this is the w.'s line of firm berlin it's decision day here in germany political leaders have just a few more hours left to reach a deal on starting talks to form a new government will they meet that deadline and what happens if they fail also coming up thousands roundly and pakistan to protest against the rape and murder of an eight year old girl with a killer still at large they want to know why the police were so slow to react and the european union throws its weight behind the iran nuclear deal after meeting

with iran's foreign minister and they say their grievance is working and they challenge president trump to come up with a better alternative. on little rock thanks very much for your company political leaders here in germany are bracing for a long and difficult night of negotiations on the americans conservatives and the center left s.p.d. are trying to see if they have enough common ground to enter formal coalition talks a less exploratory talks enter their final day chancellor merkel says no many hurdles still remain. lobbying groups have been protesting outside the talks every day now among them trade unionists who fear the end of coal mining in germany and those solidly against another health reform today they were joined by supporters of the european union calling for deeper european integration

a demand supported by social democrat leader martin schulz. but meals on a such a. government ought to be but it must be under the condition that our strengths nice europe will be discussing douglas and it's something we all support in principle. it would solve the harmony. but there still disagreement over exactly how deep european integration should be other known sticking points between the conservatives and the social democrats are refugee policy and taxation but chancellor merkel remains optimistic the talks will reach a conclusion tonight as we know there are still big hurdles to overcome. speaking for my party i can say will be a constructive fest possible in our search for compromises. but of course we are also aware that we want to deliver the right kind of deal for the country.

that means it's going to be a tough day. with this. both sides have agreed to an unused embargo until the end of the talks therefore very little information on potential breakthroughs has emerged so far negotiations are expected to run into the night. and the w.'s charlotte posse is at the social democrats care where the talks are taking place charlotte negotiators save the most contentious issues for last what are the main obstacles and how tough will it be to overcome them. well let me start with the good news first there are certainly things that the two parties have agreed on are ready we are hearing that they for example want to increase a police force something uncontroversial or that they if agreed on a new immigration law to attract workers skilled workers from beyond europe to germany so there are certainly things they agree upon but as we heard the

chancellor in the piece before there are big hurdles still to overcome for example the issue of refugee policies especially the issue of family reunification for refugees from civil war torn areas that will be discussed though we're hearing that the social democrats might be able to separate fights on that another issue is the budgeting there are forty five billion euros to give away for certain project who gets what and another contentious issue europe though both parties make it a priority it is not clear how much further integration of europe there will be on the continuation of a possible continuing to new ation of a grand coalition overall we're hearing though that the atmosphere is good and that the that both parties remain optimistic and confident that to reach an agreement at some point. in this night from thursday to friday it'll be a long night that's for sure are at

a long night ahead if talks end up being says successful what happens next what's the world map for forming a government. well then the tricky part actually starts martin shultz the leader of the social democrats will tour germany and he will campaign for the results the preliminary results that were reached in these exploratory talks and he needs to complain very hard because the grassroots of the social democrats is against a continuation of the grand coalition so he will have to convince ponty members who then will meet at a party convention in about a week time and at that party convention they'll vote on this whether they want to have a new grand coalition or not after that the coalition talks could be could be held with the christian democrats and then the social democrats will have their party base vote on it so overall it's going to be a very long complicated process and it's going to be weeks maybe two months until

germany actually sees a new government if everything goes as according to plan our shall prosper forty thank you. and next to that harrowing story out of pakistan where the rape and murder of an eight year old girl has shocked the nation the incident has sparked violent demonstrations two protesters have been killed in clashes with police as they have been sorry as the twelfth girl to be sexually assaulted and murdered in her hometown well with the killer still at large demonstrators accuse police being slow to act. anger boils over at the death of another little girl and investigators failure to find out who killed her a crowd marches through the town of cars or targeting the local police station officers opened fire. and chaos ensues. protesters attempted to carry away the injured. the girl's family is outraged over the police response to the protests they say all they want is justice for their daughter and

they don't want anyone else to get killed in the process. oh my god what about the lack of i have just learned that police fired at people and that two people are now dead i'm going to find out what happened we're going to try not to bury our child until the issue has been resolved properly for the. community in grief after zeinab i'm sorry vanished on her way to a koran class last week and this is the last image of her alive an unknown man leading her away holding her hand. police discovered her body on this trash heap on tuesday and sari is believed to have been raped several times and then strangled to death her family wants a thorough investigation. what i'm told by you. demanding that the murderer be arrested alive to be. the police shouldn't just try to lift

