Necklace on in the proposal

Latest mobile trends showcased in Barcelona
Some 50,000 visitors are in the Spanish city of Barcelona this week for the World Mobile Congress. ?�In an industry where nothing is cutting edge for more than a few months, the exhibition showcases the latest products and trends.?� Copyright © 2011 euronews

Revolution fever throughout the Middle East
For years they had kept silent. But over the past few weeks they could not hold back. They put decades of fear to one side and took over the streets, telling their leaders: ‘The game is up. We don’t want you any more.’ From north Africa and the Middle East to the Persian Gulf, popular uprisings have been rattling long running dictatorships. TUNISIA: The first domino to tumble was Tunisia, ruled by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali for 23 years. Population: 10 million, nearly half of whom are younger than 25. Unemployed: 13.3%. Tunisians celebrated their victory on 14th January. Ben Ali left the country. Their bet had paid off. Ben Ali’s fate was sealed when the Tunisian army had refused to fire on its own people. EGYPT: The message was received loud and clear in Egypt. Ruled by Hosni Mubarak for nearly 30 years, young people make up more than half of the 85 million inhabitants. Jobless rate: 9%. Anti-government protesters held Tahrir Square for 18 days despite attacks by pro-Mubarak partisans. They ignored the curfew and once again the army stood back instead of imposing it. The crowds proved even stronger than Mubarak’s legendary stubbornness. On the 11th of February he cracked, and protesters celebrated through the night. ALGERIA: The Tunisian disturbances started alongside unrest in neighbouring Algeria – 35.5 million inhabitants, more than 10 percent jobless, and fury about the high cost of basic food and lack of decent housing. Algiers began to rumble to the sound of revolution, despite the fear and the police barricades. A small group managed to demand publicly the removal of President Bouteflika. LIBYA: Even Libya has been touched by revolution fever. Run by the iron fist of Muammar Gadhaffi since 1969, half of its 6.5 million inhabitants are under 25. The unemployment rate is not known. Even Libya’s tight media control has not managed to prevent young activists posting these images on the internet showing demonstrators demanding the release of a human rights campaigner. Protests are rare in Libya, which has rich oil reserves. JORDAN: Jordan has been ruled by King Abdullah II since 1999. He has 6.5 million subjects more than half of whom are young. Officially, there is 12.3 per cent unemployment. Here too the grassroots dissent is springing from the high cost of living, but there is also a push for democratic reforms. The King has already replaced the prime minister. YEMEN: Ali Abdullah Saleh has held sway in Yemen since 1978. It is a country of more than 24 million inhabitants – 65 percent of them below the age of 25. The unemployment rate is not known. There is little ambiguity about what Yemenis are calling for. They want Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family out, and in an echo of Egypt’s revolt, opponents are not willing to accept his promise that he will stand down in 2013. BAHRAIN: Bahrain is a tiny kingdom run as an absolute monarchy by the Al Khalifa royal family. A large part of the million or so inhabitants are young – the jobless rate is not known. Most of Bahrain’s cabinet are members of the royal family. Spurred on by events in Tunisia and Egypt, the wave of unrest hit the heart of the Persian Gulf. IRAN: There have been similar scenes too in Iran where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been in power since 2005. Two thirds of the 75 million population are under 35 years old – and unemployment is running at more than 14 percent. It is a reprise of the events of two years ago when protests against the regime in Tehran were put down with violence. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Angry scenes in Iran’s Parliament after protests
There have been angry scenes in the Iranian Parliament as members took to the floor to condemn anti-government protests at the weekend. State television showed parliamentarians calling for the opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mossavi and Mahdi Karroubi to face trial. Both have been under house arrest for a week after asking for permission to protest. There was chaos yesterday as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of central Tehran. At least one person was killed in the unrest, which was prompted by recent events in Egypt. On Tuesday, an Iranian MP said that two people had been killed in the latest protests. “Down with Khamenei”, they chanted, referring to Iran’s Supreme leader, the Ayatollah. From the international community, there is support: “What we see happening in Iran is a testament to the courage of the Iranian people and an indictment of the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime. A regime which, over the last three weeks, has constantly hailed what went on in Egypt and now, when given the opportunity to afford their own people the same rights as they called for on behalf of the Egyptian people, once again illustrate their true nature,” was the reaction from US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The EU has added its voice, urging Tehran to respect citizens’ right to demonstrate. This is the first time Iranians have taken to the streets since the crackdown on post-election protests in 2009, in which at least 30 people died. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Libyan air force colonels fly fighters to Malta
Two Libyan air force colonels have defected to Malta after landing their Mirage fighter planes on the Mediterranean Island. They claim they took off from Tripoli under orders to bomb protesters in Benghazi, but overflew their targets. The pair are currently being questioned by the Maltese authorities. One of the pilots has requested political asylum. Police are also probing seven passengers who landed in Malta from Libya on board two helicopters. It is suggested that the French registered helicopters left Libya without the authorisation of the authorities. Reports claim that only one of the passengers on board carried a French passport. If you are in Libya, contact us and tell us what you see and witness. witness@euronews.net, twitter@euronews or facebook Copyright © 2011 euronews

