she explained the countries are going to drop their jobs you're wrong from your super power source orchestra d w. this is the news live from berlin deadly wire filed wildfires in greece a firefighter describes a scene of horror as if there were groups of three and four. it looked like they were friends and families trying to protect themselves. at least seventy four people died as fast moving fires get close to the capital triggering

a national emergency we will bring you the latest from athens. also coming up pakistan deploys troops to polling stations on the eve of national elections but will they protect or intimidate them after a bitter campaign pakistan's military is accused of trying to influence the election and of attacking press freedom we'll go live to islamabad. i'm sara kelly welcome to the program greece has declared a state of emergency as wildfires fanned by strong winds raced through residential areas around the capital athens the official death toll has risen to at least seventy four with almost two hundred injured the government has declared three days of national mourning and asked the european union for system.

there are the worst wildfires greece has seen in a decade the flames moved quickly and took many by surprise. in coastal towns people fled into the sea for safety hours after being rescued the shark is still visible on their faces. what can i say. it's over there alive. if the cause of the flames were chasing us all the way to the water was like going to our backs and we dive into the sea. for others the fire moved too fast and in the seaside town of marty firefighters discovered an unspeakable tragedy. this morning we discovered this place with twenty six people. men women and unfortunately children. they were found in the courtyard of

a villa huddled together hugging the images are too graphic to show. mothers don't they were in groups of three and four it looked like they were friends and families who are trying to protect themselves. or anderson out of. the devastation is evident everywhere in marty abandoned cars litter the streets some with the keys still in the ignition. firefighters have managed to bring the fires under control but they warn that new fires could flare up at any time in the dried out to rain turkey and many countries in the e.u. have offered assistance. and t.w. correspondent younus public dimitrios joins us now on the line from athens where those fires are raging as we mentioned and yes i'd like to begin by asking you why

was it that these fires developed so quickly that people couldn't escape them probably because on tuesday we had quite unusual weather conditions here in the fans that days on the one hand. temperatures above thirty five to forty degrees celsius which is quite normal for the end of july and on the other hand i'm usually strong and predictable so things were steadily changing and very quickly and given those challenging conditions i'd like to ask you how the authorities have been coping because we know for example i mean greece has experienced wildfires before but it sounds like this time around the conditions are different. well it's not easy because coping with this firstly many regions in greece still don't have a be relevant to do bad things like housing no protection against fire or secondly the fire the bachmann these understaffed and unfortunately in recent years there

have been additional cuts the same two essential public services due to the financial crisis in greece and on to say there were simply too many flame from said the same time to sum up it's a very complex situation to cope with. and of course you know a lot of people questioning asking what has caused this situation on the prime minister alexis of course he suggested that some of the blazes that they might have been started by arsonists can you tell us a little bit more about that claim and whether there might be any validity there. well mr burroughs might have a point when you have so main so many flame for all and at the same time so many fires breaking out in a very short period of time some of them just before some means of higher planes going all the way well then you really do suspect and that is enough talk it's the same story every year but we have to say that so far no one was convicted so far some so it remains to be proved. meanwhile asking the european union for

assistance efforts already underway there aren't. yes i think help from the european union is a good idea especially because as already said they have been cups to public services you do the gratis and many greeks are holding the european union responsible for that though that say the international lenders seem generally now greece those the movies the new commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management will visit greece and this a good decision mr stayed any of these come from cyprus he speaks the language he knows everybody here in athens so i think it will stop young as we heard in the report of that town of monte suffering really the greatest of this tragedy images there of families loved ones huddled together that they have recovered those bodies there what is the latest on the situation in that area right now. one of my local

official from taking over the government has found over one hundred fifty engineers who are searching that in fact everything go out from there we. go when we rise in the next hour there are more from missing in the town. over the coming to market. by boat. we are collecting food and over. and over how we're hoping to look forward to the water cooler prime. ghana's papa dimitri with the very latest on this developing story joining us from athens thank you so much when i let's get a quick check of some other stories that have been making news around the world in laos hundreds of people are missing and several are feared dead after a hijo electric dam collapsed releasing five billion cubic meters of water it happened in the province of up to pune in in the country's south east more than six

