World News from the BBC
The French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has resigned after only three months in office. She had come under heavy criticism for her links with the authoritarian government of Tunisia before the
toppling
of President Ben Ali. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.
The French foreign minister's political career has become
collateral
damage from the
upheaval
s shaking the Arab world. Michele Alliot-Marie fell because she failed to appreciate at an early stage the importance of what was happening there and was revealed to have embarrassing links with a Tunisian businessman close to the old regime. President Sarkozy has now
obtain
ed her resignation. In a televised address to the nation, he said he wanted a new foreign policy team to handle the
immense
changes on the other side of the Mediterranean.
A landslide caused by intense rains has destroyed more than 150 homes in the Bolivian city of La Paz. The authorities
managed to
evacuate the poor neighbourhood of Kupini Dos before it was crushed by a collapsing hillside. Right across Bolivia thousands of people have been left homeless by weeks of heavy rain.
The stage is set in Hollywood for the Academy Awards, the film industry's biggest night of the year. Hot favourite to win Oscar's glory is the British drama The King's Speech, based on the true story of the attempts by King George VI to overcome a bad speech