this is v.w. news alive from bergland ratcheting up the tension of with russia british foreign secretary boris johnson directly blames russian president vladimir putin spoke ordering the nerve agent attack on a former double agent. also coming up jacob zuma faces trial south africa's chief prosecutor says that he will charge the former president with corruption and an arms deal and we will go live with reaction from cape town plus.

one of the big good german and vishal public offerings that in fact a demon spins off its health care business. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program great to have you with us another salvo in the standoff between russia and western allies over the poisoning of a former double agent in britain british foreign secretary boris johnson has said that it was likely that russian president vladimir putin personally ordered the nerve agent attack on sergei scribal and his daughter here's what johnson had to say. all quarrel is with putin is criminal and with his decision and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of of the u.k.

on the streets of europe for the first time since the second world war that is that is why we are at odds with russia and in response a kremlin spokesperson has called that statement by boris johnson shocking and on forgivable moscow continues to deny any knowledge of the attempted murder of the former spy and starter and now says that it has launched its own investigation police in the u.k. are still trying to find out exactly how the pair was attacked with a nerve agent in the english city of solsbury leaving them both critically ill britain has already ordered twenty three russian diplomats out of the u.k. while moscow as threaten to expel hundreds of u.k. diplomats from russia in retaliation britain's allies the u.s. germany and france have jointly called on russia to explain the attack. and for more we're joined now by matthew why man he is a senior teaching fellow a kill university in the u.k. and specializes in russian politics welcome to you thanks for joining us.

i'd like to ask you what do you make of the war of words is this just hot air that we're seeing here or is there a serious threat that we could be looking at another cold war. it's politics so. when you have an attack will which is this appalling i mean don't forget that the the nerve agent that was used in this attack. is one of the most deadly things that the human race is over inventive. and that has to be a strong response. but when you start looking at the holes. really the british government has promised to do little more than

to stop the operation of russian intelligence in the u.k. it's proposed various men who obviously it's expel the diplomats and there are various measures to. to get the powers to stop suspected spies at the borders and to inspect private plane flights and cargo and things like that but but beyond. really the response has been quite pragmatic but but we i mean we do have some reporting i mean britain has hinted at a tougher blow perhaps against russia potentially stripping russian tycoons of assets in the country do you think that that would be more significant and what could they be hoping to achieve with a move like that. well again i think that's highly unlikely though the principles of the current sanctions . that happens after the events in ukraine were what was to target members of the

putin in a circle that the idea was that the way that you could get through the message was by hurting the people surrounding putin the collective putin if you like in their pockets but you wouldn't be doing that by attacking. the the many russians who are doing. business in the u.k. if you're a member of the putin in a circle you really aren't allowed to put your money abroad that's part of the deal as to how you get to be part of the inner circle so so really we'd be the u.k. would be would be attacking the assets of some people who are actually very opposed to the piece of regime or. and in many ways because of the amounts of. business that is done between the the u.k. and russia are in many ways the u.k.

would be cutting off its nose to spite its face of its if it starts if it started really trying to seize russian assets on any on any kind of scale so i think if they find if they find assets that they really do believe a link and have evidence a link to state insiders that would be another matter but it seems to me that's highly unlikely a very interesting aspect to keep in mind there we want to thank you so much matthew i meant senior teaching fellow kill university in the u.k. for putting this into perspective for us we appreciate it. you're watching news let's get a quick check now on some other stories making news around the world and independent monitoring group says the russian air strikes have killed at least forty six people in eastern good this as more civilians fled the rebel held areas outside of the capital damascus russia says that more than four thousand people have left so far today russia and syria launch an offensive on the region almost

four weeks ago. police in miami say that the death toll from yesterday's bridge collapse could rise so far they have confirmed six people were killed when the nine hundred fifty ton concrete bridge fell on cars stopped and traffic the new pedestrian bridge was installed on saturday and was expected to open next year. and the washington post is reporting that u.s. president donald trump has decided to dismiss his national security adviser h r mcmaster on the paper says the move will be announced when his successor is lined up earlier this week fired his secretary of state rex tillerson. south africa's chief prosecutor has announced that he is charging former president jacob zuma with corruption the ruling a.n.c. party forced zuma to resign as head of state last month after years of corruption related scandal he will now be prosecuted on a variety of corruption charges including fraud racketeering and money laundering

