Speculation and divisions abound as leaders prepare to pick President

Tonight, leaders from the European Union's 27 member states are getting together in Brussels to pick the first-ever permanent President. How will the leaders be making the decision?

FOCUS

Today's Focus guests are France 24 correspondent in Brussels, Frederique Simon, and Piotr Kaczynski from the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

13/02/2012 - SYRIA

Arab League seeks UN intervention in Syria

One week ago, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution seeking the end of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Now the Arab League has passed its own resolution calling for UN and Arab League peacekeeping troops to be stationed in Syria. Once again the plan faces Russian and Chinese opposition, while Westerners are wary of sending troops to the Middle East powder keg.

10/02/2012 - GREECE

Greeks say country being bled dry

How much more austerity can the Greek population bear? The Greek parliament has approved a new package of belt-tightening measures needed to earn the country a second EU/IMF bailout, this time worth 130 billion euros. Yet amidst the riots and protests that have raged in Athens, Greeks say their living standards have been degraded, and that the cutbacks have sounded Greece's death knell.

10/02/2012 - MEXICO

Mexican indigenous group battles with famine

The Tarahumara people from northern Mexico are struggling to survive a chronic food shortage after one of the most severe droughts ever to strike their remote homeland. They are no strangers to famine, but this time the drought has combined with freezing temperatures to force many away from their mountain communities to seek food handouts elsewhere. Their plight has prompted an outpouring of aid across Mexico.

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10/02/2012 - FRANCE

Renault's new factory sends French workers into a spin

Renault boss Carlos Ghosn and Morocco's King Mohammed VI opened the carmaker's new factory near Tangiers on Thursday with great ceremony. The plant will have an initial capacity of 170,000 vehicles, expected eventually to reach 400,000. Yet the partly state-owned Renault has faced a storm of criticism over the project, seen by some in France as denying French workers jobs that were rightfully theirs.

09/02/2012 - CHINA

The war on microblogs

The Chinese government is cracking down on the country's most popular microblogs in an effort to prevent any Facebook or Twitter-inspired revolution spreading to China. As of mid-March, users of Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, will be forced to register their microblogs under their real name. But with 250 million Chinese people logged on, it's unlikely the government can clamp down completely.

- European Union