snowden, the famous whistleblower who is allegedly the champion of freedom of information and internet usage. >> snowden asked a question at putin's press conference. the owner of a basketball team in los angeles is getting a lot of attack for allegedly making racist remarks. >> this is donald sterling. reportedlydio of him

telling his girlfriend not to bring african-americans to his basketball team's games. uror caused the for -- a f across the internet. last night, they played a game. there were protests from the players and fans in the stands. on twitter, someone posted this. a bit of humor, which is nice because they are protesting. there is a piece saying the naacp was meant to give donald sterling its lifetime achievement award next month. they have said they will not honor him with the award, but maybe he can eat his own words. they're calling for african-americans and latinos to boycott the games. >> thank you for that look at the press today. thank you for watching "france 24." time for sports. we start with the latest on football. >> no title yet in france.

they would've been crowned champions on sunday had they won. they closed in on third. it was a critical game for them, so we knew they would play until they died. we did the same. both teams with different objectives. we knew the match would be complicated with few opportunities, and it was that way. it was difficult for both teams. we both had opportunities but none of us could take advantage of it to make a difference and win. chelsea blew the race wide open after beating liverpool. manchester is 53 points with a game in hand after seeing off crystal palace. crashed harder to move out of the drop zone --

carter to move out of the drops in. >> they played brilliantly. no mistakes. we were speaking about this to be the title match for a long time. reason, this match did not become the title match. today was three important points. we need one more to finish third. >> they've been crowned the dutch division champions for the fourth year running. they had a 5-1 defeat last weekend. they had a thunderous free kick after 13 minutes. the lead did not last long. they leveled in similar fashion. on 22 minutes, the kick was too good.

he came close to putting them in front 10 minutes after halftime. he was denied. they needed a point to clinch their 53rd league title. they had chances to regain the lead. he was unable to find a way past them on this occasion. they were looking to reach double digits but could not get on the end of this cross. neither side could find the winner as it ended 1-1. but that did not stop the celebrations. 21 points sent the defending champions to the final of the heineken cup after a cagey battle. the french side led at the break. but they hit that strongly -- hit backstrom late -- hit back

strongly. they missed a penalty which would have put the irish in front. they closed out the country 6-14 victory. simon time his final attack vertically to win a thrilling 100 edition of the sprint classic. blue skies greeted the riders in belgium for the oldest of five monuments. group initiated the break of the day on the race. survivorented the lone before he was reeled in with 20 k's to go. they attacked. the defending champion led the attempt to chase them down. the irishman appeared well positioned with 300 meters to the finish line before crushing on the final corner. he emerged triumphant in the sprint.

he beat his previous best sixth place finish from 2009 to become the first australian to try out -- to triumph. alexander has picked up his maiden european tour title with victory in the china open. the frenchman held the overnight lead and survived the wobble at under.h to put him on 19 he struck a superb birdie to clinch the victory four shots clear of tommy fleetwood. third on 13 was under. the italian was in fourth. this chip brought fleetwood into contention but he was eventually four strikes behind. it was his maiden win on the european tour. >> i can't quite believe it yet.

it is something i will realize in future days. i am happy to have one. i have some good movements -- moments. i am very happy. the south korean celebrated with his compatriots after winning the classic of new orleans. the overnight leader was hoping to become the first to go all four rounds without a single bogey. that dream faded on the first hole of his final round. the american was third heading into the final day. an eagle on the second gave him hope, but he finished tied for second alongside his compatriot. he fired a three under final round of 69 which included this chip in for birdie at the 12th. he wins by two shots his first pga tour win. >

>> after the break, a new world record in fingerpainting. 2000 people pitched in for a giant mural in beijing.

[applause] >> and good evening, everyone. thank you for coming here and for your support of stopping female genital mutilation. my name's kerry kennedy, and i'm honored to welcome you all to this very special concert featuring unicef's goodwill ambassador angelique kidjo. [applause] whoo! up to 140 million girls and women have had their undergarments removed, their legs spread against their will, their genitals hacked, usually with rocks, knives,