artists and their right to express their views freely. d.w. don't come to freedom. this is you know we do is live from berlin from world player of the year to president soccer star george weah is elected as liberia's next leader his supporters celebrating far into the night in the capital monrovia but we are now faces huge expectations guiding his country through we're covering from years of civil war any recent ebola outbreak also coming up. mourners remember

a teenage girl stabbed to death in a german drugstore the suspected assailant a fifteen year old afghan refugee is fueling debate in germany over the country's asylum laws and a shred it to forget it for those hoping to be luckier in the new year is out with the old in new york city visitors and residents celebrating good riddance day bid farewell to last year's bad memories in the lead up to the new year celebrations in times square. very much for your company. liberia is poised to usher in its first democratic transfer of power more than seven decades international soccer star turned politician george weah won a landslide victory in this west african country's presidential runoff

a little while ago his opponent joseph conceded defeat liberia a country founded by freed american slaves is africa's oldest modern republic and will be the democratic transfer it will be the first democratic transfer of power since one thousand nine hundred forty four the country was devastated by a fourteen year long civil war that ended in two thousand and three and the recent ebola outbreak. to the cheers of jubilant supporters liberia's new president weeps tears of joy. george weah has waited a long time for this moment after past election defeats this time he's won a landslide victory. supporters on the streets celebrate the triumph of the rags to riches candidate at. the close early in the korean is not a ticket to own up to it but it is

a mandate to chew over time such as the reality president the office of the euro. has long been a familiar face to liberians born in a slum he shot to soccer stardom in the one nine hundred ninety s. playing for europe's top clubs since retiring he's been active in liberian politics for over a decade. in this year's election he stood as a candidate of change running against outgoing vice president joseph barak i. we as promises to fight corruption and boost the economy went down well with voters well enough to dispel concerns about his running mate jewel howard taylor the ex-wife of former president and convicted war criminal charles taylor. despite rumors that taylor was pulling the strings there was only one name on everyone's

lips when the results were announced the over the we will take the reigns from incumbent president ellen johnson sirleaf in january it will be the first democratic transition of power in the country in over seventy years. are all standing by for us in the capital monrovia is it of yours evelyn the pre-date segue a very good day evelyn a landslide victory for georgia way of walking on the edge. well i can't just now the air is that my jerry can of the country's population and the young people have a union for this man to become president and interestingly this election music other two will nothing like to have their day done one and not the unity party so because of days to feel that this is the time and thus why they would set the record what doesn't that is one thing we have the edge of all the other eighty

kennedys that were in the race all right but evelyn george away it's no secret doesn't have a background in politics as he surrounded himself with to help him lead the country just to unite is by schools of quality since in as well as formal reaches of government from the unity party in my interest it's an on that day in full on speaker of the house of representatives and it's titled was because of alleged corruption allegation. had a coalition of this country at he stands up with that by judge and then who have their four month senate but simply. present got feeney he's also a campbell judge we have in all the comments many styles of government also support him judge we are on the ground so he's someone that by and halls of support us current and past but i'd like you to address the fact that of course one of the

controversial choice says is that the ex-wife of warlord or charles taylor has been convicted by the special court of sierra leone for some very serious a war crimes are liberians ok with her being his running mate and having a very prominent position and whatever administration elites. and the. people saying that we asked election of their former wife of president taylor westcott seagate drive how to live with her husband is in the here is a household name and it counts if she yells from guys central liberia in one county is also one of the populate that county and so the name to learn their name to well in that county i mean it's nothing to play with so his choice according to him was one of the five to one to and because he said he wanted to somewhat a woman's platform so these are the factors that he said made him to have chosen to

how to as his running mate but from whence everything stay and do well to tell the name is to be no matter what i say well there is something different i commenced by dr howard to know his choice he felt was a better way to lead it away years now what is on the top of mr way to do list we have had repeated need talked about policy taking the liberian people out of poverty his campaign speech even up to his plane faked a race speech he said poverty and education but he still has a he was challenge ahead of me in jest as the vice president is talking few minutes ago reminding him of their country's economy that's a huge challenge but he has repeated the talk about taking the people out of poverty and that he is the one for the people and the ordinary people poverty education for all in them in my view in children that's why yes we. talked about

