this is the news from berlin and a milestone vote in colombia polls close and counting begins in the first of a parliamentary elections going through the form a far a rebel movement as a political party trying to doctors will close a trench sixteen you still see the lament the treaty you think gets the book also coming up a. process far right for an austrian all poxy because it's remaining ties with the founder john marie le pen in a bid to shed its racist image his daughter and possibly done marine le pen wants

to brand the clock to the venue mainstreaming. in the plot thickens in the u.k. his russian spy drama traces of a nerve agent are found in the pub visited by surrogates preval and his daughter shortly before the collapse due to poisoning a week ago. i'm edith q. moneyball come to the program in colombia counting is under way in historic legislative elections the first to allow participation by former fark rebels the former rebels are guaranteed ten seats regardless of the results fark agreed to end its decades long interaction in return for status as a political party in a controversial twenty sixteen peace deal with president juan manuel santos about his electoral campaign was marred by protests and it is expected to do badly.

president santos said the election was a crossroads for colombia. this is the first time in half a century where the fork instead of sabotaging the elections they're participating in the elections that something historic and very important for our democracy. for more let's now bring in correspondent ophelia rooty who's in both a ophelia thanks for joining us we've just heard president santos there calling these elections historic but of course we know the inclusion of fog has also been polarizing how all colombians viewing today's election comments are definitely polarized between those who do support the agreement and those who don't obviously everyone wants peace in this country but what they don't agree with is that the fark former fark rebels are participating in politics before serving time in prison and now there has been

a special jewish jurisdiction created to punish them with social work but that hasn't even started yet and so this election will probably strengthen the center right and the conservative forces that are strongly opposing this peace agreement now conservatives in colombia certainly not happy with their participation and they are hoping to use today's results as leverage to challenge the peace deal with the former rebels why is that. actually this problem goes far back into the history of of colombia the strongest conservative force today is a party that was created by former president about oh what are you it who tried to sign a peace agreement with the fark rebels himself and didn't manage to and today he is president santos strongest opponent and he's trying to sabotage the peace deal saying that sanctions was too soft and that he gave the rebels too many rights that

they didn't deserve now with a congress with a majority of. that will be probably his party we might see that he will block or his party will block many of those processes of the implementation of the peace deal that still have to go through congress no this doesn't look like it's going to be a good start for the front members who are unlikely to get any more than the ten seats that they already guaranteed can we expect the bill clearly significant role in parliament well fark party has a very bad reputation about eighty percent of colombians do reject them as a political force and so far no other leftist movement or party has supported them or said that they would actually try to make a coalition with them in congress but there is a candidate that has a presidential candidate that has a lot of chances to become the next president and that is because i will present

the role he was. mayor and he has not put officially supported the fark party but he might have to change that if he faces a congress with a majority that is conservative. following that election for us in columbia thank you. now to some of the other stories making news around the world conservative billionaire sebastian pinera has been sworn in as president in chile returning to the office for the second time he replaces socialist michelle bachelet bin area has pledged to transform chile into a developed economy been eighty years. millions of cubans including leader raul castro have voted to ratify a government approval list of members to the national assembly will be tasked with choosing castro's success and next month the fifty year old vice president. is

tipped for the top job on sunday who promised to shift towards a more open governing style. thousands of catalan separatists have rallied in boston are calling for regional lawmakers to form a government and continue to push for secession from spain separatist parties clinched a majority in regional elections in december but many of their former leaders remaining at so after madrid declared last year's independence referendum illegal. the leader of the french far right for nasional marine le pen has proposed changing the party's name to hustle bromo nasional which roughly translates to national rally the name change was proposed at a delegates gathering aimed at true branding the party where the plan was reelected the spot to be the delegates also cut their last formal ties to her father found on marine le pen abolishing the post of honorary presidency and effectively stripping him of his job. as i'll talk to our correspondent in paris lisa lewis it's good to

see you lisa so what is marie le pen hoping to achieve by giving her name rather a new name. well she wants to show that this can really be a fresh start for the party she said in her speech used to be a protest party now we have become an opposition party and we want to become with this new name a party of government obviously she's also addressing concerns about herself since the debate before the elections last summer where she performed really poorly facing in iraq on the current president that word doubts and there are doubts among members of the four national of the national rally now that she actually wanted to go through with this that she wanted to become president now in her speech today she said three times our declared target particular target is to take seize power really to become a governing party and she wants to dissipate these doubts about her own very own

