the dawn of islam as of an exclusive d.w. report starting april twenty first. this is news live from bergland angle americal says that germany will not take part in an attack on syria the german chancellor says there is strong evidence that damascus carried out an alleged poison gas attack last weekend but germany will not join in any military response also coming up the number of executions carried out last year are around the world fell in paris the year before that's according to a new amnesty international report on capital punishment. and israel markets marks

its holocaust remembrance day at the biggest nazi death camp the nation's president lead the annual march of the living but this year there was tension in the air and . i'm sara kelly welcome to the program a regional monitor says that rebels in syria's eastern good to have surrendered there have very heavy weapons and their leader has left the enclave this as russia's military says that the town of duma is now under the full control of the syrian government now if confirmed that it has fallen it would mark the end to one of the bloodiest battles of the country seven year war duma has been the last bastion of rebel resistance to the syrian government within eastern an area that is near damascus now the town was also the site of an alleged poison gas attack at the weekend which has sparked one of the worst international crises in years the

following report contains images that some viewers might find distressing. convoys of buses are making their way out of duma carrying out of the town rebels and their families and with them their hopes of victory against the syrian government this is what's left of eastern ghouta after years blockaded and bombarded by syrian government forces people here too scared to enter the buildings. with that one a look around all the apartment entrances are blocked because of the mines inside i can't get in everywhere i see wires and things that trouble me. as smoke rises over duma russia says the area is now under the control of the syrian government but it is russian military police who are patrolling the streets in line with a surrender deal struck with the rebels at the weekend.

moscow has broadcast pictures said to show resident celebrating says the situation here is normalizing. hybrid model i quote that for several international powers these images of saturday's suspected poison gas attack in june or give no hint of normalcy. the u.s. britain and france are considering military action in syria in response to the alleged attack syria's allies russia and iran have threatened to retaliate if they do so with turkey israel and other regional powers also involved the u.n. has warned this conflict could spiral out of control. as u.s. warships make their way to the region there are mounting questions about where this crisis will lead. and earlier german chancellor angela merkel said that germany

would not take part in any missile strikes on syria. the germany will know it is up to supply and i need more civil military action but i want to stress again that no decision has been made on this but we acknowledge and support that everything has to be done to signal that this use of chemical weapons is on except a bill starts of times let's get more reaction now from europe we are joined from berlin by political correspondent simon young and standing by in brussels is our brussels bureau chief max hoffman welcome to both of you and simon i'd like to begin with you because we just heard chancellor angela merkel speak there she seemed to be implicitly backing military action but not wanting to get involved where does germany fit in here you know i think germany wants to be positioned as a firm member of the western alliance that's why chancellor merkel has telephoned with the french president and with other countries and saying that it wants to be

a new cold tact over this issue but it comes as no surprise that germany won't be getting militarily involved i don't think anyone was expecting that and i don't think that it will. negatively affect other countries ability to take military action if that's what it comes to but the chancellor also said it was difficult to do nothing and that's why they're backing pressure from the p c w the international chemical weapons inspector it and in the un to put the pressure on syria at this time and as that pressure mounts i mean european countries definitely watching this very closely french president emmanuel mccrone in fact has been talking about the gas attack and talked of having proof max over to you now walk us through what exactly you said here and whether or not it might be more likely that military action could be taken there now. well you did say that at least chlorine was used and that it was used by the regime of bashar al assad so of

course this strengthens the case for military action by the french because craw had said earlier that the red line for him was the use of chemical weapons in syria by the regime of bashar al assad so you can think all right this is basically a go but it doesn't appear to be a go yet although the president said on tuesday that he would decide within days it seemed a little more mellow on thursday saying they would take the decision when it was useful and also efficient what exactly that means is anyone's guess but we can guess that it's probably also due to the complications in the background because of course we're talking about an alliance here with the u.s. and with the u.k. there needs to be coordination and with the mixed signals coming out of washington it's absolutely possible but that this coordination especially with the states is pretty complicated at the moment and given that complication and in the search for coordination and what about the other european military having weight the u.k.

