molly: welcome to the "france 24 .newsroom i molly hall. dozens of asylum-seekers drowned in the aegean sea as three boats capsized in freezing waters. pressuring mounter for a solution -- germany looks to turkey for the help in the refugee crisis. a national curfew is put into place in tunisia as social unrest oils across the country. protesters are fed up with a lack of jobs and the high cost of living.

winter stormve barrels toward the east coast of the united states, potentially crippling snowfall could impact over 50 million people. also coming up, we will be going live to davos, where stephen carroll has been speaking with france's economy minister about reform plans. that and more, coming up next. molly: we start in the aegean sea were greece's coast guard says dozens of people have died in three separate sinking's. the boats were smuggling migrants, and the death toll has risen to 44 people. children are among the victims. the freezing waters have not

stopped the flow of asylum-seekers trying to enter europe. between 2000 and 3000 people are trying to reach greece from turkey daily. angela merkel is trying to step up germany's key role. our correspondent has more on the country's efforts to handle the situation. >> a smuggler arrested jury a joint turkish operation over their alleged role in a shippedg ring, which 1007 hundred people to italy. the bilateral raid is a sign of increasing turkish-german operations. in berlin friday, german chancellor angela merkel met with turkish prime minister

for an agreement on limiting. most head for germany. 's squabbling over how much it should pay in age to healthy 2.2 million refugees turkey is hosting. davutoglu said he would not even ask about the 3 billion euros promised by the e.u.. >> we are not negotiating money, and for us it is a humanitarian issue. we hope the next steps will be .oncrete steps but it is not a german issue, it is not a turkish issue. it is not even a syrian issue. it is a global issue. >> another item likely to come up is security. this month an attack in istanbul

killed tourists. from anare flying in air base in turkey. molly: let's cross to somalia, where a car bomb exploded yesterday in the capital. it went off in a seaside restaurant of mogadishu. an area popular among businessmen, at least seven people were killed, according to somali police sources. many are looking at the al-shabaab militant group, which carried out similar attacks in the past. al jazeera journalists, three, have been kidnapped in yemen. they went missing in the southwest of the country where they were reporting on the humanitarian situation. ongoing war has left the civilian populations in desperate need of help. our correspondent takes us there, where aid is being delivered. as.inally able to enter tie

a quarter of a million people have been living under siege here since last november, with urgent supplies held up for whereon the outskirts, iranian rebels have a stranglehold on the city. the convoy of food and rate -- and medical aid reached hospitals as they cope with overcrowding, lack of medicine, and violent attacks. >> it is important that the convoy is not targeted. that the parties would respect the medical facilities and allow doctors to treat patients who need to receive treatment from it. >> the u.n. estimates 80% of human's population, 20 million people, need help, making it one of the worst global emergencies. with the collapse of a two-week old cease-fire, the death toll of 6000 people continues to rise. the saudi-led arab coalition continued airstrikes on thursday.

medics reported that at least nine people died when a missile hit and oil facility run by houthi militia. >> we were shocked. the missile came right over the station, and the men were all burned. the men that were working with me, they are all gone. meanwhile, in the capital, an estimated 4000 women came out in the street to denounce the airstrikes and urge the international community to protect civilians and end the war. molly: a national curfew has been imposed in tunisia. the emergency measure is in response to ongoing social unrest. with mounting anger over the high unemployment rate there, protests that began days ago have spread to other towns, including the capital. tunisia's largest and menstruation since the 2011 uprising, for many tunisians that revolution has not

delivered on its economic promises, with young people in particular complaining about a lack of jobs. the tunisian prime minister is in the french capital and sat down with our correspondent to discuss tunisia's evolution in the face of ongoing challenges. >> things are completely different. .unisia has completely changed tunisia has overcome a dictator. it has become a young democracy. i must stress, a young democracy. what is happening today is also a problem with freedom. the problem is with creating employment avenues, and that is not an easy job. that requires assistance and enormous effort. that was the tunisian prime minister speaking with "france 24" earlier in the day. that's cross to our -- let's cross to our correspondent in tunis. >> it is the first time since

the revolution that a national curfew is in force for the entire country. protests expanded at a phenomenal speed throughout the country since the first riots happen in tunis last night. nearly all regions are now involved. in this last protest movement, it is important to distinguishing between peaceful late meetingall with governors and local and then continue thenghout the night, and within these rioters, the minority take advantage of the -- several banks and shops were plundered last night grew the question everybody asks is how far this will go. the government cannot come up with immediate solutions to the demands of the unemployed. problems go much deeper. more than $1 billion should be

invested, plan to be invested in infrastructure. the regional administration does not have the capacity to implement them. for now, police are trying to stay back as much as possible. more casualties -- it is impossible to predict what will -- molly: thank you for that. reporting from the capital of tunis. an ongoing health story we have been following over the past few days -- concerns are mounting over the mosquito-borne virus that causes deformities in newborn children and has been spreading around south america and the caribbean. authorities in france's overseas territories have raised the alarm. across got a loop, martinique, and french guiana, authorities are on the hunt for the asian tiger mosquito, behind a worrying new disease called the zika virus.

