>> welcome back, live from paris. it is 5:00 p.m. in the french capital. take a look at what is next. the thai army says it is not a the country faces a political crisis. they say they needed to restore law and order as opposition protesters vowed to continue their campaign. pro-russian separatists face a wave of local anger as pro-kiev supporters hold on rally. the country's richest man is to theng an end rebellion. cleanup is underway after the balkans' worst flood in over a

century. there is a growing risk of uncovered landmines. ♪ our top story. in a surprise move, thailand continues to be rocked by a political crisis and the country's military has imposed martial law. they say the move was needed to preserve law and order, but insist it is not a coup. it follows months of tensions between the government and opposition. fresh elections are to be held in august. one key leader vows to continue the antigovernment campaign. our correspondent, maia wolf, has more from bangkok. >> the city is perhaps quieter than usual around bangkok tonight. signs of the new imposed martial

law in the city. the questions surrounding everyone, what is next for the country? there has been a lot of argument today about the laws being brought in by the military, which unilaterally -- not a lot of discussion about the crackdown. 14 tv stations have been shut down by the military, and they say that anyone who is not an official of the government or the military or any other state authority is no longer allowed to be interviewed by the press. this is looking a lot like a military push. they have taken control of the country, and clearly the military is in charge at the moment, not the government. the government is trying to push for elections, but it is unclear whether they will be able to carry on with that. >> the political crisis in thailand began last november, when opposition protesters took

calls to the street, resulting in bloody clashes. eventsback at the leading up to the announcement by the military. >> early may, the final battles for prime minister yingluck shinawatra. acted illegally when transferring her national security chief, the constitutional court management weres of street protests unable to do. she was removed from office. demonstrations began seven months before. critics said it would prevent justice for yingluck's controversial exiled brother, a former prime minister. said she was a puppet under her brother's control. >> the regime never existed. there was only democracy. whatever you are not happy with, let's have a talk. >> by late november, street

protests turned violent. several people were killed, and dozens wounded. the pro-government red shirt movement versus the yellow opposition. as the new year began, so too did the second wave of protests. tens of thousands of activists occupied the street, trying to shut down bangkok. days, we willhree close all of the government offices. if they remain steadfast, we will detain the prime minister and the other ministers. in february, snap elections failed to solve the crisis. fearing yingluck would win thanks to rural support, the opposition boycotted the vote. they called for an unelected people's counsel to oversee reforms instead. violent clashes continued in the capital. clear alice tried to

protest camps and occupied government buildings. the results of the election were overruled by the constitutional court. demonstrations continue against the rest of yingluck's party, still ringing to power. >> at least 46 people are still feared dead following explosions in the central nigerian city of jos. they came amid the bombing campaign by the boko haram islamist group. the city has seen several deadly clashes between christian and muslim groups in recent years. we will bring you more details as they come to hand. moving on, china has denounced u.s. charges against five army officers accusing economic espionage. beijing says washington has double standards, claiming the americans are just as good at spying on other countries, including china. >> china denies spying on u.s. companies.

beijing is infuriated by the unprecedented indictments of these five chinese men. washington suspects them of cyber espionage for economic purposes. the chinese foreign ministry summoned the u.s. ambassador and says washington is accusing others of something it is doing itself. >> the u.s. is the one who launched cyber surveillance and tapping against individuals, companies, and institutions around the world. china is a victim of this. >> beijing demands the withdrawal of the indictments. china has suspended cooperation with the united states on an internet working group. >> we will take further action in accordance with the situation. >> the men are suspected of stealing information from u.s. companies. according to the white house, the u.s. warned china against these attacks. >> we have consistently and candidly raised concerns with

the chinese government. today's announcement reflects our growing concerns that this chinese behavior has continued. >> economic hacking has reportedly been going on for years. u.s. officials say it has directly led to the loss of jobs and profit for american companies. news, pro-russian separatists fighting government forces in eastern ukraine are facing a surge of local anger. rallies have been held in donetsk in protest of the pro-russian separatist movement at the instigation of ukraine's richest man. hasl magnate rinat akhmetov accused separatists of leading the country toward genocide. let's cross to donetsk to speak to rob parsons. how many people actually turned out for these rallies? >> it is a little hard to measure, to be honest. at the main rally, little more than 1000 people, but there was a procession of cars touring

around the city for an hour between 12:00 and 1:00, tooting horns and waving ukrainian flags. it is a little difficult to quantify it, but i would say rinat akhmetov was probably a little disappointed that there were not more people who turned out today. this is the first day of what he sees as a rolling demonstration that will take place every day, he says, until peace is achieved in this part of ukraine. she hopes tomorrow there will be more. and not just here in donetsk. but in other parts of eastern ukraine as well, including mariupol, where a planned march did not take place today because according to rinat akhmetov there were threats that if they did march people would shoot at the crowd. >> tell us more about who this steel magnate actually is. n> rinat akhmetov is a