because british prime minister theresa may is talking with her cabinet today right . she is she is she called the back from the easter break in principle it seems that the prime minister of the u.k. is willing to follow the u.s. lead here as soon as we know what they actually want to do but the problem and the little twist here is that the opposition at least parts of the opposition are calling for parliament to approve this they don't have to do that it's not the law but it's sort of a convention and if you look at the history of the u.k. following the u.s. in two wars in two thousand and three for example in iraq that didn't go too well that this this might complicate matters or even slow them down absolutely indeed simon merkel for her part doesn't want to get directly involved as you mentioned earlier but you know she did indicate that if the u.n. security council took action beyond diplomacy that germany would be supportive what sort of support if she were for and tail yeah it's slightly unclear what the

chancellor meant boy by that phrase actions beyond diplomacy she does seem to have left the door open for germany to take some kind of further actions that could be supporting the wook of the c.w. or it could be providing logistical or other support to allies in military action but i think the key thing is germany's emphasis on solidarity and unity with the other international partners in europe and at the u.n. simon young in berlin max health man in brussels thank you. let's get a quick check now of some other stories that have been making news around the world the international chemical weapons watchdog the o.p.c. w. has confirmed that former russian spy service scribal and his daughter. were poisoned with a nerve agent in the english city of souls however the organization stopped of naming the substance it also did not say where it was produced. at least twelve

people have been killed after taliban militants stormed a government compound in central afghanistan the government overran a district headquarters in gaza a province triggering an hour's long gun battle that left several government officials and dozens of militants dead afghan security forces of eventually drove out the insurgents. and algeria has begun three days of mourning after a military plane crash that killed two hundred fifty seven people the russian built transporter went down shortly after takeoff on wednesday killing mostly soldiers and their family members the accident is the worst aviation disaster and algeria's history authorities have ordered an investigation. the human rights group amnesty international says that the number of reported judicial executions around the world fell during last year but the group warns that the turn number of people put to death by the state is not known now some countries treat executions statistics as

a state secret china for example but many others carry out executions and full view of the public. iran responsible for carrying out small then hoff of the world's known executions last year that's according to amnesty international's latest figures in dozens of those cases that meant public execution in iran drug trafficking and blasphemy are among those crimes punishable by death. at least five people were executed in iran for acts committed when they were still under eighteen . just four countries responsible for eighty four percent of all recorded executions last year iran saudi arabia iraq and pakistan but the country suspected of being the world's leading executioner is china. it's thought to have put thousands to death last year more than the rest of the world put together the

because data on the death penalty that is a state secrets exactly how many is a matter of speculation. but not counting china twenty seven thousand so the total number of executions worldwide fall by four percent from the previous year. m misty international says that reaffirms the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty last year a further two countries guinea and mongolia joined the one hundred four who have now abolished capital punishment for a second year in a row the us did not feature among the top five global execution is slipping from positions seven to eight this is due in part to ongoing legal challenges of the use of lethal injection. but as litigation in several states progress is that because the executions resume. and for more i'm joined now by two simple

who advises amnesty international on the death penalty and welcome to you and thank you so much for joining us thank you very much now i miss the international has made it very clear that the decline of worldwide executions only relates to reported executions why is it so difficult to gather information and data about the death penalty. it's quite difficult to get information about these are the ones who are because many retentionists do not review the release of the death penalty in our research amnesty international are those rights and contact or retention is countries in the world ordering them to provide information on the use of diplomatic join the year of unfortunately will of congress actually respond to two inquiries. because of the front thirteen of the do realize apart that the easily death penalty has been consigned to history and only a minority of countries actually be you know used this horrible. and in some

countries in the state secrets about can bill roos. china and china and vietnam so therefore how do you get your ass mitts especially you know you mentioned china there it's thought to be the world's leading executioner but there are no official figures so so how do you estimate. are we all who rigorous research you know we have contacts with lawyers work that we do media monitoring in each retention is going to we get in touch with victims of the death penalty family members and true of or other means. testing it and we also do checks or estimates we have to ensure that we have the figures that we can rely on as we mentioned in the beginning. the rate of the death penalty is on the decline but there are some areas where it remains on the increase

i just want to talk about those with you now so we can figure out what this trend is because apparently when it comes to drug related crimes for example it is on the rise tell us a little bit more about that. yes unfortunately into a seventeen we saw a rise in the use of the death of another to all drug related or france's fifteen countries will actually use the nazi horribly to the prince's contrary to international law which makes the claim that the nazi can only be for most us crimes and drug related offenses are excluded pro this category and it's quite concerning and this is this is the trend. of countries that do use the woodrow wilson offenses to stop so let's turn to an area now where the trend is positive because your report it also highlights sub-saharan africa calling it a big can of hope just two countries south sudan somalia they carried out

