molly: you are watching "france 24." i'm molly hall. john kerry offered his condolences to the victims of the brussels attacks. u.s. backed forces in iraq push to retake the key town of mosul from islamic state militants. the offensive is focusing first on surrounding towns.

we will go to the iraqi capital for updates. two journalists go on trial in turkey, charged with spying. but critics say the process is part of a government crackdown on freedom. the u.s. secretary of state, john kerry, is in brussels friday for counterterrorism talks with e.u. and belgian officials. he has patriot attributed to the victims of this wii's brussels attacks. it has been confirmed that two americans were among the 31 people killed in tuesday's bombings. some 300 others were injured. chris moore, who is standing by in brussels. you have seen a lot of activity in the last 24 hours. bring us up to speed.

a series of arrests taking place, six this morning in several districts of the belgian capital. three of them were extraordinarily taking place in front of the federal prosecutor's office. this is obviously a very much ongoing series of raids and police operations at this manhunt continues. it should be pointed out that belgian authorities are not communicating much about this --ge because of fears of brussels have seen scores of police raids. very much in the hands of the federal prosecutor. we are expecting perhaps a press conference taking place later on today. all of this as links continue to emerge between this larger than previously thought network of jihadists, links between what happened in paris and what happened in brussels.

there was an arrest in the paris suburbs as well, which took place yesterday, and reports say -- inhe man taken there absentia here in belgium. at the same time, french media have been quoting what they say is a statement given by salah police, naming abdelhamid abaaoud, saying that he got involved himself because of his brother, brighabjhim. there are a number of holes in salah abdeslam's story, saying that he met abdelhamid abaaoud abood shortly before the paris attacks. he was convicted of robbery in belgium in 2010. molly: chris, thank you for that

update from brussels. chris moore reporting there. meanwhile, families continue to search for news about their relatives. for the moment, only a handful of the 31 victims have been identified. some 300 others were injured. our correspondent has more. >> after three long days in he is finally home. the lawyer suffered after theree burns explosion at maelbeek metro station. >> i am so happy, very relieved. after something like that, we appreciate the value of moments like these. five days ago this might have a task, but today feeding my son feels like a privilege. the endis wife, it is of a harrowing week.

>> it was exhausting, but i imagine it will still be difficult over the coming days and weeks. >> for the families in brussels, the weight is not over. some people have put up posters all across the belgian capital, desperate for news. wife, whooking for my is polish. we have not heard from her, and we are fairly certain that she was in the area at the time of the attack. for the moment we have no news from her. we are still waiting. >> this american couple arrived from new york on wednesday. >> our daughter, cameron, lives in new york and is engaged to alex. alex and his sister, sasha, were in the delta ticket line yesterday, and they are missing. was photo of the siblings posted on social media by their mother. it is believed that the pair, york, were atew

home at the time of the attack. other families are using the internet to find their relatives. a builder newspaper reports that this woman was found by her family alive but seriously injured. heard frome just chris earlier, french authorities have made a major arrest in the northwest of paris. according to the interior minister, the man who was a french national was in the advanced stages of planning an attack in the country. our correspondent has more on that. >> a planned terror attack in france, foiled when a frenchman suspected of plotting to attack the country was arrested thursday. police sources say the man was known to security services. he was convicted in belgium in absentia eight months ago, belonging to a network of some 30 jihadists sending recruits to syria. convicted alongside him,

abdelhamid abaaoud, suspected of the attacks in paris. police launched a major search operation in the man's hometown following his arrest. >> this operation follows a carried out by the security,f internal which has progressed to an advanced stage. the individual arrested is a french citizen and is suspected of being involved and a high three-- at a high level he is part of a terrorist network that plans to strike our country. >> a series of raids was carried out in the man's apartment block overnight from thursday to friday in this parisian suburb. a large area was evacuated as the operation was under way.

the scenere along along with sniff dogs, who discovered small quantities of explosives in the man's apartment. french officials are yet to announce whether or not they are searching for accomplices, but they have said there is currently no tangible evidence to link this plot to the attacks in paris, and brussels. molly: in syria, there are reports of heavy fighting among government troops and islamic state fighting. the historic town is a key location that has been controlled by i.s. militants since last may. the group has destroyed or blown up some of the city's most famous relics. the syrian army backed by russian airstrikes is pushing to recapture the town. arewhile, government forces in a push to take back the country's second-largest city of mosul, the islamic state group's main hub. from now -- now we crossed to our correspondent, who joins us from baghdad. where do things stand?