our right to evelyn today reporting it from the liberian capital monrovia thank you thank you. well i want to tell you about some of the other stories making news around the world. officials in egypt say gunmen killed at least nine people after storming accompted church just south of the capital cairo want to sail into is shot dead in the second has reportedly been taken into custody authorities haven't yet disclosed the motive for the attack. south africa's top court has ruled that lawmakers failed to hold president jacob zuma accountable over upgrades to his private home last year the constitutional court ruled that zuma benefited in appropriately from state funding well now the judges say parliament must establish ground rules for impeachment proceedings that could remove him from office. in india at least fourteen people have been killed by

a large blaze in the financial capital mumbai officials say the fire started in a popular restaurant and then quickly spread through a four story building more than fifty people were injured. and staying in india lawmakers in the lower house of parliament passed a bill that could prosecute muslim men who tried to divorce their wives in a practice known as instant divorce or the bill outlaws dissolving marriages by saying or writing the word which is arabic for divorce three times in succession all offending husbands could get up to three years in prison the bill comes after india's supreme court ruled instant divorce is unconstitutional more than twenty muslim countries around the world have already banned the practice. all the bill is not without controversy. is in india for a us ashish how important is this bill and how widespread is this practice in india . but

a little of the movement that we've seen here in india on this issue in the last couple months has been truly significant as you mentioned you know this is a practice that has already been outlawed in many muslim majority countries but that wasn't the case in india even though this has been a hotly debated topic here for many years. now that's all changed obviously with the supreme court ruling in august and now with the law that was passed through last night but you know what's interesting in the indian context perhaps for an international audience is the fact is why this is taken so long and that really comes out of a desire by many stakeholders to maintain the secular fabric of india that is to not infringe upon the religious minorities rights to have their own personal sets of laws which is which is something that is the case here in india and things like this can be seen by some as an infringement from the central government on religious minorities raids are allowed to that point how has the indian muslim

community reacted to this. well before elaborating on that i should say that you know this is a move that has widespread support even within the muslim community this is largely seen as a regressive outdated practice which which had time had come for it to go but there are segments of society that are concerned with things within the bill particular aspects of it for instance the fact that men can be jailed year in for allegedly doing this practice without any warrant from the police has some concerned that this is really just a attempt to demonize the muslim community and harass muslim men there are also concerns about what it my duty of family is in terms of breaking them up since the supreme court ruling has ruled this this practice not to have any meaning anymore

families couples would essentially still be married but men would be in jail and their questions over over how women would be financially supported in these situations so a lot of people worried that this could also be a slippery slope to further sort of infringement as some would see it on religious rights but the government of course has said that that's not happening and this is specifically on the issue of instant triple the law something that they feel needed to be tackled because ok well how have the muslim indian muslim women reacted to this. well you know as i said as a whole the community is largely very supportive of this their war particular women's groups that have been advocating for this for years there and they're essentially the reason why this has happened they've been pushing for this for years women who have been victims of this of this practice so they see this is a major victory in terms of their empowerment. my heart reporting from delhi thank

you. the fatal stabbing of a fifteen year old girl here in germany has had a national nerve the suspected assailant is in police custody a fifteen year old unaccompanied refugee from afghanistan the two teenagers were dating until recently while they reportedly ended their relationship earlier this month the girl's parents filed a police complaint for harassment and threatening behavior before this incident they want to show their grief and mentos for the girl who was killed in this drug store prosecutors say her ex-boyfriend chanced upon her in the city followed her into the drugstore then stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife he was captured at the scene of the crime. the accused was taken to the magistrate this morning the judge issued an arrest warrant based on suspicion of manslaughter the accused is in prison awaiting trial. after

authorities are investigating whether or not the young afghan is really only fifteen years old as he declared upon entering germany. according to the latest facts he has been living in germany eggs and spring twenty sixteen. teams that in april twenty sixth seen here arrived in the german area of hassen as a so-called unaccompanied minor. the case has been much discussed on social media and among the right wing populist a.f.d. party some have been linking the crime to chancellor angela merkel's policy on refugees. maybe we shouldn't let me pull in who come without documents. to years ago i warned of the consequences of america's policy to the small town of congo mourns a teenage girl as the country at large debates the circumstances and media coverage of the case. well love with me is now debbie's oliver south he