executions there last year and there was also we hear good news in guinea kenya and gambia what is fueling this trend. i think a lot of countries in sub-saharan africa are for it is they are contra allies affronted to know the death penalty is not with forward and that you know more and more countries. are pushing the death penalty you know ninety something when i'm just international began this global campaign only sixteen countries under bush deputy or prince now there are a hundred and six and i think you know a lot of sub-saharan african countries are realizing this and i join in this trend you know last year guinea became the twenty and sub-saharan country to abolish it for crimes we saw progressing in other parts of the region gambia for example they used to be a staunch supporter or he's an idiot and r.t. as a sudden it changes attitude you know it's signed an international treaty which commits

it's two to abolishing the nazi and stop executions and only a few weeks ago over the president of a country a stumblin of fusion ritual on executions so and in other countries as more listeners have been ticking to actually you know or abolishment other want to send chapala advisor to admin and see international on the death penalty thank you so much for speaking with us. you're watching news still to come on the program israel has been marking its holocaust remembrance day at the biggest nazi death camp a nation's president led the annual march of the living but this year there was tension in the air and we will tell you why. but first there is board room intrigue over the world's top carmaker in memphis will end as that story thank you sarah is set to replace its chief executives mathias miller the german

wants to leave the emissions scandal in the review mirror once and for all but real is got the group in good shape you have to say operating profits of seventeen billion euros last year that's a jump of sixteen and a half percent from the year before and the group's global casillas sped up by more than four percent for the same period to over ten and a half million vehicles that's kept b.w. ahead of toyota as the world's largest auto manufacturer for the financial boost comes as the company faces some roadblocks its footing a bill of some twenty five billion euros for fines and the costs of the emissions scandal in which it admitted to installing cheap devices for millions of vehicles those costs are said to increase and then there is a massive transformation in the pipeline for the company it's a little late in the race but v.w. wants to compete in the growing market for electric cars for its five and says it will sell over a million electric cars annually from twenty twenty five up to selling less than

forty five thousand last year for our reporters stephen beardsley is out v.w. headquarters the supervisory board meeting we've only been told it's considering a shake up and considering replacing mila will he really go. well bin that's the official statement right but if you consider the inside sources the depth of what we're hearing and the amount of time that it's been telegraphed out you can't really imagine this going any other way take a look also at the stock reaction to this the market reaction has been very positive there's been no official denial to everything that's been leaking out and again if you look at the depth of this information the specificity it's hard to imagine something else happening here i think you have to see volkswagen as a very big ship that unless it's on the brink of a giant scandal and needs to change course fast it would prefer to do it slowly consider how many stakeholders there are in volkswagen includes government corps includes the unions it includes of course more than six hundred thousand employees

so why not take their time to do this if it's not an emergency but see why put the blame with the bat bad on the contrary i think that most objective standards he did a great job to consider that we're not talking about volkswagens crisis as an existential crisis anymore consider that they only have to pay twenty five billion euros versus some early estimates of maybe forty to sixty billion euros consider that the stock price has leveled off that it's back up where it should be by outside considerations by analysts considerations and consider like you said record profits record sales advances in projects long term projects such as the electrification of its models such as footprint in china such as this position in the u.s. there's no reason to think that he's done a bad job if you're looking at the hard numbers there's one area that he's seen as not having come through on and that's the area of changing the corporate culture within volkswagen the very corporate culture that led to this scandal but mccann

and inside it change what experts call the uniquely awful corporate governance it's a fold in video using mission scandal because it looks like an inside is going to take up the job. right all signs point to have it de suicide brand manager for folks wagon he was brought in more than two and a half years ago two months before the scandal broke in fact with his eyes set on taking his position at some point his stock went down right after the scandal broke because he was seen as potentially tainted or because everything was changing within the firm itself now he's back up and you're exactly right then can he be the person to really continue a corporate culture change when he looks in many ways exactly like mueller does they're both around the same age they both come from this world of the german auto industry he will put his own imprint on things he does have his own reputation as a cost cutter but if you want to signal that you're really changing the cultures is this the right person to do it that's

a big question going forward steven bids lee in will spall and let's bring in our financial correspondent in frankfurt that's daniel cope daniel best is watching this one closely abased is all around the world i should point out there also looking at clues to the financial implications he usually when a huge boss lied this would leave a huge company would be talking about a golden handshake but there are reports that really might stick around did some sort of other capacity. yeah i think this is really interesting my initial thought was also where this many will be turning sixty five in june he has made a parody of our ten million euros every year and would most likely receive a big in damage to frankly speaking he could just retire now we are hearing as you said that he could have a different position in the company and since it seems that volkswagen wants to create different divisions he could be the head of one let me tell you that this is something very unusual and you might wonder why you would even consider doing this

