surfers fighting against. starting january seventh. when the. protests turned violent with demonstrators being reportedly shot dead by police. for a third straight day in cities across the country in a rare show of defiance against the regime also coming up. tight security measures

are being put in place and other german cities ahead of tomorrow's new year's eve celebrations after the. women feel safe. and usually low temperatures are making life difficult and many parts of the united states and forcing some to put their plans on ice. and welcome to the program reports are coming in from iran that at least two people have been shot by security forces in the western town of the route this comes as government protesters take to the streets for the third straight day in a number of places. protests have also spread to the capital tehran there

demonstrators damaged buildings and torched rubbish skips earlier thousands of iranians turned out to show their support for the government out rallies planned some weeks ago. for more we're joined by iranian journalist side come ali they gon he's with the guardian newspaper in london side it's good to see you it's difficult right now to verify what's happening in our iran but you've been monitoring the situation on social media what are you seeing. a lot of what we know is based on the videos that are posted online some of them have been very fly by journalists some of them not and it appears that two people have been killed in day lauriston province in the southwest of iran in the city of beirut as you mentioned. an iranian journalist managed to interview her family so it is what is interesting tonight is that the the fred day of protests they are spreading to even more cities the road pro regime rallies in toronto not as it is earlier today but it failed to

stop the anti regime protest it has spread to more cities and tonight there was a chance like death to dictator death to harmony in reference to iran's supreme leader for example that shows he's becoming bigger and bigger ok as you mentioned this started out as a demonstration against the high cost of living but it's getting bigger and bigger so is that now a bigger issue it's involved into a bigger issue. i mean it started in thursday of about no it was a protest about rising prices inflation unemployment what it appears now it's becoming it's going to attracting a political dimension as well grammar hip there are no chanting against the supreme leader ayatollah harmony or about iran's involvement in iraq so it's i mean it might have. for national reasons but it's definitely becoming bigger and having a political dimension as well particularly you see it in the chance the paper oh are saying in the streets in tehran and other cities now that one of the most important things about distracted protests and is interesting is that it's not

focused on terror on it's contrary to what we saw in goodness in two thousand and nine i was in tehran back then destroy it is when happening in the provinces and in a wider spread range of problem show cities ok your mention that it's gone beyond tehran and that some of the chances are about the supreme leader can we say that this is now opposing potentially the rouhani government in even the supreme leader . i mean it is challenging the whole regime it's not he's challenging the brawny administration because he's is the head of the government but the person with the autumn of power in iran of course is the supreme leader is been there since one thousand eight hundred. eighty s. he is out of the job for twenty seven years twenty eight years and really his authority has been challenged in such a scale two thousand and nine was unique and this is again big and you know you have to realize that criticizing the supreme leader in iran is

a taboo you know he's everybody refers to him with a title diaz so to see the videos saw the results of night for example protestors and some of the citizen including to iran taking down the image of the ayatollah from the big banners in the streets that's on president and so that shows that you know the protests are you know moving from what was about a financial great realises. sorest to something political iranian journalist side kamali day on in london thank you now to some of the other stories making news around the world catalonia former leader car last push demat has urged spain to accept the results of this month's regional election the vote gave a slim majority to pro independence parties but it's unclear if they can form an administration pushed him on as unself expose imposed rather exile in brussels and faces arrest in spain for organizing the independence referendum in october.

authorities in russia have reportedly arrested a man in connection with a bomb attack at a supermarket in st petersburg last week more than a dozen people were hurt in the bombing some severe early so-called islamic state says it carried out the attack or provided no evidence to back up its claim. russia's supreme court as well the decision to ban opposition leader. from running in the country's twenty presidential election the court rejected his appeal to a prior ruling which barred him from registering as a candidate now vali responded on twitter calling on russians to boycott the march vote meanwhile here in germany preparations are underway in cities across the country for tomorrow's new year's eve celebrations and in berlin tight security measures are being put in place at brandenburg gate where the main festivities will take place. the finishing touches on preparations for new year's eve in berlin and

the brandenburg gate is getting ready to host hundreds of thousands of people a massive party and an even bigger security concern. course there will be police at the event especially outside as well as five hundred security personnel. we have strict admission policies will be checking all visitors and their bags and no fireworks glass bottles large bags or suitcases will be allowed and there will be concrete poles outside the event as well as vehicle road blocks. and. the blocks are to prevent truck attacks like the one on a christmas market at bright side plots last year but another major concern is women's safety during the celebrations. for the first time organizers in berlin are setting up a place for women to seek help at attention run by the german red cross volunteers will be on hand to help anyone who has been sexually assaulted or just needs