charges from a multi-billion dollar government arms purchase in the late one nine hundred ninety s. when zuma was deputy president. and for more let's bring a journalist there who is standing by with the latest from cape town so tell us what does this mean now for jacob zuma. well that we'll finally get is the imports and i see a lot of south africans here on social media that are actually very happy about this this is actually a case as you said the case already goes back to the ninety's after that africa bought a lot of military equipment corvettes helicopter fighter jets and allegation is that zuma took about three hundred forty thousand u.s. dollars in bribes along status and that's where you know needs to go in front of the courts and then needs to be accounted for this is something that the opposition has been calling for for quite a while it's actually surprising that he's finally facing charges he's been shielded for so long in part by his own party of course is the opposition and in

poland is just generally of zuma in the country are they likely to be satisfied though by by the scale of the charges now i think of definitely satisfy the fully satisfied. look they just want him to see if staying corpse and we might not see the end of it this might not be all the charges what's interesting as well that actually the national prosecutor decided today to it to reinstate the starches against as a when he was actually one of the allies of zuma one of her friends of zuma so he you know also it is news that africa with a new president that's very much anti corruption is really going across and this national prosecutor had decided like ok actually maybe i should be on that side of . the coin now and reinstated the charges and now he didn't have much other chores because in october already the supreme court here in south africa had ruled that these charges that were already on the table two thousand and nine but were then

dropped there was no reason to drop that and so yeah he has to face is that in court oh how alliances can change brutus apparently now stabbing him in the back air meantime south africa's new presidency obama poster has vowed to crack down on graft and his administration is this now the start. yes it is a start yeah we've already seeing him as well looking for example at state owned enterprises and changing mannesmann there are people that there are allegedly corrupt so it is how it is also part of what he wants as i said that this whole process was zuma already started before he became president but i do think that he will definitely make sure that there is even more inquiry in zuma and maybe as well as the most corrupt relationships actually in his post presidency i mean he had many corrupt relationships even letting an indian business family have an influence in and you was running the state owned enterprises even have an influence and the

minister signed allegedly so i think this is the start and they're going to dig deeper and make sure that the zuma. yet needs to face the consequences of his behavior ellis van gelder with the latest from cape town on a day that many south africans have been waiting for jacob zuma a former president charged with corruption thanks alice. well germany's vehemence has floated its health in the years med tech business the i.p.o. was initially tipped to be one of the biggest in germany but the debut at frankfurt stock exchange turned out to be much more modest it was twenty eight euros per share in the morning and it's currently trading slightly higher the i.p.o. is expected to raise four point two billion euros and it's part of c.e.o. joe case there is a major restructuring of europe's top engineering company. the mood was buoyant

as help the new shares start to trading siemens is reinventing itself for the future and spinning off an encore businesses is part of that strategy. siemens is probably best known for gas turbans and power plants. but c.e.o. joe kayser likened to us company to a giant tanker ship that he wants to turn into a fast moving fleet they have the near-side p.o. is only delight to move into that direction siemens is also in the process of finalizing the merger of its rail division with francis sought stone last april that combined its renewable energy unit but spanish wind turbine make. these spinoffs allow investors to buy targeted chairs and specialized companies instead of a diversified conglomerate it's also easier for individual businesses to cut costs and how the news case saving an expected two hundred forty million euros.

the stock offering was one of germany's biggest in recent years siemens hopes to small the ships in its fleet will maneuver easier and grow faster. some football news for you now and the draw for the champions league quarter finals has taken place in switzerland and there are some great matchups ahead barcelona the twenty fifteen champions will face italian side robot germany's byron munich were paired with. your ventus will take on holder israel madrid and a repeat of last year's final ryall are going for a third straight title and liverpool will beat manchester city in an all english match up the first legs will be played in the first week of april. and the draw for the europa league quarter finals was also made with r.p. like say the first team out of the pot the german side will meet maher say in the last eight elsewhere the two favorites for the title are arsenal and athletico

madrid avoiding each other in the draw burg who dumped out procedure dortmund in the last round will face lots. of i feel tower is the world's most visited monument but for one day it was transformed into a race course check this out more than one hundred athletes from around the globe were vying for the fastest time possible the vertical five of the towers. one thousand six hundred fifty five steps is a grueling work out for the means the event is now in its fourth year the quickest time just under eight minutes. and with that you're up to date now on g.w. news we're going to leave you now with the heartwarming story of a freezing fox and a firefighter the fox had been trapped for hours in icy water with no chance of escape as for the firefighter he was winched down to come to the rescue just as things were looking grim and for the ill fated fox it was more than happy to be

home to safety and doubtless relieved to be wrapped in a warming towel.