there's. one with the surfers fighting against unseen. starting january seventh on g.w. the third. this is news live from berlin gunmen attack a church in southwestern pakistan killing at least five and wounding more than a dozen two attackers target a methodist church and with hundreds of worshippers we'll go live to islamabad for more also coming up. corruption and scandal have plagued the current leader of

south african president jacob zuma now the contest to select a successor threatens to split the party will get the latest. and fleeing the fire residents in california have been ordered to evacuate as a massive blaze threatens to gulf the city of santa barbara. and welcome to the program we begin in pakistan where a suicide attack on a church service has left at least eight people dead and more than a dozen wounded the two gunmen targeted a methodist church in quite the and the southwest of the country hundreds of worshippers were gathered in the church at the time of the attack police and army troops around at the church and exchanged fire with the heavily armed militants before one of the attackers blew himself up. joining us now from

islamabad is journalist aside his shame as side what's the latest on the ground at the moment well yes as you say we know that two suicide attackers were involved in this attack they were attempting to storm the bethel memorial methodist church in quitter during sunday's midday services it seems that they're in was to get inside to explode their vest once they were in the mean hole but they were stopped at the gate by police guards who were lurches their presence and opened fire upon them one of the attackers as you say blew up his vest at the gate itself whereas the other managed to survive the initial firing and then off for a brief exchange of fire off that he too was killed by police police then carried out a massive search operation around the church which concluded just recently in conjunction with the army they have now declared that that area is now completely clear we are estimating that there were about four hundred worshippers were attending that service at the moment as you say the death toll is at eight but we will have to see

whether that moves in the coming hours as you mentioned about four hundred people at the church of the provincial police chief said the church was on high alert especially so close to christmas how common are attacks on christian targets in the country. yes unfortunately we've seen a number of attacks targeting blocks of minorities including christians in recent years and last year one of the most high casualty attacks in pakistan was an attack targeting christians at an easter celebration in the eastern city of lahore that killed at least seventy five people who were gathered there are christians muslims and many others who were just out there celebrating the festival one of the worst mothers in attacks on pakistan's soil has also been targeting christians i was back in twenty thirteen when one hundred twenty five people were killed in the northwestern city of the show or so we've seen the targeting minorities in the christian community is not a new tactic for armed groups such as that that we get out about pakistan and its allies of christians while a minority a pox on of course still number in the millions and therefore there are hundreds of

churches across the country and it's considered to be something that that is somewhat of a soft target for these groups. for these groups that are planning such attacks do we have any indication of what group is behind this specific one so far no group has yet claimed responsibility for this attack which we know that the pakistani taliban has been active in below to start province for quite some time and in particular over the last year year and a half one of the main factions of that group the jamaat there are faction has been particularly active in targeting police and security personnel in baluchistan province and in fact just in fact about there are was the group that carried out that bombing on easter last year that was targeting christians a lot or in addition to that the so-called islamic state has also been using or has allied itself with the with the local groups such as the last bridge on wheel of me which is extremely active in baluchistan and has carried out a number of attacks as well so far though it's too early to tell who it could be who's actually carried out this particular attack assad has shimon islamabad thank

you very much. in south africa the party that ended up part five is confronting its future at a conference of the african national congress current leader and south african president jacob zuma is hoping to bring his party together zuma himself faces ongoing corruption allegations in office since two thousand and nine this is likely to be his last term as deputy and his ex-wife are the top contenders looking to succeed him. for more on this we're joined by d.w. christine wa christine will we know today who will be the next party leader and likely the next president must actually appear on the i just got a notification moments before we came on saying the credentials produces has been adopted. essentially there were issues around bogus candidates having been accredited in the process of the. the congress and so that has been taken out of

the way now means voting can commence ok and we've heard about the divisions was mentioned in the report within the party is this potentially the beginning of the end of it and see you know if he is a good that might have been of a sensation this statement but there is the great spitting has never been more real going into this there's been much consolation album going into this there were eight candidates vying for the job of president which a general of the party himself said this showed the extent of how deeply rooted the divisions within the party ah if you look for example at the relationship the a.n.c. now has with its alliance partners it's had an all time one of the partners said that they would even accept president jacob zuma addressing it's probably says so there is a lot of division within the a.n.c. at the moment and you can see even now by the procedures that have been delayed you know the fact that they can be accusation of bogus candidates that could potentially cause was one or the other candidate that just shows you how hotly

contested this particular congress is it's never been like this in the history of this party you mentioned multiple candidates but there's two. that are in the lead but more about them all right. who is an astute politician in her own right she has held big portfolios in south africa's cabinet she's been interior minister recently she came from the african union where she was the chairperson she has her struggle credentials she is a woman she embodies the perfect politician in many ways her problem is an affiliation with former outgoing soon to be outgoing president of the a.n.c. jacob zuma the fact that he endorsed it people see her taking over as merely an extension of the party that has been leading over the past couple of good people worried about that people are also worried about the fact that he is somebody that has reached the constitution and should face charges for that people think that she would shield him from that then you. know who actually was meant to succeed president mandela and then things changed at the very last minute but he is now back in that he's has come back one of south africa's richest men he is the good in