thousand people are reported to be homeless after a number of villages flooded. and the democratic republic of congo has declared its bowl the outbreak over the disease is believed to have killed thirty three people since april but the last latest reported case was about forty two days ago the world health organization and congolese authorities distributed an experimental vaccine to more than thirty three hundred people. pakistan is deploying troops to polling stations as it prepares for national elections on wednesday the government says that the soldiers are necessary to ensure that the vote is free and fair but critics say that the military is backing former cricketer imran khan for prime minister and that troops are there to boost his chances journalists who report on khan's main rivals say that they face intimidation and t.w. correspondent naomi conrad has been speaking to them about the challenges of

covering both sides of the campaign. in pakistan second largest city lahore election campaigning is in full swing but behind the scenes many fear strings are being pulled to favor one candidate in run con his party p.t.i. is in a neck and neck race with the pakistani muslim league run by one of the country's most high profile politicians now what serif sharif angered the country's powerful military with his attempts to improve relations with pakistan's arch rival india and rein in the army support a visit midsts earlier this month he was jailed on corruption charges. and now journalists like zari julio are bearing the brunt of the standoff those who dared to openly criticize the p.t.i. or appear to support now while sharif risk the wrath of the security agencies and the party of the talk about the pm alone if you speak for it in any way richard

articles written in a very balanced manner to speak for it there's going to be trouble brewing somewhere down the line previously like i said there were there were certain areas you can speak about but it was never about political parties not to do things stand you just you just kind of reporter the balance mother and here you're out there at it there after you win this this was really startling to many of the editors but but then of carrying on some of us some of us are really really struggling. many of her colleagues have received intimidating calls and threats on social media and journalists know all too well which stories editors want to afraid to run but on the record few dare to point their finger at. iran. well. i'll take the safest route out of this ok the human rights international

human rights organizations and the local human rights organizations have repeatedly called out the military for doing this and the military would mean the intelligence agencies that are associated with the military and. their feeling rights organizations and i'm quoting them i mean quoting them understand defeat of the bill of too much power over the civil demat government the democratic government the democratic set up and the awful bill this power to get the you know we. thing that serves don't speak more about those. just to be on the safe so in pakistan the generals have always pulled the political strings and dictated the red lines that journalists trust in peril but talk to human rights activists and they agree that the degree of meddling in this election is unprecedented the military has

a record of interfering in each and every election that has been held in pakistan this is part of. everything. we wanted to confront the military with the accusations but our interview requests were turned down in the post the generals have denied any involvement in pakistani politics and with the d.t.i. in d.m.l. a neck and neck the outcome of the elections is far from certain. and that report there from correspondent naomi conrad who joins us now from the pakistani capital islamabad and may i mean you really highlighted bare the intimidation of journalists within the country and i'd like to ask you what impact is that likely to have on the outcome of the poll. well that's a very good question i mean it certainly changed the debate here in the tone of

debate talk to journalists and they say there's a lot of things they can't report on anymore and that is definitely changing the debate but the question is is that going to have an impact because remember pakistan is not a developed democracy votes here are bolton sold a lot of people are literate so the question is will this have an impact outside of educated cities side of educated circles that remains to be seen so how much of a factor is the army and elections well the army is always a huge factor in pakistan that's a fact i mean there's a saying that says pakistan is not a state with an army it's an army with the states not says a lot but it's really hard to quantify i mean it's impossible to get proof of this we've talked to a lot of people who say the army is a huge factor but i mean short of talking to the army itself and they deny to interview requests it's incredibly difficult to quantify naomi what have been the main campaign issues though meanwhile.

there's a lot of really important issues here that in the campaign aren't really being addressed that is the economic situation is terrible pakistan is running out of money there's a lot of poverty education here is a business model and also energy issues the energy system is really bad like there's environmental climate problems there there are huge problems that the country is facing including foreign policy and no one's really talking about it pakistan is very important in regional affairs the question of indian relations afghan relations but these are issues that aren't really being talked about another are incredibly important and let's highlight one of those issues because we know that at least one hundred seventy people have already been killed in suicide attacks in the country so i mean security must be something of a concern right. yes security is always a bit of a concern here in pakistan or haven a little bit more than a concern sixty five percent of polling stations are deemed to be sensitive when it

comes to security concerns and the army has deployed four hundred thousand security personnel here so security is definitely a huge issue people are concerned we've seen suicide attacks so everyone here is on very high alert and as we mentioned those national elections kicking off in pakistan on wednesday naomi conrad with the very latest ahead of that poll thank you so much. with that you're up to date now on g.w. news i'm sarah kelly in berlin if you so much for watching have a great a. letter we were. when we were. eighty percent of americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship.