this. north and south korea prepare for a historic summit. meeting in this room on the so-called peace line that divides the korean peninsula officials have been trying to summit for days. slip ups live to seoul. the turkish court. from a leading opposition news people on terrorism charges amnesty international kicks out saying turkey should stop using the freight two thousand and sixteen as an

excuse to crack down on free speech. a historic summit on the korean peninsula the south is preparing to welcome north korean leader kim jong un for talks about peace and nuclear disarmament he was the first north korean leader to set foot on south korean soil in more than fifty years the bensouda has seen some dramatic diplomatic strides in recent weeks and expectations are high they come a step closer to ending the decades of hostility. pinning messages of hope to the fence dividing the two nations it's here in the border village of panmunjom that kim jong un will make history on friday. when he crosses this border markets with ten b. into korean summit he'll be the first north korean leader to set first on south

korean soil since the korean war ended more than sixty years ago it's a significant location inside the demilitarized zone straddling the border to north korea that pyongyang has promised to end nuclear and missile tests hoping for a lifting of sanctions in exchange in south korea many see the summit as a cause for optimism. and agreement on people see if you will come out of the summit. my generation has been through a lot of pain due to political chaos so i hope the summit ensures our next generation won't have to experience that. i hope the two leaders work together to prevent another war like the korean war. to come from some of the dresses human rights issues in north korea and other. others however a skeptical. when they don't want to go on is saying that he will complete denuclearization

and close the nuclear test site through the into korean summit but we can't believe it. will give them what it. was you i answered in the first and. then go ahead and it is i think that if you don't think of this as officials in panmunjom complete the final preparations for the summit it's clear that achieving any official agreements in just a day of talks will be difficult to say the least but friday's summit is a breakthrough in itself. and if the meeting goes smoothly it should lay the groundwork for something even more unusual talks between north korea and the u.s. . joining me now is correspondent jason strother in the south korean capital so welcome jason what is south korea hoping to get out of the summit. i think just bringing kim jong un down below the border was a an accomplishment itself but i think like we heard from some of the people in

that package they just want a sense of calm and normality on the korean peninsula we have to remember that just at the end of last year there was talk about war erupting here again so i think a deescalation of tensions is is that even very least that president moon can hope for although i think that the loftier goals would be for north korea to completely denuclearize as well as engage in dialogue that would lead to a peace treaty that would eventually that would ultimately end the korean war which only came to a conclusion with a cease fire agreement back in one nine hundred fifty three that's going to be a huge a symbolic step in the north korean leader kim jong un call says and steps across the border into the south now live again how this summit came a lot and why now at the beginning of this year kim jong moon and his new year's address said that he hoped to participate in the winter olympics here in china and

after that overture south korea went into full gear trying to get the north koreans to participate and they did the north and south korean athletes marched together during the opening ceremony in february under a unified flag north korea even said athletes to the paralympics in march and that sports the plume a sea has led to this the fall and tensions and now this summit this week and jason and you and i did get it this is a very high stakes summit how important is the outcome of this meeting for the one being done it and kim jong un briefly if you can. all right well we're on not even sure if the trump kim summit will actually happen i think we're still some ways off from that i think what is discussed tomorrow here in south korea will really set the agenda for

a potential kim trump summit right jason strother in so thank you very much for that thank you let me bring you up to date with some other stories making news around the world i mean a spot of the city elect a new prime minister on the first of may this follows massive anti-government demonstrations the country that have forced a veteran. to resign from the same post on monday he was accused of making a polygraph and opposition leaders are calling for more protests and demanding the governing body also step down. police in northern india say at least twelve children have died after a crean crashed into a school bus near the town of question they believe the driver of the school bus was also killed ignored a guard's signal to stop several of the children have been injured in the crash. u.s. investigators have been searching for over forty years for the so-called golden state

now they've arrested an ex beliefs officer on suspicion of being the man behind more than fifty rapes and twelve homicides throughout california so he's detained the suspect outside his home in citrus heights a suburb of sacramento. the philippines has closed its most famous island boracay to tourists for a six month cleanup heavy commercialization and all the developments have taken the tone on the once pristine island security forces have been deployed to enforce the shutdown but businesses are relying on tourism say the closure puts their livelihoods at risk. the human rights group amnesty international says turkey must stop using its ongoing state of emergency as an excuse for silencing critics its report comes a day after an istanbul court jade's journalists at the leading opposition