the shape of the problem with that is that he is tainted as one who is too closely affiliated with white monopoly capital race is still very sensitive in south africa and the idea that you have a black man in the bed with white people so to say really makes a lot of black south africans an easy but he is the frontrunner in the stories as of last night even this morning he's also received a massive backing by the party a senior figure in the party it looks like this is his race to be ok you mentioned a little bit earlier about president zuma he gave a speech earlier how was that received well it was not received very well by a lot of people including the partners who felt that he distanced himself from a lot of problems that they see as having when you talked about the issue of corruption which has been plaguing them dogging this party you know he seemed to blame everybody else but but himself he talked about the policy needing to be united and some of the alliance partners and some members of the a.n.c. felt like he played an instrumental part in the divisions in the way of affection

it's a faction ism that's taking place in the party right now so people felt that there was a man. who who could have taken the opportunity to say as a leader a failed here and there but instead went all over everything is and put the blame if it were else in terms of you know the voting process he went on to say that external faxes. change the way we do things in the a.n.c. we shouldn't have any other voices influencing these decisions essentially what he was hitting out at is much of the economist in the end this who who have been saying that he is perfect candidate as his former wife is not the candidate that should be elected ok so not taking much responsibility for his own affair. joining us in studio thanks for walking us through that christine right. now to some of the other stories making news around the world police in australia have arrested a man for allegedly acting as an economic agent for north korea south korean born chen one choice is accused of attempting to broker a sales worth tens of millions of dollars in missile technology and cold to third

parties in indonesia and vietnam. of astronauts have blasted off for the international space station in the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan the three crewmembers making the journey are from japan russia and the united states their mission is to set to last six months. chile has declared a disaster zone at the site of a village destroyed by a mudslide heavy rain caused a river to overflow and the side of a hill to collapse killing at least five people rescue workers are searching through the debris for about a dozen missing people in the united states authorities have ordered new evacuations in parts of california as a massive wildfire continues to spread fierce winds have pushed the inferno closer to santa barbara and mana seato of thousands of homes threatened by the blaze.

more than seven hundred homes have been engulfed by these flames. and nest a place reaches the city of malta seato its residents could only pray for the best . the fire has been devastating california for two weeks and has now become the third largest wildfire the state has ever recorded. the firefighters have been battling around the clock but strong winds are keeping that task extremely difficult. this is the firefighters were facing last night were the expected the sundowners to hit somewhere between two am four am so strong winds our north pushing the fire back downhill so extremely gusty cold. you know rules of human is being low it's very very hazardous firefighting facing a high threat tens of thousands in some parts of santa barbara and venturer have been forced to leave their homes. and the smoke has blotted out the county sploofus

skies. authorities say the wind has shifted in the firefighters favor but so far only forty percent of the blaze has been contained. for decades saudi arabia has had some of the world's tightest restrictions on women its new crown prince has been acting some new reforms including permitting women in the country to drive still many barriers remain we have this report about a kickboxer who's teaching saudi women one way to flex their muscle. an unusual sight in saudi arabia. is a kickboxer she gives private lessons to of the women in this city of jeddah. in her gym women are free from the constraints of conservative society all of them trained here fail free. everything is.

behind closed doors. and this is definitely i closed doors i mean i have you know i'm on the street my glasses fogged out from the outside the only indication that this is a special place of a women arriving for training not many vo know about studio the women who come here are fluent and aspiration oh they're part of a select group in saudi society. these women are not part of it this is a course for women from less privileged backgrounds organized by applying it to charity students and young professionals all of them veiled like most women in saudi arabia the course is designed to boost her self-confidence and help them assert themselves among male bosses and family members each participant gives a presentation and then receives feedback. perhaps it is the candidate that had once different to talk well nothing can stop

you from expressing yourself not even avail. what it. government reforms are also slowly beginning to improve conditions for women in saudi arabia a new economic reform plan called vision twenty thirty aims to get more women into work since all prices tom would vote government can't afford to exclude half of the population from the labor market women cannot be seen working in retail or in engineering to soko believe years ago this would have been unthinkable. i'm. pumped up for how the kick boxing isn't just a sport she sees it as the way to women to break the chains of patriarchal society . you see her her self going from some of the leaders of countries to someone who's like standing up a little bit taller you know walking out of the space

a little bit you know happier if you see it you see it it's insane how that can happen it can happen in our. house to put on a video when she leaves her gym she doesn't wear a book instead shops for more colorful design. you're watching the news coming up next there was plenty of drama in saturday's matches including the standout game between dortmund and hoffenheim more on that in the bundesliga show coming up next. you're watching live from berlin i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour a first problem for the bundesliga highlights as one man away. migration to sign him seekers remain hot topics in europe with european politicians trying to provide answers while those who fled wait for the night come. under refugee crisis inside.