the burden from themselves by killing some innocent person and then saying now you have justice. the law whore high court chief justice has ordered the police to take swift action in this case but with residents furious at what they see as a failure to properly investigate previous abductions there could well be more protests to come. our want to tell you now about some of the other stories making news around the world. the saudi led coalition for aiding in yemen has said it courted an attack on a saudi tanker by who think fighters over the weekend will get a coalition destroyed a boat carrying explosives near the red sea ports of who data saudi forces have been fighting who's the rebels in yemen sectarian civil war for over two years. israel has given final approval for building hundreds of new homes in settlements in the occupied west bank well that's according to an anti settlement group israeli

house construction in occupied palestinian territory is a major wound block in trouble peace talks which have been frozen since two thousand and fourteen. a turkish court has ordered the release of two journalists from detention that's according to local media mehmet al tun and sign up page were jailed along with thousands of others in the wake of a failed coup attempt in twenty sixteen. i think british prime minister teresa mayes office says the country will not hold a second referendum on bragg's it this after a prominent brags that supporter nigel farage said a second referendum will be a good idea while many politicians have called for a second vote saying the consequences of the decision were not clear at the time russia says a second poll would end the debate once and for all boiling. european union powers are urging president trump to endorse the nuclear deal with terror on

after a meeting with the iranian foreign minister britain france and germany said there was no alternative and that the deal was essential for international security they're concerned president trump may be planning to torpedo the pact trump is expected to decide on friday whether to issue a waiver to allow u.s. sanctions on iran to rein to remain in place. for the iranian delegation brussels was of reassurance couldn't come at a better time the foreign ministers of britain germany and france as well as the e.u.'s foreign policy chief reaffirmed their support for the iran nuclear deal which u.s. presidents donald trump has threatened to lead to the deal is working it is they're leaving on its main goal which remains keeping the iranian nuclear program in check and i will see the survey against any played an important role in crafting the landmark nuclear accord in the summer of two thousand and fifteen she has lobbied

hard to convince washington to keep the nuclear issue separate from other contentious issues with tehran such as its ballistic missile program what the nuclear deal could however facilitate is talking about these issues something all ministers emphasized in brussels and a tradition good record of committing it on of course we must also address the situation in iran we are all very concerned regarding the rights of those demonstrating in the streets we are convinced that people have a fundamental right to demonstrate on top of that we also need to talk about iran's actions in the wider regional individual of it. deal announced that iran had committed to a dialogue over its role in war torn yemen and syria but whether the nuclear deal and the diplomatic channels that come with it remain intact now depends on the u.s. president's donald trump is expected to decide on friday whether to reimpose sanctions against tehran.

the winter olympics are just four weeks away and some athletes still don't know if they'll be going to the games and john chang while one of those looking to compete is nicola chang garage he competed in five alpine skiing events in the last olympics in sochi but this time around he's hoping to try his hand at a more adventurous discipline. the winter olympics are just around the corner and preparation time is running out before the games begin in february. oh garia nikolai chum got over hopes to compete at misty cross he's still got some work to do to secure his place but the former alpine ski has been training hard. john got afraid to move to speak cross as he believes the discipline better suits his rock and roll style but a part time musician couldn't get official backing for his new adventure so he turned to crowdfunding instead he hasn't yet reached his goal but he's sure that

he'll be able to hold his own if he qualifies for people trying like. started to get into shape and i'm getting better and better the dr reached another much higher level. so can you talk of. still there's plenty of climbing left to do it's a long way to the top if you've only ever tried your chosen event three times. junkie is racing against the clock and against the bank but he's determined to be the first ball garion ever to compete in ski cross at the olympics this february. to send us in the draw for the australian open took place in melbourne on thursday and roger federer's title defense won't be easy on this is why the world number two being the favorite to win the tournament with injuries to top players weakening the competition federer is in the same half of the draw as fitting again novak djokovic

chang could face the seven time winner in the semifinals that clash could precede a potential final against rafael nadal. already before i let you go and remind you of our top stories right now german chancellor angela merkel says she's optimistic she can strike a deal with social democrats and head off new elections but there are still big hurdles to overcome the two sides must settle a host of divisive issues today to be able to move ahead with formal coalition talks plus thousands of people rally in pakistan to protest against the rape and murder of an eight year old girl they accused of police of being too slow to react to her disappearance. and foreign ministers have expressed support for the iran nuclear deal after meetings with their iranian counterpart ma much about serif in brussels his visit comes a day before president trump is due to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on

tehran. all right ben thank you and we'll be up next with all your business headlines and i look forward to seeing you again at the top of the hour for now thanks so much for spending this part of the day with us. to. look at. the d w media center see it find it here it discover. video and audio podcast and language courses in the g w media center at the dia center dot d.w. dot com. beat the germans new and surprising new specks of songs and culture in germany. u.s. american keep take a look at germany.