>> ground forces have started to advance, clearing the southern villages near mosul, 60 kilometers south of moses. the -- of mosul. that will pave the road for the advancing unit to clear to the .illages 50 kilometers southwest of mosul. located at a very strategic point, the main supply route. once this area is completely isolated, then the main ground forces will start advancing, or at least closer. so expectations are of a successful operation there. >> the government of iraq does not have another option. the complexity of the operation itself is politically

compensated, militarily complicated. -- is politically complicated, militarily complicated. working with the tunnels and dungeons that sometimes connect entire nations to each other. getting through these neighborhoods will take a lot of time, especially with the large numbers of militants mixed up with civilians. molly: thank you very much, reporting from the iraqi capital. two turkish journalists have gone on trial, accused of spying and other crimes. they could face life in prison. a story about turkey pot's role -- turkey's role in the syrian recentt that angered tape erdogan -- recep tape erdogan. he says how the -- how this is a wider crackdown on press freedom. >> in the past six months the

state has used close borders to seize control of four opposition newspapers and at least one television chain. -- channel. the editors of those papers have been fired. at least three of them have had their editorial line changed area they have become pro-government newspapers. lawyersident erdogan's have charged more than 1800 since with insulting him he took office as president in august of 2014. many of those 1800 people are journalists. one of them is a 15-year-old boy. the conclusionpe that this is all part of an intimidation, or a campaign to intimidate government critics. that was jasper mortimer, reporting from ankara.

tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country, rallying against proposed labor reform it some of the confrontations turned violent, with clashes with police. video of a policeman punching a student has gone viral. our correspondent reports. --in the midst of a program of a protest by students, and moment that has shocked france. caught on camera in front of the school, the videos have been widely shared on social media, prompting a quick response from france's police body, the igpn. images are shocking, and they have shocked me. because they have got nothing to do with the vast majority or every other police officer in france.

they usually carry out their duties in the correct way. hundreds were taking part in a demonstration against planned change employment law. the peaceful process had already dissented into violence. escendedlready d into violence. proposed they may have been watered down. recycling bins became a force of ammunition. at least 40 arrests are made. 10 police officers were injured. student groups admitted some troublemakers have infiltrated their protests, but they have also spoken out against what they labeled police oppression. molly: staying here in france, a bus crash in the country's

center has killed 12 people. police say all of the victims werepoor countries -- portuguese travelers, colliding with a truck on the road known as the root of death. the minibus was traveling from switzerland to portugal to take the passengers home for the easter holiday. comedian gary shandling has died in los angeles of an apparent heart attack at the age of 66. he was best known for the self-effacing phony docudrama one larry sanders show," hbo, which ran from 1992 until 1998. his death has stunned the comedy community, who praised his efforts to support their craft. thes get a check of headlines now. john kerry offers his condolence to the victims of the brussels attacks. he is in the belton capital, discussing -- the belgian capital discussing counterterrorism returns.

counterterrorism terms. the offensive is focusing first on the surrounding towns. journalists go on trial in turkey, charged with espionage. critics say the process is part of a government crackdown on press freedom. for a business update. img joined in the studio by kate moody. you are going to start off with what we are seeing out of brazil as we have had huge protests against the government in recent weeks. >> the business community is weighing in now. the president of sao paulo industries is calling for president, roos f2 resign. say dilmaess leaders rousseff has improperly failed to -- the corruption scandal has done little to help the situation. >> the brazilian wall street

occupying its own sidewalk. the federation of sao paulo industries faced a weeklong protest in front of its headquarters, and on thursday the umbrella group of 130,000 businesses publicly came out in favor of dilma rousseff's in pitchman. rousseff's impeachment. she was 2014 when elected, the economy has collapsed. at one time we had 30 employees. now we have seven. >> brazil's economy has suffered under the current president, with the gdp dropping by 10% over the past two years and the public debt increasing. it has faced its worst recession in decades. after dilma rousseff's latest legal setback, sao paulo stock exchange rose by 6.6%, its biggest increase in seven years.

there are also those who want the embattled president to stay. tens of thousands demonstrated in sao paulo thursday, with many fearing a change of government could further destabilize the country. 's government does not support workers, but we cannot support overthrow because it would be replaced by one even by thoseromised interests. >> the vice president would take over until the end of her term in 2018. but many fear he will not have the political reach to implement any meaningful reforms. >> on thursday france posted its highest unemployment rate to date, with a record 3.6 million people looking for work. but the national statistics agency had good news on friday. it said the economy has grown more than previously thought in 2015, and rated it 1.2% rather than 1.1%.

said thece minister 3.5% deficit put france on track to meet its 3.3% target this year. the e.u. wants its member state to have deficits of 3% national gdp. as theye the day off mark the easter day weekend. one market was open for business, the burma stock exchange. there is just a single firm listed. that is the first myanmar investment, with stakes in the aviation industry. the country hopes this will end decades of isolation. robustook forward to a gathering.