enormously powerful and influential man in ukraine. not just eastern ukraine, in ukraine as a whole. he is the richest man in the country by a long way. his personal fortune berries -- varies between $11 billion and $16 million, depending on who you listen to. he started to build his fortune in the 1990's. there was suspicion he was involved in organized crime. he was closely related to the former president of ukraine, yanukovych. there was suspicion here that he was funding separatists in eastern ukraine. there was an accusation he was sitting on the fence. now he has made it absolutely clear where he stands. he is fully behind the idea of the unity of ukraine. perhaps for more autonomy for this part of the country, but definitely for unity of ukraine.

with a man of that power and influence doing something in a region of 300,000 people, you have to sit up and take notice. >> rob parsons reporting from donetsk. thank you. at least six people have died after a train hit a passenger southwest of moscow. 60rriages were derailed, kilometers from the capital. a passenger train was on its way to moscow to multiple -- moldova. cleanup is underway in the balkans after the worst flooding in more than half a century. if forced hundreds out of their homes, with hundreds of thousands still without freshwater. authorities now face another problem, with floodwaters dislodging unexploded landmines that have been buried since the war in the 1990's. >> a town submerged in water. south of belgrade, it is part of

the region in serbia hardest hit by flooding. it is a ghost town. authorities ordered tis 20,000 -- its 20,000 residents to evacutate. the prime minister declared three days of national mourning in honor of the victims who died. >> thank you to the people who agreed to the evacuation. it is more important that we save lives. considering the scale of the catastrophe and material damage, we were hit 10 times harder than all the other counties in the region. i hope this will not be true in regard to the number of victims. >> flooding has affected more than 1.5 million people in serbia and bosnia. the relatively warm weather of the last couple days has allowed authorities to start the cleanup and begin disinfecting. their objective is to avoid the spread of diseases. >> there is danger of an epidemic as a result of the floods, but infectious illnesses are possible.

>> in bosnia, there is another risk. landslides of minefields. according to authorities, the floods may have dislodged the-personnel mines from 1990's. more than 100,000 mines are believed to still be buried in bosnia. >> as europe votes in a new parliament this weekend, one of the biggest concerns is the issue of voter apathy. opinion polls show up to 50% of people in spain say they will not bother voting on saturday. this is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city of madrid. unemployment has hit virtually every family, and for many people here europe stands for one thing -- austerity. >> with all angela merkel has put us through, why should i vote? >> i earn 1000 euros a month and i have to bring up my son with

that. i do not see how posterity can be the solution. lots of spaniards, particularly young people, will abstain from voting in the european election, say opinion polls, because of the crisis. everyone in the gallardo family is under the same roof. only one will vote for one of the two big parties. young people are completely disillusioned. >> it does not interest me at all. in the end, ordinary people have absolutely nothing. >> i always thought that europe was about rich people. for germany and a few other countries that believe in it. a may intend to vote, but she chairs -- shares the disillusionment with europe. she was 26 when europe entered the union. >> joining was presented to us like we were winning the lottery. today we have to ask, what is the point? >> she takes this to her neighborhood association, which

helps the long-term unemployed like her son and half the young people in the area. >> working for a better life. they are well educated young people, leaving the country to be exploited elsewhere in europe. >> the latest opinion polls forecast results, with the conservatives and socialists seen gaining 30% of the vote. >> time for a look at business news. marcus carlson is here. looking at major banks in hot water. >> three major high street banks from both sides of the atlantic are facing allegations over rating interest rates. c,ench credit agricole, hsb and j.p. morgan chase. the european commission charges them with rigging a key benchmark known as eurobor. the rate is used to set interest rates on financial products worth trillions of euros, including car loans and mortgages. the commission says the lenders

have to answer allegations they colluded to boost trading products -- profits. >> if confirmed, such behavior would be a breach of our antitrust rules that prohibit cartels. we would look at all the arguments before taking any final decision. hsbc say they and will defend themselves vigorously against charges. agricole says it wants to take a closer look before they decide what to do next. if found guilty, they could face fines of up to 10% of annual revenue. it is a story to watch. another story we have been watching for you. russia has failed to reach an agreement on tuesday that would see it supply gas to china. there were question hopes of reaching a deal during a visit by president putin to shanghai, but a spokesman for the prime