some insiders are reporting that a possible indemnity could be just as high as the salary for the remaining time in office so volkswagen might not even want to consider an agreement to terminate his contract don't you go for us with the financial angle there from frankfurt thank you one belt one road is chinese president xi jinping business vision for the future a modern silk road consolidating china's global power with construction projects in sixty eight countries funded by beijing but the head of the international monetary fund christina god has had reservations about the project. it's a multi-billion dollar project building roads and brayley's from asia to africa and europe and to connect china to the world but there is mounting worry the belton road initiative could bind other states to china negative ways to chinese financing for infrastructure construction many countries could leave them all in the world's

number two economy too much money. built under the initiative can provide much needed infrastructure financing to partner countries but this ventures can also lead to problematic increase in that potentially limited other spending as that service is a roy's. and rice and creating balances of pavement challenges at the bolton road conference in beijing the guard said it was important to focus on projects that were both really needed and sustainable to avoid spending strain on governments her remarks come nearly a month after a think tank the center for global development released a list of countries hosting belton road projects that were at high risk of debt distress pakistan top that list which also includes mongolia djibouti in kyrgyzstan among others. and just briefly french president obama cause says he's sticking to his ambitious reform plans even in the face of crippling rail strikes and other

protests he's a quick t.v. station in his first interview in months it was widely watched he said he was not deterred by the heavy resistance to his plans but also people to remain calm and for dialogue because because popularity is the klein shop at least since his election last spring and then an issue as it is series of tough labor reforms to create more jobs. he's definitely creating a lot of protest right now to a very sad anniversary sarah yeah definitely a very somber one which is being marked today by many people in israel it is in fact a holocaust remembrance day when they remember the six million jews murdered by the nazi regime across europe and the president of israel reuven rivlin was among thousands of people who took part in the annual march of the living at auschwitz in poland the site of one of the most notorious death camps recent polish legislation about the holocaust has cost controversy so there was some tension in the air. a

march in memory of the victims of nazi terror at the french the presidents of poland and israel more than ten thousand people including youth groups from around the world have come to auschwitz the route leads to the death camp birkenau earlier the young people visited the camp to familiarize themselves with the horrible details of what took place german groups are also taking part. that's called like us and it's very sad to stand here knowing that my great grandmother stood and right here as well as my great grandfather an indescribable feeling. survivor's accompany the groups and recount their traumatic experiences edward most burgs mother and brother in law were killed here yeah they do it you have to remember what happened and this is like a big he did because in the war of the jewish people the political dispute between poland and israel over the so called holocaust law is causing uncertainty penalties

could be imposed on anyone who blames the polish people or state for nazi war crimes israel has criticized the law because it fears polish accomplices may no longer be identified as a result. i would like to say once again with all my might that it was never the intention of polish politicians to create such a rule which would block bearing witness to the holocaust because the polish constitutional court is currently reviewing the law the meeting of the two heads of state at this site of german nazi terror could point towards an amicable resolution of the conflict. another remarkable night of football in the quarter finals of the champions league the big drama came in spain where italy's ventus managed to come back from three goals down to tie the aggregate score against we all madrid extra time was on the cards until the spaniards were awarded a controversial stoppage time penalty event as keeper to. befalling was sent off

for his protests and crescendo when all those stepped up and made no mistake from the spot sending ralph through for three on i forget. meantime to the crown german champions byron munich also reached the champions league semifinals but there was much less drama in their nil nil home draw with sylvia byron did what they had to do and the result gave them a two one aggregate factory putting them into friday's mouthwatering draw for the last four of the european football's premier club competition. quick reminder now of our top story here at g.w. german chancellor angela merkel has said that germany will not join any possible military action against syria in response to an alleged poison gas attack tensions between russia and the west have risen following the alleged attack. today thanks for watching.

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international talk show for journalists discuss the topic of the week can and will mark zuckerberg keep his promise to change facebook's ways or has that titan of tech become an anti social network that's our topic this week on quadriga joining us. quadriga in sixty minutes on. my first vice like moses sewing machine. where i come from women are balanced by this notion for something as simple as learning how to write them by said both his and. since i was a little girl i wanted to have them by cycle of my home and it took me as the months but. finally the game bob invention by me and i say but three times the sewing machine sewing i suppose was more appropriate for goes than writing advice

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