>> live from dw studios here in berlin, this is the "journal." >> it's good to have you with us. here are the headlines this hour. thailand's army chief seizes power in a military coup,, singing to restore order after six months of political crisis. >> attackers bomb a busy street market in china's west and northwest, killing dozens of people. >> clashes in eastern ukraine leave at least 13 dead just days before the country's election.

a curfew is now in effect across all of thailand ordered by the military, which is now in control of the country. chief seized power in what has so far been a bloodless coup. leaders of the pro-and antigovernment movements have been arrested. >> it's unlikely -- the military has blocked foreign news networks. >> the army is in control now. the government has been dissolved, the constitution suspended. soldiers are enforcing a nationwide curfew from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. supporters of the ousted government are crushed. >> this is what thailand is like. we just cannot live together peacefully. >> antigovernment protesters welcomed the coup. for months, they have been locked in a fierce, at times

deadly power struggle with the government, which they accuse of corruption. >> i think a lot of people will be satisfied because the government has been cheating the country for far too long. >> the army chief general declared martial law on tuesday but initially insisted that it was not a coup. he then held roundtable talks with thailand's rival political camps, but after the opposing sides railed to reach a compromise, he decided to address the nation direct the. >> the peace maintaining committee, which consisted of army, army forces, navy, and air forces, as well as the national police, has to take control of power to govern the country. >> international leaders are calling for a rapid return to democracy. all tv and radio stations have

been ordered to suspend programming and show only the army's broadcasts. >> earlier, we spoke to our correspondent in bangkok, and here is what we were told about the coup. >> we have heard that the army leadership has ordered the former act in prime minister and his former cabinet to begin reporting immediately to them in order to keep peace and order, arguing they couldn't how was necessary to bring back stability to the country, but this is not going to work. it is a bizarre situation right now, similar to the one in 2006, only that political tensions and hatreds had grown significantly since then. bangkok, which was in the grip for hours, is very quiet, for a curfew is in place, and assemblies of more than five people are forgotten, so protests had arrived, telling protesters to pack and go home.

what i heard was that the caretaker government refused to resign and refuse to reach a new constitution, so silence is audible right now, with tv channels cut out broadcasting nothing but military martial music and often -- also, for an media broadcasts are cut, too. the whole situation feels as if we are thrown back into the dark ages. it is an anachronism in this world of the 21st century. >> thailand has seen military coups before, but considering how tense the situation is right now, why should we think that this one will not divide the country even more? >> this latest coup will definitely deepen the rift inside society, where a small minority, which backed the opposition protest movement in the last month wants to dictate all the democracy loving people how things should hurt, and he

military coup principal, as we have seen already, will only lead to more conflict and bloodshed in the end. the situation we experienced today actually results from the coup in 2006. it results in increasing political hatred, so the political environment has grown worse since 2006. many people, i guess, would not accept this, and critics today have raised their voices and are outraged about the remarks of the army chief, that the military will now reform thai politics because they see the military as the main obstacle to democracy in thailand. there are already calls for civil disobedience to resist the illegal seizure of power. on facebook, there were pictures of people holding up signs, protesting against the coup, and in the meantime, there were reports coming in that the u.s. defense department would review military assistance and engagement with thailand as a result of the coup.

>> thank you very much. china has been rocked by ethnic violence. >> at least 31 people were killed in the western region when attackers detonated explosives at a busy market. >> it is the latest in a series of attacks in the west, which beijing is blaming on muslim separatists. >> heavy security was out in the streets after the deadliest attack the troubled western chinese city has seen in recent memory. witnesses said two suv's plowed into a crowded morning market with assailants throwing bombs against the windows. there were at least a dozen black. one of the cars exploded as well. the city has been the scene of ongoing tensions.

just three weeks ago, it was rocked by an attack at a train station that killed three people and injured 79. assailants set off bombs and attacked people with knives. in both cases, authorities in beijing have blamed militants fighting for an independent state for the attacks. >> this violent terrorist incident once again shows that terrorists are fundamentally against humanity, society, and civilization. they should be condemned only by the chinese people and the international community. >> beijing has vowed to crack down on the violence. the president said no effort would be spared to maintain stability. >> some other news, an attempt by the united nations to act against syria's three-year-old civil war has yet again been blocked at the security council. >> on thursday, just as they

have done several times since the conflict began, china and russia used their veto right to stop a resolution on serious -- syria. >> united nations wants to ask the criminal court to step in and investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. >> it is the fourth time russia and china have locked united nations security council action on syria. if the resolution had passed, the international criminal court would have been able to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the conflict. it was put forward by france. the draft i have the honor to present is an appeal to human conscience, not a political gesture but a moral act, quite simply. if the council were not to adopt it, it would be an insult to the millions of syrians who are suffering, roof that some have learned nothing from history. the 13 remaining members of the council voted in a verb. -- in favor. but they did so in a knowledge that the draft would be vetoed.