it also causes dengue fever. patients have reported similar symptoms, like muscle pain and irritation. catches -- i patches on my body. it is extremely itchy for three days. >> it is externally worrying for us. pregnant women can face complications. in particular, the virus can cause bowel formation in the unborn child. martinique, 102 people have been infected since the beginning of this year, while around 20 cases have been reported in french guiana, where authorities are doing all they can to eradicate the virus and prevent healthy people from being infected. south america has been badly hit by the virus, with up to 1.3 million cases already reported in over a dozen countries. meanwhile, authorities fear the people lessan make

him into another disease that has affected hundreds of people in brazil, where the immune system attacks nerves, eventually causing paralysis. martinique has raised its health alert after diagnosing its first case. says it has korea arrested a student from the united states. according to state-run media, the person entered north korea as a tourist and committed a hostile act against the state under orders from washington. would be the this third western citizen known to be currently held in the isolated country. they reported detention comes as the united states needs an effort to secure tough international sanctions against pyongyang under -- over its latest nuclear test. a massive blizzard is bearing down on the eastern united states. officials say it could write one of the top 10 ever to hit the region.

closed, flights canceled, and a state of emergency was declared over a vast area. here is a look. >> preparing for the worst. washington, d.c. is getting ready for near record snowfall, set to hit this friday. the national weather service described the storm as "potentially crippling for a swath of the northeast, with snowfall exceeding 60 centimeters. resources are being ramped up." >> given the significance of the severity of the forecast, we will treat this event as a homeland security and emergency management event in the district of columbia. >> other cities along the east coast, most notably new york, are bracing. 300-3000 tons of rock 300 on hand -- we have

-- 300,000 tons of rock salt on hand. public schools are closed in d.c. on friday, and the city will suspend its subway system from late friday through the weekend. over 2000 flights have been canceled, and motorists have been urged to stay off the road. it is predicting the storm could be even bigger than the snowmageddon, which blanketed the area under 45 inches -- 45 centimeters of snow in 2010. molly: dozens of asylum-seekers drown in the aegean sea. with pressure mounting for a solution, germany looks to turkey for help in a refugee crisis. a national curfew is imposed in tunisia as social unrest oils across the country. protesters say they are fed up

with the lack of jobs and the high cost of living. a massive winter storm barrels toward the east coast of the united states, potentially crippling snowfall that could impact over 50 million people. let's get now a business update. for that we cross to the world economic forum in davos, where stephen carroll is standing by. i understand that you have been speaking with the french economy minister. tell us more. right, emmanuel macron is here, along with manuel valls, to herald the pro-business reforms in france passed by parliament last year. the idea is make it -- the idea is to make it easier to do business in france and to help create jobs. forced through parliament using a constitutional override. --ew plan to help cut jobs

the president is calling it an economic state of emergency. in france, reforms were not well received. macron was asked about where the reform plan will go next. question markbig about france because of the upcoming presidential election, and the message is that we will not stop reform in the country because of this election. why? because everything is about unemployment and economy, so we are going to keep reforming and iswill -- my strong feeling that we have to speed up and shanking reforms. stephen: in the labor market, what will these reforms and tail? health far will the reforms get -- how far will be reforms go? more adaptivech model to the current market. stephen: and the 35-hour work week?

>> the working hours -- through agreement, exactly like in germany, you can have an adaptive model. stephen: let's talk more about the labor market situation in europe. i am joined by the president of the mediterranean, southern eastern europe. thank you for joining us. a little bit there about what france is trying to do with its labor market. italy, another country you look after, has gone through bigger reforms. what has changed in the labor market? what is very important happening now in the labor market, across all of europe. rates rising unemployment , and on the other side we see -- it seems like a paradox, you know, and all the governments

are trying to fix this situation, this paradox. jobs look at italy, the were pretty good in trying to increase permanent jobs because we have a lot of flexible jobs at the moment in italy. increasing permanent jobs they grew aggressively, where you can been people -- there has already fixed by the law. that is pretty interesting is ase of course there certain cost for employers and at the same time you reduce the cost of justice and so on. stephen: our companies hiring more? >> yes, companies hire more. are increasing the unemployed -- we are decreasing the unemployment rate. if you look at the last two quarters, it is steadily decreasing. that is very important.

