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Egypt’s army sets time-frame for reform
Egypt’s army has said the country’s constitution will be amended in 10 days. The ruling military council – which assumed power last week after the fall of President Mubarak – said a committee of legal experts would draw up the reforms. The high command also declared it hoped to hand power to an elected civilian leadership within six months. The centre of Cairo is now devoid of protesters. The announcements are arguably the clearest indication yet the military is committed to a brief stay in power. But some believe racing to elections could hand an advantage to the Muslim Brotherhood, something the group denies. “We are not going to have a candidate for the upcoming presidential election. We can discuss the programmes of all the candidates when they appear and we can discuss their policies and will make our decisions at that time. And we are also not targeting the idea of having a majority in the next parliament,’‘ Essam el-Arian from the Muslim Brotherhood said. He added: We have the right to organise ourselves in a political party. Also, the millions of people, the young people, who took part in the revolution, and achieved this victory have the right to express themselves, and also have the right to organise themselves in a multi-party system, and they should do this.” The army command has also repeated its call for an end to nationwide strikes that are crippling the economy. Earlier, hundreds of tour guides gathered in Giza to urge tourists to come back despite the recent upheaval.

Iceland backs a new Icesave deal
Iceland’s parliament has backed a new plan to repay four billion euros to the governments of the UK and the Netherlands. The money will reimburse them both for bailing out 400,000 of their own citizens who lost savings in the Icesave bank collapse. The deal replaces an earlier one which Icelanders rejected in a referendum. Icelandic Finance Minister Steingrimur J. Sigfusson said: “Parliament has really answered both questions: yes, we want to solve this on a basis of this agreement, and that parliament is going to deal with it on its own, and there is not going to be a referendum.” Under the new terms Iceland will have longer to repay the money, until 2046 and at a lower 3.3% rate of interest. But Sigmundir David Gunnlaugsson of the Progressive Party was not happy. “Well naturally I’m disappointed because this means that Iceland is being forced to accept terms that other countries, for example the UK and the Netherlands, would never have accepted if they were in the same position.” Icesave’s parent, Landsbanki went under in 2008 along with other main banks. The government compensated its savers, but not those overseas. The UK and the Netherlands stepped in but extracted an unpopular deal from Iceland’s government. People power rejected it then but not this time.

Ben Ali’s corruption culture
Many Tunisians would like to see the former occupants of the presidential palace return to stand trial on corruption charges. The Ben Ali family robbed Tunisia of billions of euros through illegal transactions.

European markets at close: 03.03.11
A roundup of the days markets data from euronews.net, brought to you as video on demand.

Japan nuclear disaster as bad as Three Mile Island
The Japanese nuclear safety agency has raised its level of alert at the damaged Fukushima plant from four to five on a scale of seven. It puts the disaster on a par with the accident at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979. Read our news file Engineers hope to restore electricity this weekend to relaunch cooling operations and prevent a massive release of radiation. If they fail, they could opt to cover the plant in concrete, the technique used at Chernobyl 25 years ago. The government is continuing to insist there’s no serious risk to health outside the 30-kilometre exclusion zone. The nuclear threat is overshadowing the widespread humanitarian crisis across the zone hit by the tsunami. Emergency relief efforts are attempting to distribute water, food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of people made homeless. The official number of dead and missing continues to rise.

Microsoft gives free access to Kinect hackers
In the beginning, Microsoft’s Kinect sensor was simply meant to track body movement for video games. But since its the release, computer geeks around the world have been quick to find many more ways to use the device, ranging from designing on-screen invisibility suits to sign-language readers.

Study finds brain responds to mobile signals
In 2009 the United Nations said around four-billion people had a mobile phone, that is more than half the world’s population. Now a new study from the American National Institute of Health shows mobile phones can produce a noticeable reaction in the brain that researchers are trying to understand.

Bolshoi web scandal
Russian media say the director of the Bolshoi ballet Gennady Yanin has resigned after erotic photos resembling him were posted on a website. One paper said a vile smear campaign against the former dancer had achieved its objective. Another report said he’d been thinking of leaving anyway. The website containing the photos is no longer online.