on the ground in syria, the war goes on. these unverified pictures purport to show fighting the rebels and pro-government forces near damascus. troops loyal to president bashar al-assad made gains on another front today. insurgents have been trying to take a prison to free an estimated 4000 inmates held there. a government released a statement saying fighting around the prison had cut in supply line vital to the rebels. >> turkish police have clashed with protesters in istanbul after a man was seriously injured in the city earlier in the day. >> the man was shot during violence as demonstrators took to the street in protest of last week's mining disaster in western turkey. more than 300 miners died in an underground blast and fire in a coal mine in the town of soma. many people in turkey blame lax government 80 standards for that accident.

and it was the deadliest clash yet for ukrainian soldiers in countering russian separatist. >> kiev says at least 13 soldiers died on thursday when separatist forces attacked south of theukraine shows no sign of g up as the whole country prepares for presidential election on sunday, and election separatist say that they will block. >> progression rebels displayed weapons they say they took from falling ukrainian soldiers. they presented their booty in the yard of a police station, which i had long before taking control of. >> look -- this is ukrainian quality, said the officer holding up a seized weapon, either damaged or in the assault or already broken. government troops took heavy losses during the gunfight, which took leis only days ahead of land presidential elections. rebels say they have also seized several mining complexes.

kiev claims they want to get their hands on explosives. this billionaire is one of the candidates hoping to calm the escalating tensions. he is considered the front runner in sunday's vote. a minister under ousted president viktor yanukovych has become an ardent supporter of the revolutionary movement. >> i will fight for the support of the international community to ensure security in eastern ukraine and to bring crimea back home. >> this message has garnered him widespread support among ukrainian voters. the self-made billionaire is known as a moderate and pragmatist, but the ukrainian army and security forces loyal to kiev cannot guarantee voters will be able to cast their ballots in safety in eastern ukraine. in breakaway donetsk, only half of all polling locations are expected to open.

staff at other locations say they will stay home because of separatist threats. >> these tensions between ukraine and russia have ramifications for the german business community, forcing executives to look at more than just their bottom line. >> germany is deeply invested in the russian market, and it is a delicate act here, balancing geopolitics and balance sheets. >> here is more from the international forum in st. petersburg. >> there was never any question he was going to st. petersburg. he manages the metro group, one of germany's largest retailers. metro also employs over 20,000 people in russia, so he wanted to attend the economic for him, despite the ukrainian crisis. >> i am a businessman first and foremost and not a politician, so i do not get involved in it. of course, i can voice my concern about recent developments, and de-escalation is in everyone's best interest. >> but russian managers would

like to see their german counterparts be more critical of the sanctions. >> these are educated people. they know these policies are hurting them. that the state can also hurt them, so it makes sense in this case to think about the relationship between society and the state in germany. >> in other words, german companies should put pressure on their government because sanctions are not only bad for russia but could also backfire on the german ecoomy. >> deutsche bank, germany's biggest lender, has given the greenlight to a capital increase. >> co-ceo announced the cash call at a shareholders meeting in frankfurt today. decrease the value of current stockholders shares, and he said the bank was forced to cut cost due to increasing competition and new oversight roles.

as we let you know earlier this week, much of that fresh cash's expected to come from qatar's royal family. as you will hear from our markets correspondent, the move was not without its critics. >> dortch -- deutsche bank owners criticized the move at the shareholder is simply. the shares were rising anyhow, but all in all, shareholders suffered a lot since may 2007, the shares lost more than 70%. the overall picture was not so bad. the german dax gaining modestly, but nervousness is also rising ahead of elections on sunday. >> we're going to take a break. when we come back, we will have the latest on for days of voting that have begun here in europe. europeans will be getting a new parliament soon. >> the far right in the

netherlands apparently did a bit less well than they expected to. stay tuned. >> welcome back. britain and the netherlands have kicked off four days of voting across europe as citizens of the european union elect a new parliament. populist right-wing parties are expected to do well in both countries. >> but exit polls just in from the netherlands show that the party for freedom is finishing third, and the party was hoping to do much better than that. >> in britain, the u.k. independence party could finish first. in all, some 400 million people in 28 countries are eligible to vote. results are expected after the last polls close on sunday.

all right, we want to go now to our correspondent in london. let's start where you are. britain claiming that this election will be a political earthquake for the eu. >> well, yes, the far right parties are expected to win massively across europe, and in the u.k., it is feared the u.k. independence party will be the strongest. the conservatives would possibly be the third party, and that has not happened in the history of british politics. of course, what it all means depends when we look at europe very much on how well these far right parties will work together. there are some deep visions in these far right and anti-populist parties, and some do not even want to sit together, but of course, they are united by strong opposition

to more integration within europe, and if they can work together, it would, of course, have made things more difficult for parliament, for example, if they would've pushed through something like the free trade agreement between the u.k. and u.s. >> they say all politics is local. how will this play out for national politics in britain? >> they had no seat in parliament at the general election, and even if they do win massively, they are predicted to be just under or about 30% here in the u.k. it does not necessarily mean they will have a seat in parliament the cuts britain has a system where in each constituency, only one candidate wins. so far, there is not a clear safe seat for the u.k. independence party.