a place of refuge celebrations are also planned at the cologne cathedral near the city's main train station this is where hundreds of women were assaulted or robbed on new year's eve two years ago many of the suspects were recent immigrants or asylum seekers fueling criticism of chancellor angela merkel's decision to let more than a million migrants into germany. but after the masses salts in cologne do women feel less safe. i'm not the kind of person to be afraid and so honestly i haven't really thought about it i won't be at the clone cathedral but i live in cologne and i go out at night without any worries. because i'm not worried about it i think there are enough security measures after what happened. yeah i don't know something should be done about this but i think it's clear that you won't be safe anywhere. germany isn't taking any chances it's beefing up security with more police on the streets and video surveillance cameras hoping to usher in

a happy and peaceful new year. the deep freeze has taken hold across much of the united states record breaking snowfall and subzero temperatures have hit communities hard across the northeast and midwest and chicago the temperature has fallen to minus seventeen degrees celsius it's feared it may fall even further making tough times for those at risk authorities are advising new year's eve party goers to wrap up extra warm and travel only if necessary. joining me now from minneapolis minnesota is w c c o. radio journalist long martin sloane it's good to see you harsh winters of course are nothing new to minnesotans but how has this particular deep freeze affected people there right now we're at minus eight degrees and that's fahrenheit by the way and to be honest things are really running as normal i'm looking out my window here in downtown minneapolis i still see people walking on the sidewalks it was

hard for me to find a parking spot this morning to come to work it doesn't really interrupt life all that much it's just about taking those extra precautions layering of even more than usual because you definitely don't want any part of your skin exposed because frostbite can set in in just a couple of minutes i think really the concern is vulnerable people people who are experiencing homelessness who maybe don't have proper shelter and just kind of looking out for them letting authorities know if they do find someone who may need some help it needs to find some more him shelter but people are still going to be going to the vikings game tomorrow in basically going about their regular weekend activities it's an it's an annoyance a lot of complaining for sure but i think people think it makes them hardy get in tough and we do love living here. yet you mention that for most people perhaps that it's business as usual but you also mention the homeless what's the city been doing to help the most vulnerable the people at risk. well a lot of the private organizations nonprofits they are going to be having what are

called shelters they're basically they're opening their doors extending their hours trying to get those hot meals in those extra beds trying to fit literally as many people as possible as they can inside their building to make sure they don't turn anyone away and there are certain organizations here that have outreach efforts where they will send people out find people because sometimes people who have mental illness who. deal substance abuse issues they're a little bit more reticent to find shelter so got to help folks out so there are people who are going out and trying to do that but also the police are out looking for people firefighters to they say call nine one one our emergency services number if you do see anyone who needs help it's really dangerously cold in there asking people to look out for one another one martin in minneapolis thank you. serino williams is back the tennis superstar has returned to the hard court just

four months after giving birth to her first child she put up a fight but ended up losing to french open champion elena asta penco at an exhibition tournament and. williams lost her first set six two she did strike back to claim the second set and nearly set up a dream comeback win but also penco wasn't on that plan dispatching the seven time wimbledon champion in a match deciding tie break to another powerhouse now the german men's football team the world cup champions confederations cup holders and they currently set atop the fee for rankings the team is preparing to defend its world cup title in two thousand and eighteen and russia and the low believes his team has all the necessary ingredients to win the tournament for a fifth time. for germany's coach joachim the upcoming world cup is the burning issue his reputation could suffer if germany to defend its title.

the best the world is probably seeing with germany or favorites and logically every team that plays against those will want to take it from the second round to the quarterfinals and semifinals that the pressure will be greater for us than it was in brazil we have to deal with that. name and still nervous keeping his cool after all he has several established that he can still count on and a host of emerging on the confederate scot and would like nothing more than to go to the world cup two of. the coaches spoilt for choice when it comes to squat selection and. we're keeping track of our players to see what shape they're in for their club's form and to gauge their health and levels of confidence and saves their club formal play a big role over the next six months. it gives germany plays a more tactically very game keeping the opposition on its toes and if

a sweden and nightsticks start immune fos back. south korea who feature formerly of a coups in k.s. one point. and mexico who lost heavily to the world champions at the country to ration scot. mexico mexico is a team that can clear the high technical and tactical level at the taj we did not tell you to lead to qualify for the world cup that shouldn't be underestimated the group will be exciting about an. eighty one thousand fans at moscow's luzhniki stadium will await the world champions in their match against mexico or should germany to cook up a storm in the group raise they could face heavyweights brazil in the second round germany fans can rest assured that you hakim live has the recipe for success to keep his team on track for another title. thank you for joining us here at d w news and berlin will leave you now with some images of the more attractive side of

wintry weather footage from the world's largest ice sculpture festival and harbin china enjoy. we speak different languages we fight for different things that's fine but we all stick up for freedom freedom of speech and freedom of press.