is covering this story for us oliver good to see you what is the reaction been in general to this tragic loss of life well there is as you can imagine a very emotional reaction to this topic and it's all in the headlines this morning in germany if you want to take a look at the major german tabloid newspaper it actually says we cared for him as if he was our own son so that gives you a little bit of an idea about how the tone of the debate is right now here in germany and many people do feel very insecure about this incident of course is go all the ingredients of feeling so it's a young man killing his girlfriend they're minors and adding to that he came to germany as a refugee in the refugee crisis in the height of the refugee crisis in two thousand and fifteen and sixteen so talking about the political consequences right now there is one far right party who certainly is trying to benefit from the situation

they're the ones who can now come and come out and say look we've we've been saying that this is a potential risk for germany and time and again we warned of migrants coming into the country. we have to remind our viewers maybe that this party was elected into the german parliament for the first time also because of that criticism because if they criticize the open door policy of under medical in two thousand and fifteen of allowing more than a million migrants coming into the country interesting leave the mayor of the town the mayor of come to germantown where that incident happened he came out today saying that calling for tougher policies against grants is pure populism and if you look at the statistics you might be right all right well let's talk about statistics give us the facts what is the crime level among recently arrived immigrants slash refugees well and of course talking about statistics is not that

easy to you know draw conclusions about what i can. is that first of all to make it a bit more complicated. there is no they don't differentiate between migrants in general those who've been here for a longer time and refugees that came in during the refugee crisis what's interesting in the recent statistics is that first of all the numbers of crimes committed by migrants is going dahlan and then second that the nationalities syria people from kut coming from syria afghanistan and iraq that crimes committed by these people is in average a lot lower among the crimes committed by migrants than other nationalities and also the people those are those of the nationalities of traditional refugees so it gives us an idea that the criticism here might not be accurate also another statistic coming from the ministry of the interior that's very interesting they say that there were not more crimes committed by than by germans and then in particular

talking about syrians afghans and iraqis again the crimes committed by them are even below the german average so we cannot really blame refugees following the statistics for being more criminal than germans or south thank you. after facing a barrage of criticism for deliberately slowing down older i phones apple now says it will reduce the price of battery replacement to regain customers trust some users have long suspected the company was using their regular software updates to slow down older i phones encouraging consumers to buy new or models apple admitted the procedure but says it was done to prolonging the life of aging batteries the company has has had eight separate lawsuits in the u.s. filed against it over the matter and has additional legal trouble in israel from

its. now today marks the last trading day of the year and what a year it was donald trump took office to move markets with his isolationist agenda tax plans b. w.'s diesel gate scandal continued to make headlines for the year running big cons roller coaster ride mesmerized investors all the while global growth and low interest rates boosted corporate profits and commodity prices adding almost nine trillion u.s. dollars to the global stock markets so let's take a look back at twenty seven with. the fine for a stock instance you can already see and there is only. what were the highlights of this year for you. or you just mentioned donald trump of course it can be controversial to call that a highlight many people are skeptical or critical of him as a president but he sure caused an upswing and a furor here in the financial markets in a positive way ever since his election because of his promise to lower taxes and to

invest trillions into the economy the market has been going on gobbling it up and indeed he did deliver at least on the tax reform at the end of the year and so the share prices are being void by that and the dax reached a record high among others because of donald trump this year and so did wall street so that's a high point i think also a high point is the fact that the central banks are continuing to pump money one can also see that as a negative because personally i believe they're doing too much but they're also part of the story of this record high story in the markets two thousand and seventeen so what about the low or low points whether any black days for you. i think all the black days connected with bitcoin coverage and bitcoin developments i personally don't see that as a positive and many people here see it as negative for the financial markets as well and for their reputation this kind of speculation this kind of frenzy this

kind of greed that's being associated with bitcoin which we see there sheds a negative light basically on all kinds of investing and even on healthy investing on sensible and wise investing for all the age securities for pension funds for companies workers and so the development with bitcoin is one of the negatives for me this year. old advance in frankfurt thank you very much. around one thousand years ago long caravans brought spices and porcelain from china to the middle east and europe the camels also carried precious silk which gave the route its name silk road it covered thousands of kilometers right across asia and now the chinese government wants to revive it in recent years it has been investing hundreds of billions of dollars in ports and roads and bridges in airports between china and its western trading office this week we're looking at some of the stops