Iraq
There have been anti-government protests gathering across the country since last week. The worst violence was witnessed in the autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Iraq, where people are targeting their anger at the two dominant political parties and demanding something be done to tackle corruption. At least three protesters there have been killed in the unrest. Economic hardship is also fuelling demonstrations in Baghdad, Kut, Basra and other cities. They are not calling for a regime change – Iraq is, in principle at least, a democracy, but rather better governance and accountability. Population: 32.1 millionHuman Development Index1: not listedUnemployment: 15.2 (2008 estimate) 1 HDI is calculated according to factors such as schooling, life expectancy and gross national income and is used by the UN’s Development Programme for its Human development reports. back to all countries Copyright © 2011 euronews

Iran authorities lockdown Mousavi residence
Iranian authorities are reportedly taking drastic measures to restrict the movement of leading opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi. It is understood the defeated presidential candidate’s home is being converted into a prison with iron bars blocking the entrance and communications cut-off. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Hard knocks of EU diplomacy
Eleven days after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the European Union’s foreign minister Catherine Ashton should have been the first high-ranking official from abroad to visit Egypt, but British Prime Minister David Cameron beat her to it. Frederic Bouchard of euronews asked Jean Quatremer, correspondent for the Lib?�ration newspaper in Brussels, about whether European diplomacy is having trouble materialising. Jean Quatremer:We have the proof, yet again. But it’s no surprise that the British have a go at sabotaging it. They never asked for a European foreign policy, and they’re showing that. You know, only the French believed that appointing a Briton to be European foreign affairs minister would convince the British of the utility of a common foreign policy. Here again we see nothing has come of it. Frederic Bouchard, euronews:Is Mrs Ashton a victim of divisions among the 27? Quatremer:More generally, common foreign policy’s difficulty is that it has not replaced the diplomatic policies of the 27 EU member states. If the same thing had happened with the single currency, for example, instead of replacing the national currencies by the euro they had been set up in competition with it, you can imagine the monetary dissonance we would be living with today. This is exactly what we have with the foreign policies: rather than replacing national foreign policies with a European foreign policy, we have put them in competition with each other. It’s a bit a case of ‘may the best man win!’ And in foreign policy, Europe does not have the experience, the know-how, the intelligence-gathering services that national foreign policy adepts have, notably those of the biggest: the British, the French, the Italians and the Germans. Therefore, it starts off with a serious handicap, and since some countries have no intention of giving up their prerogatives, we are left with the current fiasco. euronews:Europe’s leaders have to rethink their relationship with the Arab world. How should that take shape? Quatremer:The European leaders today are like rabbits at night caught in a car’s headlights. They are absolutely incapable of reacting. They were caught by surprise. No one saw what’s happening in the Arab world coming. We don’t know where it will lead. Clearly, the fear of Islam, which has conditioned the whole of European policy towards these countries, will not take concrete form. That is to say that obviously the Islamists are relatively out of the game, so it’s going to be necessary to learn to work with countries which might become democratic, perhaps as democratic as we are, and that’s not going to be easy. There’s already a funny little anecdote concerning France’s new ambassador to Tunisia, who showed himself to be extremely belittling and condescending towards Tunisia’s journalists. This shows the nature of relations which we have maintained with these countries: a French ambassador in any other country in the world would not behave like that. Here he behaved as if he was talking to his employees, his servants, and he was shaken to find 500 people demonstrating in front of the embassy, and he had to apologise. Well, that is very symbolic of the relationships the European Union has with these countries, and the changes that are going to have to be made very quickly, if we are not to fall by the wayside of this revolution. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Anger in Bahrain over further police crackdown
There has been panic on the streets of Bahrain, as soldiers used live rounds to break up?�anti-government demonstrations.?�At least 50 people are reported to have been injured in clashes with police, some with gunshot wounds.?�As night fell, security forces boosted their presence on the streets.?�The fresh violence came just hours after the country’s crown prince appealed for calm and dialogue.?�A young woman spoke to euronews from a hospital where the wounded are being treated.?�“We are in Salmaniyah hospital,” she said.?�“We’re away from the place where the clashes are happening. But we can hear the clashes, the explosions. A witness just came from there and said the ground was red. The ground is red, painted with blood.”?�Angry protesters gathered outside the hospital.?�The?�violence came on the same day that funerals were held for the four people killed when police broke up a protest camp on Thursday.More than 230 others were wounded in the raid. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Sweden hosts challenging new Iranian art show
Iranian art is at the heart of a new event in the Swedish town of Goteborg. Iran today holds one of the most thriving, controversial art scenes. “Disturbing the public opinion” is a highly interactive show, where visitors are invited to take part in the installations. Copyright © 2011 euronews

Pro-Gaddafi supporters rally in Tripoli
While communication lines in and out of Libya may still be unreliable there seems to be little confusion over the graphic and sometimes disturbing images that are continuing to emerge. In one of the latest amateur video clips made available via social networks, violence breaks out after Friday prayers when a group of suspected pro-government mercenaries appear to open fire on protesters in a Tripoli suburb. The footage filmed by an anti-Gaddafi activist was dramatically cut when the man behind the camera falls to the floor, apparently after having been shot. With fighting raging across the country and diplomatic pressure increasing, the days of the Gaddafi regime seem to be numbered. But for his numerous and well-armed supporters in the capital, the end is far from nigh. One of Gaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam, has again appeared on television to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. He did, however, admit that there were signs of civil war which he blamed on foreign interference. Copyright © 2011 euronews