i p t twenty going to give the don't. tell isn't i make us feel i'm telling the famous potato. this is g.w. news live from berlin decision time for germany social democrats they hold the key to chancellor merkel's possible next government she wants to break the political deadlock by bringing them on board for another coalition but the social democrats

are tired of helping their historic rivals will they swallow a bitter pill also coming up pope francis breaks his silence on the plight of the row hinge on calling for decisive international action on the refugee crisis has been celebrating an outdoor mass in bangladesh for more than six hundred thousand will hinge are now living after fleeing from violence in me in march. i'm seeing me so much going to thank you for joining us today sees a key meeting of germany social democrats as they edge towards joining talks for a new coalition government senior party members are largely avoided media as they arrive for the meeting at s.p.d. headquarters here in berlin they need to decide whether they will ask the party's membership to abandon their post election pledge to go into opposition last night party leader martin schultz and chancellor merkel met with germany's. two it's been

pushing the two to open coalition top. and political correspondent all over south has been following all of the latest developments for us hi oliver there is a report coming from the german daily billed newspaper that the s.p.d. has agreed to start coalition talks to start of exploratory talks we are waiting for a statement from martin schultz within the hour to confirm but if this were to be true does that come as a surprise to you oh schultz has been under pressure from all sides so not really to be honest first of all he finds himself because of this political stalemate we're in right now in germany and this is a historic situation where for the first time in post-war history in germany the president who's actually impartial invited all party leaders and last night it was the turn of the social democrats and the christian conservatives of i'm going to merkel's party to talk about forming going together forming another coalition there

so he's been under pressure from all sides the president also appealed to the political responsibility to their democratic responsibility to be willing to at least talk about forming another coalition and following these reports and that's what we're expecting to hear soon this might be the case it would be a u.-turn for margin shuls he stressed several times he refused to to opt for another grand coalition mainly because he is held accountable for a historic election defeat and he thinks that only in the opposition his party could regain strength so he is seeing pressure from his own party but he's seeing pressure from outside the party from the president and from the german public of course who certainly do not want a political stalemate here so likely that we're going to hear this from him right now the challenge is going to be how is he going to sell this step then to his party base because he doesn't necessarily have. the last word martin chills have

said that if the s.p.d. leadership says we will join exploratory talks for entering a coalition government with michael's conservatives our party members have to vote on this are you expecting there to be support there well as you say they have to vote on this and even if they vote on starting these exploratory talks we have to repeat that to our audience it does not automatically mean that this would lead to a grand coalition then first comes the exploratory talks later coalition talks so it's a complicated process in other words and there will be lots of opposition and it already exists from his own party form from younger party members for instance who do not want to see the social democrats forming another grand coalition and it's interesting to watch out for the price tag he's going to put on that grand coalition sort of like to what he's going to demand policies he's going to ask for so he will certainly call for social democratic policies to push through such

getting rid of the dual health care system we have here in germany which is very difficult to negotiate in turn for the conservatives we see a lot of conflicts arising and leading is pretty figures already said it will be a slow process that will take some time in the negotiating things political correspondent all over salad thank you for your analysis all over. and as we were just saying as speedy leader martin shows he is expected to make a statement when that meeting with s.p.d. leadership breaks up and if he does make a statement we will bring that to you live for now though moving on to some other news pope francis is in bangladesh where he's praised the country who are giving shelter to re-injure refugees fleeing million mark he broke his silence on the muslim minorities plight by calling for decisive action to stop what the u.n. calls ethnic cleansing the pope's visit though is aimed at reaching catholics and bangladesh in the capital dhaka he led an open air mass for a crowd of tens of thousands. even though catholics make up less than

one percent of the population it felt like most of them had turned up here during mass the pope ordained sixteen new bangladeshi priests that's a sign of the relative freedom the church enjoys here but this freedom can't be taken for granted christians are often persecuted in this region which is why for fear of their safety francis has walked a diplomatic tight rope over a growing humanitarian crisis more than half a million people have fled here to escape persecution in neighboring myanmar these range of muslims aren't even recognized in that country forcing the pope to balance diplomatic niceties with his moral imperative. on thursday after meeting bangladesh's president used his sharpest language yet on this trip which again avoided identifying the ranger by name. is imperative that the international community takes decisive measures to address his grave crisis not only by working

to resolve the political issues have led to this must displacement of people but also by offering immediate material assistance to bangladesh in its efforts to respond effectively to urgence human needs. francis won't be visiting this refugee camp close to the myanmar instead eighteen refugees from here will be brought to meet him into. let's bring in d.w. south asia expert sandra pictures mina she just returned from a reporting trip to bangladesh and joins us here in the studio hi sandra from your visits to those refugee camps in bangladesh what was your impression of the situation the interfacing i mean i've seen many refugee camps in my life but this is really a staggering proportion when you walk through you don't really take it in just how vast it is for then we took a drone in there and when the drone went up and we could see the pictures on the little money tour that comes with the drone it was just really mind blowing that if you speak to people you hear very consistent stories of repression of physical

