BBC News with David Legge.
Demonstrators have gathered in Spain to protest against government’s spending cuts. The two main trade unions say they hope tens of thousands will rally in several cities including Madrid, from where Sarah Rainsford reports.
Usually sympathetic to the ruling Socialist Party, they are now bitterly opposed to its plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 67. So despite driving rain here, a stream of demonstrators has been making its way into central Madrid, where huge red banners declare the unions the protectors of Spanish pensions. The government argues the current system is unsustainable. In 40 years’ time, it's predicted there will be almost as many pensioners here as workers, but the unions insist later retirement should be an option only, not an obligation.
The chairman of the US congressional panel investigating safety problems of the car giant Toyota has accused the company of misleading the American people. Representative Bart Stupak told a hearing in Washington that Toyota had a lot of explaining to do after it recalled eight million vehicles worldwide because of problems with accelerators. Here is Mark Mardell in Washington.
In a written statement, the president of Toyota's US operations, James Lentz, has said the company has not lived up to the high standards the public expects, and has taken too long to come to grips with a series of safety issues. The first to give evidence was a woman from Tennessee, Rhonda Smith. She told them in October 2006, she was driving her new Lexus, and it suddenly began to accelerate. It reached 100 miles an hour. She hit the brakes, changed into every gear, but nothing worked. She concluded that even when she had stopped the engine kept trying to turn itself on and accused Toyota of ignoring a deadly problem. Toyota executives have publicly apologized over the affair.