apanese journalist. to be held captive. he said he and his fellow captive will be killed by tonight if a bomber is not released. israel warns hezbollah it will pay the full price after missiles killed two israeli soldiers on the border with lebanon, in the worst violence between the two sides in nine years, raising fears of a new all-out war. 70's puts together its biggest -- sotheby's puts together its

biggest sale of art ever. also coming up, in business, the social network that keeps adding friends. facebook's user base is now bigger than the population of china. in this time of french autonomic crisis one -- french economic crisis, one former president is raking it in. first, our top stories. in a new message released last night online, the islamic state group threatened to kill a jordanian military pilot it is holding unless it's been a member now on death row -- unless its female member now on

death row is freed by tonight. it is likely that the japanese journalist -- the voice is likely that of the japanese journalist being held by is. >> a silent plea. holding banners written in english and arabic, the protesters appeal for his life. this as another message from the islamic state group appeared online, giving a new deadline. a voice claiming to be the japanese journalist said that jordan had until sunset to bring the woman to the border in exchange for him. the 26-year-old pilot was captured in december after a failed airstrike mission against the militant group. >> king abdullah tells me that,

god willing, everything will be fine. >> they are prepared to make the exchange for a prisoner, but this refers only to a possible prisoner swap between the japanese prisoner and the woman. >> we don't know what their intentions are. the relationship between japan and jordan is extremely good. >> the islamic state group first demanded $200 million ransom for the lives of goto and another japanese hostage. one of them was -- the other japanese hostage was later beheaded. >> what are the latest developments as far as japanese attempts to free goto? >> very much playing the waiting

game at this stage of the process. this gave a sunset deadline local time for this prisoner swap to take place, in about 2 1/2 hours. very some confusion and growing concern here in japan, because that prisoner swap is not appear to involve kenji goto. it involves the iraqi prisoner being held by the jordanian authorities. there has not been any mention of goto as part of the prisoner swap for some time. one mild bit of optimism is that the video clip released by isis if it is genuine at least as of a few hours ago, kenji gootto was still alive. japan has been on the back foot ever since this crisis began 10 days ago. japan is hoping that, if the

prisoner swap does go ahead that kenji gootto will be part of it. >> there's been a lot of pressure by the jordanian people put on its government. what kind of pressure is being put on the government in japan? >> street demonstrations and intense pressure on the authorities to give up the iraqi prisoner in exchange for the pilot. i think people are trying to get used to the idea that the conflict is taking place thousands of miles away, in which japan does not play a military role, has managed to affect its citizens in such a horrific manner. as things stand, the response here is rather muted. there is public rusher on prime minister shinzo abe to do all he can to -- public pressure on prime minister shinzo abe to do all he can to secure goto's release. his mother has pleaded for abe to secure her son's release.

we've also had the #iamkenji campaign, mirroring the charlie hebdo campaign. the ball is very much in the jordan and i sis -- and isis courts. japan has claimed the role of observer in wishing for the best. >> thank you for that report from tokyo. now to israeli soldiers -- now, two israeli soldiers and a spanish peacekeeper were killed wednesday. the classes began when a lebanese military group -- the clashes began when a lebanese military group began shelling. >> they take away the burned remains of the convoy, shelled by hezbollah.

the most serious conflict since the wark 2006. >>-- the war of 2006. >> there is no interest in escalating the situation to the third war but israel must retaliate. >> two israeli soldiers were killed when hezbollah hit their convoy with bombs. a narrow strip of occupied land. the militant group suggested the attack was carried out in retaliation for an israeli airstrike in the golan heights 10 days earlier. israel responded immediately firing at least 50 shells into southern lebanon. prime minister netanyahu gave a serious warning as he convened his cabinet. >> whoever is behind today's attack will pay the full price for some time. they have been trying to establish an additional

terrorist front against us in the golan heights. we are taking strong action in response. >> a spanish peacekeeper was also killed. spain's ambassador said the soldier was hit by israeli fire. the escalation has raised fears of a repeat of the deadly 2006 war. >> there seems to be both sides -- both sides want to show some force. but for different reasons. >> hezbollah is fighting in syria alongside bashar al-assad's regime. leaders are gearing up for a general election in march. >> the government has unveiled an anti-jihad website as part of a new strategy. the site posts videos debunking the claims of groups like al qaeda and islamic state.