>> before we let you go, a record low turnout is expected for this election. is anyone really interested? >> some people are. the u.k. historically has always had a significantly lower turnout than the rest of europe. i think there is lots of anti-europe sentiment in the media, and the main parties have not exactly helped. the party leaders have hardly mentioned europe, most of them, because it is tied together with local elections, and they have been leading on health and cost of living prices, but europe has only been mentioned very briefly . >> as always, thank you very much. for more on dw's coverage of european elections including the rise of our right parties, you can go to our website.

>> you will get all the latest news and information, and you can give us a piece of your mind -- what does europe mean to you? do tune in this weekend for all the details and the results. >> well, investigators in new york are calling it the states largest sting targeting sexual predators of children. >> police have announced the arrests of 70 men and one woman on child pornography charges, and they say more arrests are expected. if found guilty, the suspects could face up to 25 years behind bars. >> police took the defendants into custody after a five-week investigation. the suspects range in age from their 20's to their 50's and calm from all walks of life. they include a rabbi, a police chief, several nurses, and a boy scout leader. >> this operation puts to live

the classic profile that child editors are nothing that unemployed drifters. many of the defendants are in fact well educated and successful in their private and professional lives. >> more than six hundred hard drives and other storage devices were confiscated by police in the course of the investigation. they contain tens of thousands of images of children being sexually abused and raped. the suspects used filesharing programs to exchange the pictures. >> no one should make a mistake here about this, that the images of child sexual assault are real crimes against real children, and each time one of those files is downloaded and viewed by a stranger on the internet, that child is being victimized all over again. >> police say they are working with support organizations to

try to aid victims of the abuse and offer them help. >> ahead of the pope's visit to the holy land, israeli police are struggling to contain a wave of hate crimes. >> these incidents known as price tag attacks have targeted mainly christians and arabs, but also left ring -- left-wing israelis and the police. >> this is the abbey at the gates of jerusalem's old city. it was a year ago that the benedictine monks here first discovered anti-christian graffiti. reading it was a shock for german-born father nicodemus. "death to christians," for example or "jesus is a monkey." photos document the hate crimes, now long since removed. >> they were mostly insults of jesus here around the monastery and on cars. that is really what we fear most. we want better protection for the pilgrims. personally, i can deal with it

if someone spits on me, but it gets tough if pilgrims are attacked, which has already happened. >> toppled crucifixes on graves, hate graffiti on monastery walls, and even arson attacks on mosques. just ahead of the papal visit, new spraying's on a catholic center that pope francis is scheduled to visit. the graffiti has been whitewashed, but the message there, too, was "death to arabs and christians and all who hate israel." the deeds are known as price tag attacks. the offenders are believed to come from ultra-orthodox communities in israel, and especially the jewish settler movement. perpetrators say anyone working against them should pay a price, hence the name. if you it's a go near one settlement outpost, israeli security forces cleared away illegally erected shelters. >> i think all these people, the price tag people, they are trying in their way to restore

that. they are saying, "we do not accept what is happening here. we still remember who we are, and if somebody does not like what we do, that's too bad." >> no one has been successfully prosecuted for the crimes. criticism is growing that authorities are not doing enough. israel he lawmakers and some cabinet members want tougher legislation. >> we regard the actions known as price tag attacks as terrorist attacks. across the board, the goal of these acts is to terrorize and divide jews and arabs, christians and muslims in the state of israel. >> the israeli police says it has no intention of tolerating what it called extreme elements that create pressure ahead of the pontiff's visit, which begins on sunday. >> here comes some sports news.

football fans all over the world are counting down the days until the start of the world cup. >> those players lucky enough to have received a call to represent their countries of course are now in the thick of reparation. >> as germany arrived at their pretournament camp yesterday, today the players got down to business on the training pitch. >> even the midfielder who has a knee inflammation went through his paces, but he did not practice with the rest of the squad. >> he has his own schedule, and we have to see how he handles it, but of course, our medical staff are being very careful. >> the coaches are still taking stock of their team. many key players are nursing injuries sustained in a long season. >> of course that means that we cannot work our players quite as hard.

>> other players need all the training they can get. the striker has missed much of the season, but he does not appear to have lost his touch. neither has the midfielder, even though he has been struggling to find his groove. >> it's going the right direction, and i think that the coming days will be good for him. i'm sure we will see the same player we saw in 2010 and that we hope to see again. >> there is more good news for the coach. the captain and goalkeeper or are recovering from their injuries faster than expected and intend to arrive on friday. >> another type of physical activity, six young iranians who were jailed after appearing in a youtube video dancing to the worldwide hit "happy" have been released. >> the video shows three men and three women dancing to pharrell

williams' song in tehran. authorities accused them of committing an immoral act. dancing in public is banned, and the women did not wear a veil. although the dancers are now free, the director of the video is still being detained. ♪ >> happy for them for being released from jail. that is going to wrap it up for the "journal." >> thanks for watching. bye-bye. ♪ captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

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>> our grandchildren, years from now, failing to bring justice to people living in hell on earth is the response from samantha power, u.s. ambassador to the united nations to the united nations after russia and china vetoed taking any action in syria. had a frenchsia sponsor draft resolution to defer both sides of the civil war to the international criminal court. the fourth time