>> we begin in ukraine, where the country's president of just 11 days announced plans today to bring an end to fighting in the east of the country. theowing discussions with russian and german leaders, petro poroshenko is now promising a unilateral cease-fire in what could be a major step towards bringing peace to the country. let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> i can say that's the -- that the period of the cease-fire will be rather short. we anticipate immediately after

this visit -- this the disarming of the military formations will take place. >> he also named a new foreign minister and a new central bank chief. let's get the latest from whonce 24's" gulliver cragg is in keiev. let's talk about the cease-fire. what more details do you have for us? >> the cease-fire -- you had petro poroshenko -- you heard petro poroshenko say it would be quite short. it hasn't started yet. there is supposed to be in the crib -- be an official decree that starts the cease-fire. the president's press service couldn't tell me whether that would be this evening, tomorrow, even the next day. a lot of uncertainty. another question being asked was whether the cease-fire would cover just the military or the various different armed

formations that have stp -- sprung up in recent weeks. now under theis command of the ukrainian interior ministry and would abide by the law and respect the president's decision, but he had no hesitation telling me that personally he didn't respect the decision at all and he didn't think it was a good strategy. i've had reports from another battalion that they are still considering whether they will the presidential line when the cease-fire is declared or not. >> also about the amnesty -- do you think the separatists are really going to take poroshenko up on that? >> none of the separatists that i've spoken to here have said they had any interdiction -- intention of taking the president up on his offer. is official position of the self-declared -- his official position is the donetsk region

is -- their position is that ukraine has to withdraw its forces from the region. a cease-fire, they say, simply won't be enough. there's not much reason to be optimistic about this strategy right now in eastern ukraine. >> thank you very much, gulliver cragg. let's head to the fast-changing situation in iraq. baghdad has asked the united states to carry out airstrikes on sunni jihadists who have seized sizable chunks of territory in the country's north and are continuing their advance. today, isis militants attacked the country's main refinery. they continue to get ever closer to the capital. in the north of the country, kurdish security forces are reported to have clashed with militants just outside the strategic oil city of kirkuk. for the time being, they are keeping them repelled and pushed

back. y-- the president, hassan ni, has-- hassan rouha said he will do everything to protect shia shrines. itsi arabia has voiced concern at the prospect of a civil war in iraq. stepping up its defense of baghdad, the iraqi government pledged to fight -- strike back at fighters from the islamic state of iraq and syria who have seized cities across the north in the past week. prime minister nouri al-maliki has once more appealed for national unity. >> we the people of iraq will not give up. we will not bow to pressure. this is a country built on the strength of his different communities, iraq ease united, sunnis and shiites -- of different communities, iraqi

sunnis and shiites. >> this grave situation carries with it the signs of civil war. those remarks come as the iraqi government accuses them of fueling the fire by backing isis fighters. hold saudi arabia for what these groups are receiving in terms of financial and moral support." saudi arabia says it is a maliki maliki's alleged exclusion of the sunni minority that has provoked the violence. saiding the fray, iran has it may intervene if sacred sites are -- >> we want to send a message to all superpowers. murderers and terrorists, the

great iranian nation will spare no effort in protecting the sacred sites. seenwrong has -- iran has thousands volunteer to defend the shrines. >> for more, we are joined by our middle east expert at the johns hopkins university. about aen talking a lot broader, regional, sectarian conflict, not just with events in iraq, but also in syria. is it too late to stop that from happening? you already have a broad sectarian conflict in iraq , syria, and i would even count lebanon. that doesn't mean it is theletely irreversible, but islamic state of iraq and syria

wanted a wide and war -- oh why widened- wanted a war. >> what sort of response -- what sort of things might they do to help defuse the situation? -- are certainly military responses under consideration. i've been particularly concerned with the question of the politics of the situation. if this rather small group of extremists has been able to take over a large portion of iraqi, it is not because of their military prowess. the population is not rejecting them and may even be supporting it. you have to respond to that with political solutions as well as military ones. the americans have been press in the prime minister of iraq to govern in a much more inclusive

way. yesterday, there was a meeting of the top the lyrical leadership in iraq that made a statement that emphasized iraqi unity. much more than that would be needed to reach out to the sunni population and convince the sunni population that they will be fairly treated in iraq, which is now led by a democratically elected government that is majority shia. needs to bemaliki more inclusive in terms of how he governs the country if he is going to stay in power. do you think the united states and the west has been hoodwinked by allies in the region, namely qatar and saudi arabia, which have made no secret of backing these same people just across the border in syria. are they talking about the risks of a regional civil war? they have fanned the flames

