hostages freed by french commandos from militants burkina faso have returned to france president emmanuel cole personally welcomed the 3 at an air base near paris 2 french soldiers were killed in the operation to free the hostages in the west african nation. cuba is introducing widespread rationing as it struggles with an economic crisis chicken eggs rice and soaps are among the basic products affected cuba's blaming the u.s. trade embargo but analysts say the collapse of aid from venezuela has hit cuba just as hard. south africa's governing african national congress has secured a 6th straight term in power in what some are calling a fall from grace it did win 57.5 percent of the vote but that amounts to its lowest share since the end of white minority rule 25 years ago in 2nd place came the office democratic alliance at just under 21 percent is the african national just gave the a.n.c. half the slap on the wrist but in the end the party managed to hold on to power it is really tough to africa since apartheid and then 25 years ago his popularity has steadily declined. election victory means th

take the news top job german chancellor angela merkel and french president emmanuel mccall stand divided on the issue now cole is backing the process by which the biggest parties so-called lead candidate it takes the post in this case is the head of the european peoples party who also happens to be a fellow german but president mccaw is calling for the selection process to be changed and this comes as government heads mason brussels to discuss the blocks leadership for the next 5 years let's have a listen to what the 2 heads of state had to say off the talks last night. the minister you became the german government has committed to the principle of the need candidates however the parties represented in the coalition have different views as to which candidate is best suited to this if everyone just peace with their preferred names we will be stuck because none of the groups have a majority or to learn it even if 2 of them work together they still have a majority we need 3 joy even 4 groups to do this. so it's an obvious differences of opinion there and for more on this i am joined by our correspondent tele ter