assaults of looting and burning down of villages and you know people the sense we got was that they are really scared to go back and state is the only place that they know has ever been their home so they're facing a very volatile situation this all as the pope is visiting bangladesh catholics there have also been under pressure how important is the pope's visit for them of course they are seeking reassurance that catholics are a very tiny minority in bangladesh which is mainly a muslim country and. in the last couple of years has seen noticeable a rise of intolerance the other has been attacked meaning whether it's catholics or hindus or buddhists or members of the gay community freethinkers atheists we've all heard about the murders of bloggers who identified themselves as being atheist or secular so the secular liberal element which very much forbes part of the

constitution of this country is very much under threat that the pressure that you're talking about does it also affect the other minority groups besides the christians yes i mean just before the pope's arrival we heard that a catholic priest just vanished overnight nobody knows where he is what happened to him a forced disappearance but in terms of attacks on minority groups especially the hindus have been victims of attacks like village. being burned down not always for religious region reasons we are told he visited one of these villages and the hindus frankly told us that some of it is also related you know to the equation of lent you know there are more powerful people than them and you know if. one is to change the. if people want to acquire land they attack minorities and use religion as a weapon that's also something that the pope has brought up here don't use religion as a weapon i think he made that point in my own mar is aware less in bangladesh though

he stayed away from using the word to ro hinge or identifying them as an ethnic or religious minority we saw a report that someone had to have been brought to dhaka to see the pope speak but most of them are still in the southern part of the country in cox's bazar in refugee camps what do you think they're expecting or hoping to hear from the pope today i mean when we spoke to people a lot of them didn't really know what kind of authority the pope is and who he is and what his background is when we taught them look he's the moral authority the leader of the catholic church i mean what they are hoping for is keep us safe you know pay for us a way for us to go back to our home though a lot of the real hinges that we spoke to also said you know i'm too scared this was just too much and i clearly remember an eighteen year old woman heavily pregnant i'm sure she has given birth by now and she said i'd rather not than to go back there because it is just been too horrific incredible stories that were shared with you there are a few south asia expert sandra petersen with us here in studio thank you sandra.

now to some other stories making headlines around the world argentina's navy says it has given up all hope that the forty four man crew of a missing submarine will be found alive after it's to locate the vessel will continue in the ocean off argentina's coast it is believed an explosion on board cause a submarine to sink more than two weeks ago. riot police in a one door us have clashed with supporters of the main opposition candidate in the presidential election after accuse the electoral court of fraud delays in releasing results from sunday's election of race suspicions a vote manipulation with ninety three percent of ballots counted the incumbent president won orlando hernandez holds a slim lead. a panel chaired by japan's prime minister shinzo abbay has agreed on a date for the country's emperor to abdicate akihito will step down on april thirtieth two thousand and nineteen with his eldest son the crown prince now though he don't taking the throne it is the first abdication in nearly two centuries

akihito is eighty three and in poor health an emergency plan has been drawn up at a summit of european and african leaders in the ivory coast in response to the shocking reports of slavery auctions in libya the emergency measures will see the evacuation of nearly four thousand people stranded there but the african union says there could be actually as many as seven hundred thousand migrants trapped in libya a good number of them at the mercy of the highest bitter. french president among them are let the way by saying that migrants should be hauled to leave libya as quickly as possible delegates from the african and european union summit an ivory coast agreed on an action plan and a crisis meeting on the sidelines of the summit it involves increased spending i'm setting up a ta schools to facilitate the rapid repatriation of migrants. next year the stimulus we must act quickly we must evacuate those who are willing to help them

get back to their home countries. mccall was talking about people like adam from the ivory coast adam was abducted on his way to europe by people traffickers in libya and sold on many times you know often we don't see him is on. the look and a house which up and then someone gave me a telephone to call my mother he took a knife and cut my leg. while i was screaming he kept shouting i want money i want money we cut my leg again and again while i cried cause he pleaded with us. in the end adams family paid a ransom of five hundred fifty euros two weeks ago he was flown back to ivory coast by the international organization for migration. the organization plays a central role in the new action plan it is tasked with bringing the migrants home but according to regional director might be an ashram many parts of libya are too

dangerous for her workers without the help of the military. who may have access to detention facilities around by the libyan government in the north of course it remains challenging security yesterday difficult issue even in those areas. so the logistics of these of these operations are quite quite complex however participants in the summit have promised to start implementing parts of the action plan in the coming days according to mr faqih chairperson of the african union commission thousands of my brits and libya have already been identified. that there is no we haven't convinced our international partners in europe and the united nations to repatriate three thousand eight hundred people immediately with the help of a task force. libya is the only issue delegates were able to agree on there was no resolution on what was meant to be the

main goal of the summit developing a new strategy to help africa's youth expectations have been high but it seems africa's most vulnerable have been left out in the cold. where we're trying to connect to our correspondent john philip short's who has been standing by for us in abidjan but it looks like we're having some trouble with that line let's see if we're able to bring him up a young philip can you hear me there you are good to see you again philip you have been covering this summit for us in abidjan and we were just hearing about this emergency plan to rescue people who have been in slave to in libya how realistic is this plan. right it looks like we haven't you heard the delegates say that they want to fly sorry and philip it looks like we have a very unsteady line with you there or that was our course.