>> eking their language using videos -- and their language using videos and began to -- and propaganda. anxious to counter the recruitment of extremists online, the government uses images from familiar jihadist websites but introduces darker images showing a different side to the conflict overlaying them with a message "you will discover hell on earth and you will die far from home." the french government has battled for months against what it calls terrorist agenda -- propaganda on the internet. >> you have to inform young people. this is a way to protect them. >> the goal of the site is convinced to buy terrorist -- to deis to demystify terrorist

propaganda. >> it is counterproductive. the messages are basic. it is more of an elaborate discourse. >> it is a question of right and wrong. >> officials say 1400 french citizens have joined extremist groups to fight in syria or iraq or say they are planning to do so. >> let's look at some other news stories for you on "france 24" this hour. more trouble at the top floor a german group -- at the top for a german group, whose founder resigned over photos of him posing as adolf hitler and derogatory comments about immigrants. the woman who replaced him has also stepped down, citing

threats. eu ministers are meeting to discuss further sanctions on russia after a new rise in fighting in ukraine. the meeting was called after pro-russian rebels attacked the port of mariupol over the weekend. some encouraging news on ebola. the number of new confirmed cases this week is at 99, the first time the weekly total has fallen below 100 since june of last year. the world health organization now says the epidemic has moved to its second phase the focus shifting from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic. all right. the auction house souththeby's, says it is putting together its biggest sale of contemporary art

ever. it is valued at 190 million euros. >> great artists, great works and great variety among the top -- variety. among the top draws will be pieces by claude monet. there will be paintings by toulouse-lautrec and matisse. the london auction house is offering art lovers a trip through impressionism surrealism, expressionism, and modernism. >> this is francis bacon's self-portrait. it is one of only three that the artist made of himself. this is an abstract painting from 1986, a tremendous picture in scale kaleidoscope, and color.

it is estimated at 15 million to 18 million pounds. >> heavy price tags are expected across the board. it is expected to bring about 190 million euros sparking worldwide interest. >> there is demand from across the world. there is great partisan -- greater participation than ever before, particularly from asia, south america, europe, and the middle east. >> just ahead of the auction sotheby's announced it had increased its buyer's premium. the works are not on display until the hammer falls in feb ruary. >> a new message thought to be the voice of the japanese journalist held by the islamic state group. he said his fellow captive, a jordanian pilot, will be killed by tonight if a would-be bomber held in jordan is not released.

israel warns hezbollah it will pay the full price after missiles kill two israeli soldiers on the border with lebanon. this is the worst violence between the two sides in nine years, raising fears of a new, all-out war. action -- auction house sotheby's puts together a collection of contemporary art valued at 190 million euros. shares took a battering wednesday. how are they doing today? >> surprisingly, a little bit better. positive territory on the athens market. the bonds were down. all back in positive territory today. not quite gaining back the losses we saw yesterday. the fear has been that if greece

changes with the european union, those banks might lose access to the liquidity lifeline they currently have in the european central bank. investors are less worried about that today. shares were down around 9% yesterday. in the rest -- across the rest of europe, falling prices of oil . that is hitting london's ftse 100. more on that in a moment. >> let's talk a bit more about greece and the government's new policies making waves in china. >> the chinese company cosco had been in the mix to buy a company as part of the bailout deal. the new prime minister announced an end to privatization. >> greece's biggest and oldest

port is staying in the government's hands. that is the message from the country's new prime minister. china's cosco and others had been shortlisted for the port. athens agreed to the deal in the international bailout with the eu and imf. cosco already operates two of the three container terminals. >> we are deeply concerned about the situation. the situation has always been good. the port has been success story. it is in the interest of both the greek and chinese people. >> stakes in the country's second-biggest port were also

slated to be sold. halting these deals could put the final payments of greece's bailout loans in jeopardy. the prime minister says he will stand by his campaign pledge to renegotiate greece's debt comments which have sent the greek market tumbling. germany advised athens not expect danger changes -- expect major changes, saying it expects greece to stick to its commitment. >> facebook has announced its latest results. >> the big figures aren't in terms of profits but in terms of number of users, which grew by 13% to 1.4 billion people, more than the population of china. people are spending more time on facebook. that's important for advertisers. the increase in profits was needed, as the company -- was muted, as the company has been

hiring more staff and investing in technology. >> the world's biggest social network is thinking outside of the box. since acquiring instagram facebook has gone on to acquire whatsapp and oculus in multimillion dollar deals. despite profits of more than $700 million for the last three months of the year, the company's revenue is increasing at the slowest rate since the start of 2013. ceo and founder mark zuckerberg says the gamble will pay off in the long run. >> doing this is going to take a lot of effort over the coming years and facebook is going to have to evolve. >> the company now has 45% more employees than it did this time last year. along with recent acquisitions that has helped costs and expenses increased by $2.7 billion in that time, up 87%. >> facebook is growing its headcount quite aggressively.