personality lisa does this name change also come with a change of political direction or is it a case of the same product in a new package. it's actually quite interesting she came forward with this new name this new mainstream name and at the same time her speech was very very traditional for nasa announced beach she was talking about her anti immigration stance her stance against islam against immigrants protectionist there was a good trip section is message she was saying our party will protect the poor french against evil globalization and so it was a very traditional speech sound like she was going back to the roots to the roots and actually she was kind of contradicting earlier message that she wanted to change the party's name speaking of the roots of the party early in the day the party did cut all remaining ties to its foundation and i really append i mean. the delegates voted to abolish the post of honorary president effectively stripping him

of his post was that controversial in any way. well at the conference it wasn't eighty percent of the about one thousand five hundred delegates that they did in favor of step is to being a mother of the post or rather one of shing the post however we very well know that many people in the party still support him and are still quite quite close to him actually and he's very very far to the far right so when you're good at that and when you look at how marie le pen was speaking what she was saying it was quite clear that she was also trying to address the people in the party now that are close to her father now she's trying to get rid of her father and saying you know we don't really we don't agree with him we are a new party but when you look at to look at what she's actually saying it looks like the party hasn't really changed that much lisa lewis thank you for that update from paris police in germany are investigating several attacks against

mosques and turkish properties across the country over the weekend it started on friday when fire bombs were thrown at a mosque in the town of louthan in southern germany a turkish in aggressive association in the western town of mesh a day and a turkish shop in the town of the whole west set on fire and in the early hours of sunday a burning mosque and cultural center was torched. nobody was injured in the attacks which authorities say were politically motivated. burned rooms destroyed equipment. this mosque and turkish cultural center were a home away from home for many in this berlin neighborhood they're outraged by the hate directed at them as this. on the look the walls the windows the carpet nothing can be saved and it's lost all its value. is. the whole mosque has to be renovated and rebuilt. the police report says

that witnesses heard a loud clanking sound around two in the morning and saw a group of young men running away then flames started billowing out the windows it took the fire department an hour and a half to put out the blaze too long to protect the building from the flames but there were no injuries police suspect a politically motivated arson attack they refused to rule out far right groups as the culprits but say could also be a kurdish group or people associated with the turkish opposition there have been no arrests so far enough either not to finish a criminal complaint for aggravated arson was filed and in this day geisha has been launched by state authorities. the complex belongs to the association of mosques the german branch of the torture state religious authority has come under criticism in germany for its proximity to the turkish government is so ca sions property has already been the object of many arson attacks now the

association is demanding public protection for its mosques it's also demanding wider discussion of discrimination and threats against muslims meanwhile people here refuse to be cowed they still pray despite the attack on the heart of their community. british authorities investigating the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter say they have found traces of a rare nerve agent at the pub and restaurant the pair visited shortly before they collapsed the gates creep and his daughter remain in critical condition a week after falling ill. police vehicles being taken away for testing they might be contaminated and could become evidence in the spy case that has gripped the picturesque english town hall solsbury. and patrons who enjoyed a pint at this pub are now all extras in the thrill or they might have rubbed shoulders with a former russian double agent and been exposed to know of poison now the hundreds who passed through the pub and

a nearby pizza restaurant are all being told to take precautions. there may be a very small health risk associated with repeated contact with belongings which may have been contaminated by this substance so we're recommending a very very precautionary approach is taken and were advising people to clean the clothes that they were wearing and any possessions that they had with them at the time after a night at the pub former russian spy sergei scruple and his daughter yulia were found unconscious on a park bench poisoned by a nerve agent they're still in a critical condition in salisbury people are on their guard we've come here to visit for the day and we try not to touch anything but i think they could probably an informed everybody a little bit soon because my daughter was actually in the middle of the time. when the incident was supposed to have happened and she was a bit disappointed because she center just been told that she actually watched all

the clothes the cases similar to the two thousand and six poisoning of another russian defector alexander litvinenko his widow marina says she's shocked it could happen again it was a video said when i realized nothing has changed and in as a russian person we're asking for kind of seats in security but finally it's doesn't work and they need to talk about c s i you evil to grade c. to insecurities you for people who ask for political asylum in this country. her husband's killers remain unknown and she accuses british police of taking too long to investigate this time authorities aren't waiting to start hunting for clues. if you're watching the news in berlin you do feel free to. call for news and information you can also follow us on twitter we are indeed news right now though my colleague my charmin is coming up with a figure shows

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