also, thanks to the recovery that we are slightly seeing in italy at the moment, the two things together. another important thing in italy politicsg from passive to active ones. that is very important for the seeingll set that we are in the next four years, which means that you have not anymore guarantee. you need to commit to training, you know, and of course the risk yields and before entering the level market. that is an important shift. bephen: are there lessons to learned for other countries across the mediterranean region? greece and spain, with unemployment rates of over 20% -- do they need to make some adjustment? >> yes, they need to do the same. spain is trying to incentivize

permanent jobs, and moving from passive to active politics, a little bit higher in italy. spain is working closely with the government in trying to fix this issue. stephen: what does labor market hold? will we see an uptick in employment, and what sort of employment? stefano: we are still talking -- and this is not a discussion that we are hearing in davos, about jobs. we should be talking about roles . the market has completely changed roles because we need much more focusing on soft skills, which are much more important. we see in our service that there -- that means that creativity, besides the

technology -- team working, leadership, collaborative way of working -- stephen: and job security as well for people. stefano: cap job 6 -- everyone has to find the balance between the two. and this shift happening in the labor market, that is going to accelerate in the next decade. scabbio, thankno you. a quick check on what is in the stock market. we are seeing significant gains in the stock market. more toaghi could do help the european economy. , back to you, mali. molly: stephen carroll reporting switzerland.vos,

it is time now for our "press review." i am joined here in the studio by florence: no debt by florence villeminot. we start off with a lot of focus on the diplomatic tensions between russia and the united kingdom. flo: this is after a british court published the reports from a probe into the twin thousand six deaths of -- the 2006 deaths alexander that connecticut oh -- alexander lived in a go. it is thought that vladimir putin was probably responsible. choice in the editorial of "the independent today." they talk about poisoned relations as well. this is a british citizen that

was murdered on the streets of london by a radioactive poisoning from a teapot. the independent says russia cannot get away with his murder. prime minister david cameron had very strong words and said that essentially russia essentially sponsored this murder, but he has not really gone far enough, according to people in britain. this is what you can see in the cartoon here. david cameron saying, i am going to have some very strong words with david cameron. and you can see vladimir putin pouring a cup of tea. molly: with no shirt on. oners are focusing wednesday's attack at a university. flo: over 20 students and teachers were killed in that attack. lots of pakistani papers are focusing on the fact that staff members at the university fought back against the terrorists. you can read about it here in "don." among them was the direction of the university.

he was stuck with 15 students on a balcony on the third floor, and he called down to police to throw up a gun to him, so he fought back. he is being hailed a hero, as is a chemistry lecturer, who died while the -- while he was defending his students. you can lead -- you can read here in "the nation," which lashes out against pakistani authorities for not doing enough to keep the country safe. a little over a year ago there was another tack in an of the school that there was another attack in another school in eshawar. according to the nation, the terrorist is in us. nation," radicalized and many will die. giving ae newspaper is stink p/e into nicholas sarkozy's tell-all book.

peek intoa sneak nicolas sarkozy's tell-all book. flo: it is set to come out on monday, and you can see an exclusive first look here as atkozy takes an honest look his regrets, what he is proud of, and his project because he does of course plan to run for president again. molly: there are published extracts from the book including sarkozy's reflections on his past. flo: "still today, i cannot leave i made such a faux pas, referring to his first faux pas as president in may 2008 after he was elected. he flew down to the coast of malta to celebrate on a yacht. the yacht belongs to a wealthy is this man, and he drew a lot of criticism for cozying up to tycoons. he was accused of being the bling-bling president. another item that he regrets was

in 2008 when he insulted a heckler. said it was a mistake. he still regrets it today. "i degraded the presidential duty by telling this heckler to get lost in a very insulting way." he did not reform the labor laws, which are very collocated, and he did not do enough on immigration. molly: we are moving on to a story about a heroic flock of sheep. flo: this is a story coming out of new zealand, one of the craziest stories i have seen in a long time. these were four fugitives on a high-speed chase police. they were brought to a halt by a flock of sheep. this article in the herald is "what the flock!"

they are described as being "on the lamb." none of them were harmed in the line of duty. molly: very good stuff there. we are going to end with a word on the east coast bracing for a snowstorm, heavy snow coming. pocalypse is the word being used. it says this weekend will be "whiter than the oscars." criticizedis being for lack of diversity. molly: for more from flo, you can head to our website, france24.com/inthepress. we will take a quick rate but we will have an update. you are watching "france 24."

[drumming] [captioning made possible by kcet television] [horn honks] >> we live in the greatest country in the world. isn't that safe to say? we're so lucky to be here. like, you guys live in the only country in the world where people die from food. that's fucking gangster, you know what i mean? like that stuff they don't have enough of in africa, we just stuff too much of that in our faces, then we keel over and just die. you know, like, you can never have an argument with a kid in nicaragua about your problems, you know. he'd be like, "hey, man, how'd your dad die?" "oh, my dad? yeah, pringles. like, once he popped, he couldn't stop." you can tell a lot about people by the jokes they tell. i've been doing stand-up about 8 1/2 years. and for the majority of