they've done well in asian qualifying but another pick for me would have to be argentina us and croatia and nigeria i think all those teams will tussle it out for the tops two spots so who's going to be happy about this drill i think england would probably be the happiest i think they've got a pretty easy draw dare i say it they have belgium which is a tough one but also then they have to miss you in panama so england should be looking to top that group for sure and i think another one i think it strengthens will be a bit boyd by their group they have france which is a tough one but then peru and denmark they should be aiming for that second spot and russia will their fans be feeling or more confident after this i think i should i think russian fans were very realistic before the draw they knew that the chances of getting out of the group stages into the knockout rounds were tough but being drawn with saudi arabia egypt in europe why i think they'll be confident that they can sneak a second spot maybe even a top spot so let us speculate that. nearly a year before this this whole thing starts who do you expect to see that going

through let's say to the last for the last four i mean i think you have to put germany in there is defending champions obviously the match ups are a bit difficult to predict at the moment but i would say that brazil should be up there france as well and. in the fourth same perhaps an argentina or someone like that sounds very excited you expect for nothing whew. so you're watching breaking news at this hour police here in germany have defused an explosive device in the town of potsdam near. you up to date that i beg your pardon we're going to get more from chief political correspondent ability to create welcome back bill and tell us more about this package that has been found. what we know so far is that in the course of the afternoon a package was apparently placed in front of a pharmacy very close to the christmas market and an employee of the pharmacy

noticed the package they are brought it apparently inside it's unclear whether he really or she really opened it some media are reporting that that's the case at any event. if indeed he or she did open it they reportedly saw a can with some wires coming out and then alerted the police the police sent special forces into the area they cordoned off the entire area they evacuated the christmas market they evacuated the nearby apartments and have even created a temporary shelter for people who live there it is very cold at this time of year in here in northern germany and then they proceeded to the fuse this object which they are calling an unconventional explosive that essentially is an i.e.d. an improvised explosive device of the type that is often used in terror attacks so they have now defused it with

a controlled explosion but they have not yet said anything about who might have been behind this attack and whether in fact what kind of traces what kind of clues they're looking for times about paul stop one of the package was found. pottstown is the former capital of the pression empire so it's the place where the pression kings and later pression kaiser's had their palaces it's a very beautiful city not too far from berlin and it is it's known for is some very picturesque session sections of the city and particularly relevant here it does have five christmas markets this was the biggest one and this one is known as the market of twinkling blue lights but the others include for example a romantic christmas market a polish christmas market a bohemian christmas market and a dutch christmas market that's because those pression emperors actually created

little settlements for foreign workers essentially for migrants who came to the city to among other things build residence residences for the kings and the emperors and therefore there are some very picturesque settlements and that's where these these foreign denominated christmas markets are located just for those who haven't visited germany at this time of year the christmas markets are an absolute institution they on display are christmas trees christmas ornaments lots of delicious food including warming herbal herb glue vine and and in addition many many selling sweets and all kinds of other christmas christmas objects they're very beloved among germans and they tend to be very very full on of course it was this time of year last year when a christmas market. was a time. that's just right just

a little bit later in the christmas season a very big christmas market here in berlin was attacked by very a tunisian migrant who had tried to obtain refugee status both in italy and here in germany was denied it and then perpetrated an attack with a truck he drove right into the middle of the berlin christmas market and as many viewers will remember twelve people died in that attack and fifty six were very badly injured so of course christmas markets all over the country are on a state of high in a state of high alert they opened this past monday and they normally go until after christmas in many cases and the markets are now. far more hardened than they were at that time most of them are surrounded by concrete barriers they also have very heavily armed security personnel who are visible so clearly in this case

whoever took this package and put it in front of the pharmacy will have brought it in probably by foot although i must say the police has not yet told have not yet told us whether they have any evidence that in fact the christmas market itself was the target rather than say the pharmacy in which this package or in front of which this package was place to germany is the interior minister has been commenting on this. yes indeed he has told germans that of course there is a heightened risk but he has also said many precautions have been taken not only the ones i mentioned to try to harden these so-called soft sites with the kind of concrete barriers i mentioned with additional security personnel but also much closer cooperation between state and local police security officials and also intelligence because last year's attack on the berlin christmas market was