themselves. be sometime before anybody understands all the money that has gone into this. suffice it to say that isis seems to have obtained a large quantity of money when it took the central bank facility in mosul. i'm not sure you can put this all on the saudis or the qataris. i'm not sure it is their governments that work repaired to support isis. it is much more likely private individuals who were stopped from doing it. all of that remains area of skier. the point, i think, is that a which thisiraq, could lead to, would be negative from all perspectives. it is negative from the shia perspective, i run -- iran's perspective, the sunni perspective. that might count

itself as winning in the breakup of iraq is the kurds. that is going to have to be watched carefully. >> we have been talking about them a lot. group -- another nation that is watching all of that is iran. do you think the situation in iraq could serve as a catalyst to shake up relations between tehran and washington and perhaps make washington reassess just who its friends are in the region? >> i think that is probably expecting too much. there is a lot of distrust .etween washington and tehran there is a good deal of blood spilled. there are a lot of americans -- by either by irani and irony and or iraq -- either by iranian or iranian-backed

forces. iran don't likely have a common objective in the kind of i rock they would like to see -- of iraq they would like to see and in the international alignment of that iraq. i wouldn't expect too much from the current situation. there is still a long way to go before the united states and iran kiss and make up. >> plenty more week to talk about. such a complicated situation in the region. we will have to leave it there. thank you for speaking to "france 24." news, the libyan justice minister has slammed the united states for arresting a suspected militant on his country's soil without first notifying the local authorities. he cried -- called the raid a violation of local authority. they seized the man thought to have masterminded the attack in benghazi that killed christopher

stevenson -- chris stevens. police in kenya say they have arrested a number of suspects following twin massacres on a coastal town in a nearby village in a -- in which at least 60 militants were killed. al-shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, but the country's president says that is not the case and that local political networks were to blame for those attacks. at least 14 people were killed late on tuesday and dozens more injured in nigeria. a large crowd of football fans had gathered to watch the brazil-mexico world cup game when an explosion tore through the crowd. there has been no claim of responsibility. boko haram militants have carried out similar attacks in the past. cup,en before the world boko haram had targeted football viewing centers in nigeria.

in march, at least 40 people were killed in twin explosions while watching a game in the video hall in the northeastern town. another attack a week later killed at least 14 people. it is one of three states in nigeria that has been placed under emergency rule because of the boko haram insurgency. earlier this month, nigerian authorities said they had received intelligence of planned bomb attacks during the competition and ordered all thees planning to screen games to close. nigerians are known to be strong supporters of their national team. open-air viewing centers are popular throughout nigeria. fans often have no other means to see the team in action. >> let's get a reminder of our top stories on "france 24." jihadist militants attack i rock -- iraq's largest refinery. --ainians president

ukraine's president announces a cease-fire in the east of his country. a deadly attack in northern nigeria that -- nigeria. a blast tears through a crowd as they watch a football world cup catch -- match. it is a time for the check of the latest business news. that race for the engineering even alstom, heating up more. >> shares were moving higher, ending more than 1.7% up. it comes on reports that general electric will sweeten its our -- offer for alstonm's energy business. the executive is expected to arrive on thursday. sources say jeffrey immelt will bid as hee 12.3 euro meets with the french government . it follows a rival bid from siemens and mitsubishi have a --

mitsubishi heavy industries. the chief executive of mitsubishi spoke to "france 24" earlier, signaling that his side's bid, too, could be raised. >> if there is some chance, we will -- to the -- repose --ectric will propose and we will think about. onthey're expected to meet june 23 to decide which offer to go forward, the general electric or the one from mitsubishi heavy industries and siemens. we are getting closer and closer to a decisive moment. the french government says it wants to make france less reliant on nuclear power. the energy and environment

minister has outlined a plan to boost renewable energy sources and also to improve energy efficiency. today, around three quarters of france's lecture city comes from nuclear. the french president campaigned on a plan to cut that reliance to around 50%. your has gone much further than france and it aims to phase out nuclear power altogether by 2022. it is now looking to dismantle its fleet of nuclear reactors. some companies fear it will lead to higher energy bills. there are also businesses that are looking to profit. one of them is the state-run company ewn in germany. it is looking beyond german borders for growth. our correspondent has more. power plant has been dormant for over 20 years. once run by the former gdr, now in the final phase of