minister says there are still differences on the price china will be paying. the energy deal is potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and russia is seen to be keen. it wants to diversify its customer base as europe says it is looking to reduce dependence on russian gas as the ukraine crisis is playing out. next, we take you to the french riviera. cannes festival is known for glitz and glamour, but away from the spotlight thousands of films are vying from attention from investors. visiting the real powerhouse of the festival, the marche du f ilm. >> films coming to a theater near you soon, or perhaps not. but they are hoping to take a distribution at this year's festival. the event is not just about big-name stars, but also big business. >> cannes is a festival of

market. it is the window where films gather visibility. where producers get -- recoup their investment. >> recoup they most certainly do. cannes is the largest film festival in the world, with $800 million made each year. but getting a movie to stand out from the crowd is no easy feat. last year a director sold a short film to a french television channel, but only to the connections he made here. >> if you are not here, it is really difficult to sell. i sent my movie, and they did not see it. when i was with a distributor, they saw it, they liked it. i was by myself, no one would see it. >> the wheeling and dealing does not take face just inside the market. in cannes, the networking never stops. >> it is what cannes is about.

you can meet people, drink, dine, and party. but there are two ways to party. there are no parties were you do not talk about business. dining, andning and perhaps he will get his first feature film picked up, beating 5000 other projects vying for the limelight. >> we will take a look at the stock markets. in the united states, less than an hour of trading left -- to go before the close. the dow jones and nasdaq are in negative territory. so was the s&p 500. not by as much, though. shares are trading lower under lackluster earnings, with home depot reporting first-quarter profits below forecast. ended thendices session in negative territory. the london ftse was down 0.6%. down your .2%.

shares in vodafone ended tuesday's session nearly 6% down. a warning from investors that major investments will weigh on future earnings. arm wrote down the value of its european business due to tough conditions. last year sales were boosted by a one-off gain links to the sale of its stake in u.s. operator verizon wireless. atra zeneca's board faces backlash after rebuffing a takeover offer from rival drugmaker pfizer. schroders is urging them to restart the talks. the company says it was disappointed by astrazeneca's quick dismissal of the bid on monday. will fight ays it

ruling. a competition watchdog has upheld the ruling, and it could ink banned by lui the end of the year. dominantdog says its position between france and the u.k. could lead to higher fares. that is business news for now. i will kick the cannes back to you. >> you could not resist, could you? [laughter] thanks for that. it is time for our rendezvous with cannes. meeting belgium's celebrated filmmakers, the dardenne brothers, in the running for the festival's top prize. ♪

>> welcome back to a rather windy cannes film festival for today's cannes rendezvous. it is a tough enough feat to win the palme d'or once, even tougher to win it twice. only a handful of directors have achieved that in the entire festival. today we meet a pair of directors who have done just that. belgium's dardenne brothers are back with a film called "two days, one night," starring oscar winner marion cotillard. i asked them whether the success in the past adds to confidence or simply piles on the pressure. [speaking in french]

>> the film is about how sandra is going to convince her colleagues to change their minds. fired because her boss gave an ultimatum to the employees. either everyone receive their bonus, or sandra gets her job back. but they cannot do both. as sandra, with the support of her husband, goes to see her colleagues one by one to make them change their minds. the film is about how difficult it is to build solidarity.

>> you tend to work with less well-known actors, but for this film you hired one of france's most famous actresses, marion cotillard. how did that come about? >> we met marion when oden was filming "rust and bone." after a few minutes, we fell head over heels for her, cinematically speaking. there is something about her as an actress that made us want to work with her. she said she also wanted to work with us. it was fantastic. >> marion cotillard says she had to work quite hard on suppressing her french accent. you mainly work with belgian actors. the fact she is french -- did that make you hesitate in

casting her? >> no, no. we asked marion to get rid of her french accent to have a more neutral accent. there was no reason why the main character in our film should have a parisian accent when the others do not. and all the more reason when you consider where we based it. >> your new film has been selected for the official competition at cannes, so congratulations. you now have the opportunity to go for a record third palme d'or. pressure, or do you feel confident knowing you have already won a great many prizes here at the cannes film festival?

>> we are happy the film is in competition. we would be even happier if the critics liked the film, and the public take the film into their hearts. but for the rest, the jury decides. it is only in movies that you bribe and killed three members. in reality, that does not happen. >> tell us how did it feel when you won your first palme d'or for "rosetta" in 1999? >> without we were there for the prize. we were happy she got it. she was very moving on stafe. we were not expecting our names to be called for the palme d'or. it was very truck -- touching, very intense. cronenberg read our names out. we love him as a director.

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>> from pacifica, this is democracy now! this is the free speech issue of our time. we cannot allow the sec to implement a pay to play system. the silences armed forces and amplifies that of big corporate interests. we have come to a crossroads. as the fcc