characterized by a number of essentially communication gaps and mistakes on the part of security officials this this the tunisian perpetrator essentially fell through the cracks and the interior minister has been saying that it's already s. are absolutely determined that that cannot and will not happen again chief political correspondent melinda crane thank you so much and let's just recap the breaking news here d.w. police in brandenburg have confirmed short while ago that an improvised explosive device was found in part stop they have been tweeting some of them the suspicions about the device were confirmed effected area in central pottstown must be evacuated please pay attention to a loudspeaker announcements that's clearly tweeting as that action was happening very very we're told to tweet a controlled deactivation of the object in question has been successful meanwhile

a local newspaper share photos from the scene including this showing people gathered behind a cordon set up by the police. so just to recap. a suspicious package which has been found to contain explosives has been safely detonated it was found in the pottstown and the town of potsdam just outside ballot. and other news the leader of germany social democrat says all options for forming a government are open wasserman schultz says the ass p.d. will use a party conference later this month to allow members to decide whether to begin coalition talked with i'm going to michael's conservatives having previously ruled out a coalition after his party's disappointing showing in the election since then however mr schultz has come under intense pressure to break the deadlock grip in german politics marching childes made it clear that his party has not decided anything

a grand coalition as well as other alternatives are still on the table. there was broad support for not ruling out any options when it comes to forming a government. we have an acting government in place and we are not under time pressure so i pork the s.p.d. chairman rejected media reports that at a meeting last night with president funk. his party opted to pursue a grand coalition steinmeyer invited chancellor angela merkel the varian conservative leader horse over and schultz to discuss the ongoing governmental impasse. schultz was visibly irritated at the media reporting on what were confidential talks and blamed conservatives for the leak. because these statements seem to have originated in the conservative block i called mrs merkel and told her that i find this an acceptable. the s.p.d.

rank and file are divided on whether to enter another coalition with conservatives many social democrats want the party to make a fresh start in the opposition the s.p.d. youth organization is collecting signatures to protest another grand coalition and the general public is also skeptical. i think this is a bad solution a political deadlock i think this would be a bad idea of for i'm all for fresh elections and no good reason to get moved it's maybe the only chance to form a government on the other hand we'd lose out on the s.p.d. is a strong opposition. at this point only one thing is clear until there is a new government. will stay on as acting chancellor. the pope has finally used the word roe hinge on his tour of asia he was meeting the way through his job refugees in bangladesh who had fled violence in may and the pope francis has faced

a criticism for not using the word publicly during his visit to myanmar earlier this week. a gesture of acknowledgement perhaps foreign to these re-injure refugees they are recognized in their homeland meon maher the country they were forced to flee one by one they lined up to meet the pontiff many told him of their plight this moving encounter long anticipated in france as his visit to the region the suffering of the minority group forcing the pontiff to walk a diplomatic tightrope today compassion took the place of diplomacy. we will not close our heart. we will not lose to the other side. the presence of god today is also called ranger. the small group of refugees traveled from bangladesh's border to see the pope in the capital dhaka. the pope said to me that he

will pray for us as much as he can he said he would do whatever he can and with allah's help all my troubles will go away he asked me not to lose patience. the refugees francis met came from sprawling makeshift camps like this one more than half a million people have fled here to escape persecution in neighboring man maher francis isn't scheduled to visit. earlier in the day thousands turned out to see the pope ordained sixteen new bangladeshi priests. a sign of the relative freedom the church enjoys here but it's a freedom that can't be taken for granted christians are often persecuted in this region it's for fear of their safety that france's had until now not referred to the ranger by name. this is day w. here's a reminder of how top stories of this hour former u.s.

national security advisor michael fled has pleaded guilty to lying to the f.b.i. he was charged this pos of a special counsel investigation into russian meddling in the twenty sixteen u.s. election general flynn is the fourth former white house advisor to be indicted in this investigation. and police in the german town of potsdam hochtief used a suspicious device containing nails and what might be explosives the package was delivered to a pharmacy in the town prompting authours to evacuate a nearby christmas pocket. that's it you're up to date up over here at the top of the hour after the. hotbed of jihad. french prisons. i asked recruiters have it easy here thousands of prisoners are squeezed into overcrowded jails with little hope

for their futures. kareen mokhtari was one of them he explains how he nearly became a terrorist. next d.w. . on freedom and hope. where i come from the region is rich in history style and talent but so poor in education opportunity and freedom this makes it especially difficult for independent journalists i see many of the younger promising janitors now making names for themselves all over the. song might get along the way some might follow some with continue. their experience of freedom in a sense is like the unions of the day you can visit it but your call come back on. my name and you're fit for that and i work at the end of

a. v.w. true diversity. where the world of science is at home in many languages. on a lot of programming going there you know. now with us our innovations magazine for . every week and always looking to the future fund d w dot com science and research for asia.