decommissioning. she works for the state-run company, ewn. since the fall of the wall, they are the specialists for nuclear decommissioning. >> this is where sections of the plant are taken apart and cleaned. it all goes into this box because the material's contamination levels will be checked. >> what is so special about the way the germans do it? they do it all. the radioactive material and reactor are kept on site in the temporary facility. ew and -- ewn is currently decommissioning a dozen plants. in 2013, the company made 27 million euros. >> the markets are limited, but

there is real interest in taking this expertise on board. there is a lot happening. if a company can position itself well, it will have very good prospects. has a head start in a potentially lucrative market. 44 percent of european reactors are already over 30 years old. >> we will hand off to the united states next, the federal reserve they're cutting its growth forecast for the u.s. economy. the u.s. central bank says it expects growth this year to come in at 2.2% compared to a forecast -- previous forecast of 2.9%. the fed seems fairly upbeat on the state of the u.s. economy. economic activity has rebounded in recent months." they're looking to reduce their bond buying program by another $10 billion.

that program has been in play for years now to boost the u.s. economy. the federal reserve seems to think it is time to lessen its bond buying program. let's see how the markets have been responding to the news on that forecast from the federal reserve. we saw earlier the markets turn from negative into positive territory. that development is continuing this hour. about 14 minutes left to go on trading on wall street. the dow jones industrial average is up by 1/4 of 1%. seeing a similar figure for the nasdaq. the s&p 500 is up by even more than that, almost 1/2 of 1%. let's talk you through the european close earlier. the european markets closed in the vicinity of a flat line. the london ftse is somewhat higher. the same picture for the frankfurt dax.

40 was below the line. we need to add that the european markets closed before we actually got the statement. that slashed growth. let's talk you through a few other stories we are watching. iraqi oil supplies are in the spotlight. sunni rebels are facing off with iraqi forces for control of the refinery. around -- theor site accounts for around half of iraq's need. bp and others are in evacuating personnel. shares are among the winners on wall street is wednesday. calls as the latest earnings

beat expectations. profits more than doubled, coming in at $730 million. growth in online retailing seems to be helping. france will not include illegal drugs in prosecution when it calculates its economic outpours. adhere toicials won't those transactions as they are not always based on mutual consent. statistics. >> web news is next. welcome to web news. with our pick of the stories making the online headlines. toing up, an online campaign

save israeli teenagers after they are kidnapped in the west bank. americans under fire for building a fake favela. ade a new exchange forward m in france. there has been large-scale action online in israel in response to the suspected kidnapping of three israeli students in the west bank last thursday. israel says hamas is responsible and the claims have sparked widespread campaigning for the missing teens on social networks bringbackourboys. government promised to do everything its power to find the boys and bring them home safe and sound as soon as possible. many have shown their military support by posting pictures with #bringbckou --

#bringbackourboys. although a lot of israelis are backing the campaign, it is facing some opposition. activists have used the hashtag theaise awareness about dangers faced by children living in the palestinian territory. these childrent are arrested on a regular basis and the authorities rarely respect their rights. the approach has generated a flood of comments. origin,ss of palestinian or israeli, there is no justification for involving children in the conflict. american has come under fire after re-creating a brazilian backyard ins pub's celebration of the world cup.

the nomad bar in the state of wisconsin has got a lot of people talking, and for all the wrong reasons. many have taken to social networks to voice their outrage .nd disapproval of the decor the bar's twitter handle and facebook page are full of comments criticizing the concept, saying it is in very poor taste and incredibly insulting to the millions of people who live in the brazilian slum neighborhoods. the decor has been described as racist. he said the issues of poverty, police violence, and the living conditions in these favelas shouldn't be taken lightly. he is urging others to make their feelings clear to those responsible by staging a protest in front of the bar, for example. it wisconsin bar has sparked

fierce debates in the united states -- and while the wisconsin bar has sparked fierce debates in the united states. brazilians don't find it offensive. they can't see what all the fuss is all about. america's delta airlines has become the but of numerous -- the butt of numerous online jokes after posting this victory to celebrate the u.s. victory over ghana in the world cup. giraffe to used a depict ghana. the only problem, giraffes don't live in ghana. delta has since apologized. sees 32 teams battling it out on the pitch. it is an incredible showcase for

sportswear brands. is leading the way in the advertising stake, offering the largest portion -- sponsoring the largest portion of competing teams. it hasn't achieved total domination just yet. the official world cupgg99ññwçc

[captioning made possible bydemocracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now!>>the situation in syria is like an infected wound. if it is not treated properly, it will spread. and this is what is happening area >> as sunni militants seize iraqi largest oil refinery, we will speak to the foreign -- to the former u.n. arab league special envoy to syria, lakh