they are doing a lot of acquisitions still. so, investors are still getting their heads wrapped around this idea that this company is not going to just sit, make money return money to investors. >> facebook's user base continues to grow with 1.4 billion people now logging on around the world. more of them are using the network on their smartphones and for longer than ever before. mobile advertising, once considered a weak spot for the company, now accounts for 69% of its total revenue. >> the oil company royal dutch shell is to cut spending by $15 billion as the price of oil continues to tumble. prices fell by 60% in june of last year. gazprom has seen its profits plummet by 61% between july and september of last year, hit by a suspension of supplies to

ukraine, one of its main customers. revenues fell by 6%. they reported a profit of $1.5 billion. a danish company is going to close two out of 10 breweries in the country. the move will cost the company more than $100 million. it is the biggest brewer in russia. it has been hit by a regulatory clampdown on alcohol. >> we were talking about apple's record profits. it made in the record as well. >>-- it made another record as well. >> apple's ceo said they had sold their billionth i-product an iphone 6 plus, which they have kept the headquarters in cupertino, california. mcdonald's hamburgers have

managed to get over quite a few billion. elvis and beadles records -- beatles records. quite a small club that apple is joining. >> a 200-year-old tradition still going strong in london. more on the city's gaslamps. let's take a look at what weekly magazines have been saying around the world. >>lots of focus today on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. >> january 27, 1945, soviet troops liberated auschwitz, the largest concentration and extermination camp set up by the nazi regime. there is a special 20-page tribute to those who survived the horror of auschwitz and the holocaust. more than one million people lost their lives in auschwitz, 9 out of 10 of them were jewish.

"l'express" says it is important not to forget the eternal shame of auschwitz. it is especially important when we are seeing a rise in anti-semitism across europe. we signed recently in paris with those attacks. "der spiegel" focuses on the survivors as well. the number of survivors is going down year-by-year. the last witnesses of the nazi crimes against humanity are disappearing. many of them say that they hesitated to talk about their experience for a very long time because they were afraid nobody would actually believe them. "der spiegel" meets 19 of these survivors and tells their tale. >> another big story out of greece, this new radical, and

highest guarantee -- new radical, anti-austerity government. >> it has shaken up greek and european politics. people in the european car deal -- lots of people are expecting a major showdown between greece and europe, as they try to renegotiate debt. the recent he was elected in the first place is because greeks wanted to say no to austerity and no to angela merkel, who has bitten back, saying there is no way she will let them play the injustice card. she wants to make sure that this idea doesn't go around that heartless europe with germany in the lead has been oppressing the greeks. the greeks need to be fair with europeans because europeans have been making efforts as well. germany benefited from the

generosity of its lenders once upon a time, right after the second world war. lots of its debt was erased. >> many are focusing on french society in the wake of the charlie hebdo attack. >> lots of focus on the fate of young people living in the inner-city projects, often on the outskirts of big cities, home to many poor people and many immigrant populations. lots of people have said that cracks have emerged in french society in the wake of the charlie hebdo attacks, and one of the cracks is what is going on here. the prime minister, manuel valls, address this problem, saying there was a geographic social, and ethnic apartheid in france. it was a very controversial comment. "l'obs" goes to a project just north of harris. -- paris.

10 years ago, it was the scene of very violent riots. what is it like 10 years later? is it still a ghetto? it has been partially renovated, but it is still very much isolated. >> another french magazine is focusing on one of france's most senior power couples. >> check them out on the front page. it is the former president shirac and his wife. you can read all about -- former president chirac and his wife. you can read all about them. she is fired up and wants to make up for years in her husband's shadow. "getting her revenge," accoring ding to "le point." she was speaking about the karen security crisis. -- the current security crisis.

she was blaming her husband, it seemed. perhaps not the rosiest period in that couples life. -- that couple's life.

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