newspaper judea on terrorists charges they were accused of supporting a group that the government blames for the fate who in two thousand and sixteen fourteen people themselves prison terms ranging from three to eight years three were acquitted those convicted will remain free while an appeal is pending but they are barred from leaving. so can independent journalists to do their work into istanbul correspond with johan is here with me welcome since the coup president john has been cracking down on anyone who he views as an opponent including journalists what is does this mean for the freedom of expression of the country the jewelry of newspapers not just any newspaper in turkey it's the oldest newspaper in the country it's an institution since decades following a longstanding tradition of secularism so it's very important for its readers these journalists and executives have been arrested at their homes in parts they have

been charged with supporting terrorist organizations and then now sentenced with a jail time of more than seven years for some of them so imagine this would happen at any of the newspaper worldwide at the newark new york times for example or any major german newspaper this of course now in the current situation in turkey is sending a message to all other journalists as well look you could be next so what's your every move your every article everything you do and this is what the journalists themselves have said they always said from the very beginning we just did our jobs and we are put before they scored because we did our jobs we did our research and wrote our articles and so on so they have been saying this is a politically motivated trial designed to smash all kind of criticism towards the government and they said well it's not only about us individual people it's about journalism in general journalism in turkey is in front of the court is on

trial that's the message so what does this mean with elections coming up in june what does this mean for the elections well it's a snap election there is not much time left and you can imagine that independent journalism is important more important than ever maybe during this time because citizens have to inform themselves about the candidates about the options. come up with an educated vote in the end now we hear that opposition candidate are complaining they are not given enough air time they cannot get their messages across and many media institutions are now in favor of the government they have a strong pro-government line more than eighty percent of the media that's what rights groups say so reporters without borders for example saying pluralism is dying in turkey and syria is important for democracy absolutely a free press is the foundation of democracy really a hunt for my son would be

a thank you very much for that. there is heated debate over a decision by the regional government of bavaria making it on the tree to prominently displayed crucifixes in public buildings the leader of the green party in germany who is a leading member of the protestant church has accused bavarian state tamil marcos of abusing a christian symbol for what she called a crude political purpose a constitutional experts and church leaders have questioned the legality of the decision as the street is constitutionally obliged to remain neutral in matus of religion. joining me now is religious affairs an ethics correspondent welcome us why is this such a controversial decision well because questions of religious sort of really just in i'm an asian of public space are very very important in germany germany has a very very troubled history of religious relations and it is understood by

constitutional definition which was adopted into the the mother in german constitution by the way more constitution that the state has no really just identity as such one of the things that becomes quite evident is that this was actually a gleaming of spaces much in the way that you know we would see again do sort of putting their sign on the wall it's in fact something that's been criticized by religious authorities because it does not seem to have a really really just force but rather direct lead to call political intentions as we have the green party to says a lot about electioneering and mako so to say is that in fact the crucifix is a symbol of cultural identity what do you make of that well it really makes no sense to say that the crucifix is a symbol of cultural identity and then germany has a multiplicity of cultural identities it is most certainly an attempt by one particular group or one person wouldn't hurt either group to say their identity of

those spaces but it's very clear even from christian theologians christian figures across the country that this is not a welcome move that this is something that has been seen as then whip on and political weapon the station of the cross and i think that across the board we're seeing very strong reactions back to the churches have also been what have they been say they've been saying essentially perhaps one of the most interesting reactions was that of who was the leader of the protest in church of germany who has said ok well fine if this what you want to do but then with it you have to actually understand the message of the cross which is host the two words those that are you know in situations of pricker i agree and quite clearly this was. i mean evidently this was actually a reference to refugees and people that are now standing on the opposite side of the political equation that dismembers of that's this war droid and did you see this going that this discussion well my big fear is that this is actually not

a non this neither a useful or important political debates that this is really just this is a political wedge that he's being drawn in that will actually divide the waters in a way that will serve really just to have more profound issues that have to be dealt with for instance integration integration is an important issue whether you know one can come into sort of a public building and find across or not does not seem to be something of great relevance. just that ethics affairs correspondent thank you very much my pleasure. you're watching the news coming up ahead a department store in germany takes a radical step to keep itself above water and that's looking at me tell you why coming up shortly. and don't forget you novas good news on the go just download the app from google play or from the apple store give you access to all the latest news from around the word as well as push notifications for any breaking

the is and you can also use the d.v.d. of the app to send us photos and videos which you think could be interest to us. to do stay with us because monica jewels are standing by and she have the business news for you coming up short. global inequality. what does inequality mean in a global economic team well. rome to the media play. join the discussion on how to use. the media forum twenty eight. line who are finders want to strong families to become farmers or engineers every one of them has aplomb.