kate: the data protection authority has find google hundreds of thousands of euros for not adequately protecting privacy. the european court of justice ruled in favor of users right to be forgotten. yahoo! is facing a growing power struggle after one of its largest shareholder called for removal of the entire board, including chief executive marissa mayer, who herself has been struggling to turn the company around. the messaging service snapchat has reportedly agreed to pay $100 million for the maker of this emoji. allowing customized cartoon characters that look like people. enabling snapchat to compete with bigger rivals like facebook. my cressotti has been forced to backtrack on a new artificial --elligence chat bot,

microsoft has been forced to backtrack on a new artificial intelligence chat bot. it started out innocently. she tweeted things like "humans are cool" and that she really likes national puppy day. but within hours, her tweets took on a rather offensive tone about genocide and the holocaust. it was modeled on what is actually happening on twitter. response is that she gets from twitter. people do appear to be baiting her with provocative questions designed to provoke these outrageous statements that you can see there. taken it off-line after 24 hours. it was a pretty startling transition, and a little bit of an embarrassing moment for microsoft. with his foray into artificial intelligence. molly: thank you very much for that, kate moody, with a look at the day's business news.

it is time now for our press review. i'm joined here in the studio by florence villeminot for a look at what is grabbing headlines. we are going to start off with the ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the brussels attacks. flo: the interior and justice ministers are coming under fire. take a look at this front page, a photo of both of them, with the headline, "major errors." you have the interior minister on the left, the justice minister on the right. to resign over growing criticism that belgium failed to act on warnings that an attack was imminent. if we take a look at another article, in another belgian paper, you can see that the prime minister actually refused the offer to resign. he is hell-bent on defending belgium's democracy. he says democracy will not be broken because a lot of belgian papers are focusing on what

seems to be a growing political crisis in the wake of the attack. let's take a look at another article. you can see -- are we going to a major political crisis? "the political truth in the wake of the attack this week did not last very long." in fact, it only lasted three days. now the gloves are really coming off between the majority and the opposition. molly: we are turning to air political -- ny flo: the maximum sentence you can get it france's 30 years. often it is reduced to 22 years. this week and mp for the right-wing group called further law to be amended, calling for convicted terrorists to be definitively locked up for life. what is interesting is the socialist prime minister said that he actually wanted to heavier sentences for

convicted terrorists, and this has caused a real controversy within the left wing. some people are very embarrassed by his comments. molly: it has launched a legal and ethical debate. flo: it is a very interesting debate. people like her are in favor of life in prison because they believe terrorists need to be locked up in the interest of public safety. but this is an opposite opinion, a legal expert, the honorary president of the league of human rights. he says effectively if you have life imprisonment it is like putting in place a social death sentence. he believes it is ineffective. he talks about if you remove the hope of being released one day, convicts will actually take bigger risks. they will take bigger risks and do even worse things. what is interesting is the european court of human rights has already condemned the idea of prison for life for terrorists. you can read about this.

according to the european court of human rights, any convict has the rights to have his or her sentence re-examined. this article "the socialist mp, who says we are not in saudi arabia here. here in france, we believe people can change. molly: on a much lighter note, we are going to cross to new zealand, where we have a referendum over whether or not to change the national flag. this is an ongoing story. flo: it is quite fascinating. 57% of voters in this referendum prefer the existing flag with the union jack. you can see it there in the foreground. they prefer it over the alternate design, in the background. it has a silver fern on it. you can read it in the new zealand papers. "the new zealand herald" is focusing on prime minister john key, who wanted the flag to change. he is disappointed that new

zealanders wanted to keep the current flag. becauseming under fire the referendum cost a lot of money. million euros, a lot of money. critics are accusing him of wanting to divide the country over the flag. molly: we have some papers that are paying tribute to a dutch football star. passed away yesterday. flo: this article calls him the icon who changed football. he was a genius, according to "liberation." he introduced a very influential tactical theory known as total football, where it essentially any outfield player can take over the role of any other player on the team. you can see in the article they and the main sports

daily here as well pays tribute to him. they say he actually was the game. molly: we are going to end with a word on the rolling stones. flo: a historic concert in havana, and the cuban papers are very excited about this concert. you can see the official paper here, with a photo of them because they landed, they are here, says a grandma. it is really going to be a historic concert for the rolling stones. lots of papers are focusing on it. one paper in france says they are going to rock the house in cuba, and it certainly will be a certain satisfaction for the band because once upon a time, anglo-saxon music was actually banned. much: flow, thank you very -- flo, thank you very much. you can see more on a website.

we are going to take a quick break, but we will be back with more headlines. stay with us. gñ@ñññññññóóoóó[[;óq

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