this is d w news live from berlin south africa's former president faces trial jacob zuma is set to face charges of fraud racketeering and money laundering the chief prosecutor believes that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution we will go live to cape town also coming up british foreign secretary force johnson says it is likely that russian president vladimir putin personally ordered the nerve agents attack on a former british spy. i'm

sorry kelly welcome to the program thanks for joining us 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 stem 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 in journalist alice van gelder who is following that story for us from cape town welcome to you alice you know political big man like zuma they rarely have their day in court how much of a surprise is it that charges are being brought against him now.

well these are actually were charges that are already on the table in two thousand and nine and at that stage to cross security i actually decided to abandon the case because he said that he thought that it investigators had a political agenda according to the prosecution then and it might have been the case that the allegations were brought against zuma because whom i had again visions to become a president and that they were there working and the supreme court last year in a set that's totally irrelevant it's totally irrelevant if the bar of political and he has to e.s.p. countable put it so it's not a surprise that that is reinstated today it's kind of part of a longer process that was already going on and this is a move that the opposition that many people in south africa have been waiting for given that what is the mood in the country today. definitely i think a lot of people in lot of south africans they're saying finally finally he is facing his day in court and of course there's also the feeling that it is not

possible because as soon as no longer the president because there is a new president in town circle around a car so that's very much anti corruption so even as i'm saying that this is a case that that's being been lingering for a long time there is is a kind of a confirmation that maybe there is a new winds in inside africa because even now the prosecutor decided to reinstate these charges and he used to be a friend of zubaydah now he said ok actually i have to prosecute him so it's actually all of the five people you believe are actually happy that said that he needs to go to courts it's interesting to see how those alliances have shifted so much especially with public perception. at stake here we also know that south africa's new president so from a post that has vowed to tackle corruption is this the start of keeping that promise. yes no i mean already kind of started so long the first state to presence here i bet management people that are allegedly corrupt and

he's already changing management there i think we're definitely going to see more inquiries as well about corruption of zuma and he had more corrupt relationships as you said is this case goes back to the ninety's but there's been scandals office and all so i definitely think that we are going to see more of this alice than girls are in cape town thank you. we have some breaking news just coming in here at the debt ceiling want to bring it to you right now because a car has apparently rammed into two israelis in the west bank and killed them the israeli military saying that it was deliberate that's all we have at the moment we will continue to monitor the situation for you here at u.w. and bring it to you as it is because further information but in the meantime we like to check on some other stories making news around the world because north korea's foreign minister we young home has announced an unannounced visit to sweden the visit is prompting speculation that he made the lang the groundwork for

a summit between u.s. president donald trump and north korea's kim jong un sweden has been mentioned as a possible venue for the meeting between the two leaders. an independent monitoring group says that russian air strikes have killed at least forty six people in eastern guta this as more civilians flee 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 launched an offensive on the region almost four weeks ago. the washington post has reported that us president dollar trying has decided to dismiss his national security adviser h.r. mcmaster on paper says the move will be announced when a successor is lined up earlier this week trying to fire his secretary of state rex tillerson. to eastern russia where gold it's literally a runway and the city could say after a freight plane lost part of its cargo on takeoff the officials blame

a defective door of the plane was carrying eight tons of gold and other precious metals three tons have been recovered. over the. now the five tons of gold out there in case you're counting on now to 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 it was likely that russian president vladimir putin personally ordered the nerve agents 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 could get 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. a crime one spokesperson has called that statement by boris johnson shocking and i'm forgivable moscow continues to deny any

involvement in the attempted murder it says it has launched its own investigation on friday russian foreign minister sergei lavrov accused britain of violating international law by expelling russian diplomats and threatening further punitive measures he said moscow was preparing to expel british diplomats from russia in turn he also wished the scruples a quick recovery so that light can be shed on what happened. and earlier i spoke with alec lun who's an independent journalist in moscow i began by asking him about moscow's move in opening their own investigation into the poisoning of service cripple and his daughter. well i think this is more of a political move really the only thing else. moscow has been complaining since this scandal first broke since the poisoning was first reported that it should have access to the case materials british authorities suspecting the russian government have of course been reluctant to provide them with that access to case materials