along this route in our series finishes at the end of one of the railroads in the west and german city of deuce ball it is home to the largest inland port in europe out of three point seven million shipping containers a year making it an ideal hub for china's new silk road project the railing bringing freight here from china is already up and running it's currently served by more than two dozen trains a week the transit time of around two weeks is four times quicker and the traditional sea route giving the rail link a competitive advantage because in international trade time really is money. but europe's largest in one port most containers arrive by ship but not all. that might look and spectacular but this is one end of the new silk road a freight rail route stretching eleven thousand kilometers and connecting duis book with chong ching in central china. instead of silk and spices typical cognos today

include household electronics and textiles. with the belongs to the mostly because we're part of the largest conurbation in central europe. the chinese want to sell masses of consumer goods. and the best place to sell them is where you have a lot of consumers. combine that with a dense network of roads and rail links at this end plus the rhine river connecting with rotterdam and also the bridge on europe's west coast it's ideal. come to think. there are now twenty five trains a week to do is book from china carrying both goods and hope for the future. located in germany's industrial heartland duesberg used to be a wealthy city but it's been in economic decline for decades. the city's representative for chinese affairs still remembers the steel plants lighting up the

nighttime sky when he was a boy today like the coal mines across the river valley to most have been closed down the lid since once again in the last twenty years we've lost around thirty or thirty five thousand jobs in the steel industry. which is why he welcomes trade from china. and the new silk road will boost the influx of investors such as ya mean one who has big plans for do is book. beginning here in china and we will be building a china trade center here. on this line behind us we will have one hundred twenty thousand square meters of office space over five stories. hundred twenty thousand meter. the center is set to accommodate around two hundred companies which will have excellent access to the european market from here the construction is being subsidized by the chinese government as part of a long term strategy. that also includes the new training.

it may not be making any money for beijing yet but the financial commitment makes do is confident that when it comes to the new silk road and future trade the chinese really do mean business. now you may have heard the expression a good riddance to bad rubbish well in new york city visitors and new yorkers have had it to times square to literally shred and forget some of the bad memories of this year to kick off a new year when it's late. these people in new york are ready for a fresh start it is good riddance day and passers by on times square are invited to shred their bad memories of twenty seventeen some serious. it preston and it has control of my life and i want to get rid of it some not so.

today is a small farewell to twenty seven thousand here on times square it is said to host hundreds of thousands of revelers in two days for new year's celebrations the security alert is high but authorities aren't warning of any specific threats. terrorists regard new york as the exact kind of place they want to disrupt and new yorkers respond consistently with strength and resiliency we saw after the two attacks in the fall concrete blocks and sand trucks have been put up to stop vehicles from speeding into crowds visitors to times square it will have to pass through a number of checkpoints along the way and snipers on top of buildings will be assigned to eliminate any threats the n.y.p.d. and our partners are well prepared is going to be one of the most well policed best protected events and one of the safest venues in the entire world the aim is to

leave visitors with no worries as the ball prepares to drop. and usher in a fresh start to twenty eighteen. all right now in our minds you are top stories right now. in liberia a former soccer star george weah has been elected president it's the first time in over seventy years that the west african country will see a transition of power from one democratically elected leader to another. the fatal stabbing of a fifteen year old girl in western germany has revived the public the political debate about the country's migration policies the girl was killed by an afghan teenager who entered germany as an unaccompanied minor refugee last year he's now in custody the two had recently broken off. there relationship. that does it first thank you so much for spending this part of the day with us we'll be back at the top of the hour with another round of the headlines see that.

just one more and that's it this really is the last line of the money i'll say. and the health benefits will be so much challenge me or. any kid has had a it's a new year it's a fresh start i can do this becoming a nonsmoker and staying on here's how to do it. in good shape next on the double. images from an isolated country. images from north korea of any telling photographer captured fascinating shots of everyday life you know regimented society. an exclusive peek behind one of the last iron curtain it's. a north korean diary.

in forty five minutes on the double. d.w. true diversity. where the world of science is at home in many languages. on a lot of programming going there even. now with us our innovations magazine for in asia the us from every week and always looking to the future fund d w dot com science and research for asia. they live to serve. danger lurks in the longer we were the. surfing ways and polluted water. basically in the space of well as long as a backup of the nation full of. these

really decent it's sad to go somewhere every day and see more and more time in the scene gives me everything in the way most of the winds have to give something back it's like you know blinds to assume. point waves surfers fighting against unseen pollution in the sea starting january seventh on g.w. . hello and welcome to in good shape coming up pediatric heart transplants a new lease on life.