World News from the BBC
A leading supporter of President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast has warned of serious consequences if force is used to remove him from office. Mr Gbagbo has refused to step down after November's presidential election. The Ivorian leader's spokesman in South Africa, Ohoupa Sessegnon, said the region would burn if West African states sent troops to Ivory Coast, and he accused the former colonial power France of manipulating the international community. Here's Mike Wooldridge.
Mr Sessegnon insisted that it was not Laurent Gbagbo's stay in power, as he put it, that could push the country back into civil war, but the pushing of France. The party official argued that central to the present crisis was refusal to investigate what led to the election results being disputed, and he also maintained that Mr Gbagbo was prepared to compromise and accept power-sharing if it would help to preserve peace.
Greece says it's planning to build a fence along part of its border with Turkey to keep out illegal immigrants. The Greek public order minister said more than 100,000 people had crossed into Greece illegally last year. He added that Athens had an obligation to deal with the situation.
Hungary has forcefully rejected Western criticism of its new media law which has been described as an attempt to restrict freedom of expression. The government said the criticism was ill-informed and absurd, and that many other European Union countries had stricter media controls. The law came into force at the start of the year.