moscow's arguing that under international treaties about chemical weapons it should have that access and is saying that the lack of it is grounds to suspect that there is some kind of plot here going on against russia. but really i think this is more of a political stance we've seen some more things being argued in the past with things like the use of chemical weapons in syria where moscow claims that it wants to be part of an investigation even though the overwhelming evidence is that bashar assad's regime did the attack and that moscow is simply trying to muddy the waters or deflect political blame from it sounds by appearing to be voluntarily participate in clearing up the what happened ok so it could just be smoke and mirrors here but in the meantime in the u.k. seems pretty intent on making russia pay for this is there anything though that they can really do that they and their allies away that they could have

a sizable impact on the russian government and its president vladimir putin i mean because there is talk right now that the u.k. could target assets of russian tycoons in the country for example would that be effective. yes i think that would be much more effective than what's been happening so far which is just that. they're going to expel some russian diplomats russia's promised to respond in kind and it'll just be a diplomatic tit for tat and the royal family won't go to the world cup in russia this summer. russia london's often called london grad because there's so many wealthy russians living there so many children of wealthy russians including a government official attending school there so much real estate that's owned by influential russian business businessmen and officials in london so anything that would. seize those assets or ban these russians from the u.k.

would be a significant blow to russia's alit another thing that was being discussed that the u.k. hasn't done is boycotting the world cup and i don't just mean the royal family but the actual england football team. when when it was said by theresa may that the royal family and the british would become of the world cup the response from the russian football union was well the important thing is that the england team is coming so obviously that's a that's another thing that the u.k. could do to really hurt russia but it hasn't so options on the table we'll see what they end of executing alex line and append a turn unless toothpaste in moscow thank you. and british police have started a murder probe involving a number of russian exile in the u.k. they say that nikolai cough who was found dead at his london home earlier this week died from compression to the neck but they say that as yet there is no evidence of a link to the attempted murder of the scribbles. in other news now german

chancellor angela merkel is in paris for talks with her french counterpart emmanuel mccall just days after securing her fourth term as german leader merkel has been meeting with president mccrone to discuss their reform plans for the european union medicals difficulties in forming a coalition have delayed franco german talks on deeper european integration with which both leaders now want to press ahead with we will bring you more on today's talks throughout the evening there is a press conference currently underway there. now to nigeria where the niger delta is one of the most polluted regions in the world back in the one nine hundred fifty s. oil was discovered and production began but since then oil spills have caused extensive environmental damage and a report amnesty international has accused oil major shell and me of responding to the spills to slowly west africa correspondent adrienne creech reports.

this is a common sight in the niger delta. from neighboring communities oil spills are a catastrophe farmers can no longer from fisherman must sail hours from the coast in order to catch anything. residents often blame the international oil companies. pipeline network alone there have been more than one thousand oil spills since two thousand and eleven according to amnesty international the outcome of it as this is further evidence. all companies operating in iraq. are still failing to drive out to vets and their response shell for example takes irish seven days to respond. on one occasion very scary isn't it true one hundred eighty two days. of pressure

could not because that means it is too new to the environment based life was to communities. legally the companies must respond to spills within twenty four hours that's why amnesty is calling for more grist exemptions. shell has described the accusations in a statement as forwards and without merits and claims that the majority of bills are caused by sabotage and theft. in which criminal gangs try to extract their share of the oil wealth. sixty years ago or oil production started in nigeria as niger delta since then some people became extremely rich but the majority of the one hundred eighty million nigerians did not benefit most people in the region consider the oil wealth rather than a blessing a u.n. study says that it will take at least thirty years and more than one billion u.s.

dollars to illuminate the environ. damages. in football and the draw for the champions league quarter finals has taken place in switzerland and there are some great match ups ahead barcelona the twenty fifteen champions will face a time side roma germany's byron munich are paired with sylvia your vents this will take on holders for how much right in a repeat of last year's final ryall are going for a third straight title and liverpool will meet manchester city in an all english match up the first legs will be paid played in the first week of april the draw for the europa league quarter finals was also made with rb light seek the first team out of the pot the german side will need more say in the last eight elsewhere that you favorites for the title arsenal and athletico madrid avoid each other in the draw salzberg who dumped out dortmund in the last round will face.

you're watching news still to come on the program lots of bells and whistles of the frankfurt stock exchange as vince floats its health care unit but it turned out to be rather more modest than planned i'll tell you why. monica johns has all that and more in a minute's time don't go away you're watching. what does a football loving country to reach its goals. we'll tell you our german soccer back to the top. you know webspace. dot com. football made in germany.