video and audio. any talk anywhere. w. media center. this is the w. news live from baghdad more than one hundred million people have had their chance to vote in pakistan's divisive national elections a suicide bomber struck a polling station despite the heavy military presence. of close we'll take you live to islamabad also on the program. this sorry must not overwhelm. you because it is now time to notice. the bright.

greece's prime minister. consoles a grieving nation after wildfires killed at least eighty rescue workers and are going toe to toe searching for survivors. the emergency supplies start to rifle people made homeless by the collapse of a dam in laos at least nineteen people i know to have died. i'm still gail welcome to the program vote counting has begun in pakistan's tense and violent parliamentary elections the campaign saw hundreds of people killed in suicide bombings and attacks at rallies including one on election day that claimed the lives of thirty one people the results not expected for a few hours but latest polls show the leading parties to be neck and neck. long

queues were reports of the polling stations in pakistan some major cities the front runner sabah ruling party led by former prime minister now as cherie is currently jailed and former cricket star in one car. i'll be doubly correspondent to know me conrad is in pakistan's capital islamabad welcome now let's start with voter turnout. well it's difficult to say the polling stations closed about two hours ago so results so slowly trickling in now but they're counting the ballot papers by hand so it will take quite a while until we have an over all results as you say as we heard earlier of course there was the huge blast in quite a that deterred people for a while but in the afternoons correspondents in various cities that we talked to said that they just came back out again so it will be interesting to see how high voter turnout is will know that later on today in the evening and which issues were uppermost in voters' minds so the vote as we talked to we talked

to quite a few are very much the bread and butter issues so electricity they huge electricity shortages water shortages here poverty but also education health care really the bread and butter issues the issues that make people's lives easier here in pakistan i'm one of the two candidates who hope to be prime minister one of a promising in this close race. well interesting they're not really interesting really enough they're not really talking about these issues that are on people's minds the main concern and sort of the voters that at least we talk to is very much that iran can talks quite vaguely about being anti corruption about wanting to establish an islamist welfare state but he hasn't really elaborated on that and now was sharif is really built himself as a democratic candidate as a candidate defending democracy against the interference of the army which if you look at his past record he is also very corrupt politician he has just been jailed on corruption charges so it's unclear whether the these two main party you switch

or are still us as far as we know until the election results come in neck and neck well actually address the issues that the voters in pakistan really care about so homes are going to work if. elected while he's in jail how will that work well the head of the party is now being headed by his brother shafiq does know us sharif was banned from from taking part in the elections last year he's handed on the baton to his brother as it were who is now as i said neck and neck with imran khan it's interesting to see because we have a couple of parties who will play a role that's the p.p.p. benazir bhutto's party which is now after she was assassinated couple of years ago being run by her son and there's also some islamist parties which may or may not play an important role depending on how many votes they become they'll be a lot of haggling in the next coming days maybe even weeks in might be quite

a while until we see a government being formed so we'll watch with interest and i know in islamabad thank you. and of course we have a lot more in-depth coverage and analysis of pakistan's elections on our website that's at d w dot com. now greece has begun three days of national mourning for the victims of the country's worst fire disaster in a decade at least eighty people are confirmed dead and that number is expected to increase fires broke out on monday evening one near the town of kinetic around fifty kilometers west of athens and another to the east of the city near the coastal village of matty place he swept through the areas in just minutes taking a grim toll. only a few days ago will carry a celebrated her son's wedding here now she finds herself standing amidst devastation her house her life as she knew it in just a few minutes fire destroyed it'll it's only when she returns that the extent of

the catastrophe became clear lake area her daughter in law and her grandson only survive thanks to his son he once had the fire was bearing down on them let me go to my son called me from work and told me run quickly to the harbor we ran to the harbor that's why we survived there's a large house knew they had a court fire and three or four people i thought were being burnt to death inside. this family and the only victims so many in marty have lost everything and the death toll is expected to rise many are still missing. that's the list had been about to open his tavern but then it was consumed by flames within minutes he accuses the authorities of failing his town now he doesn't even know where he'll sleep coming up our five year that they tell us all the hotels are full and that we should apply for a place in a container in athens a disaster what should we do we pay back the bank when we are money and we are the

taxpayers the government must help us at all. the greek government has declared a state of emergency three days of national mourning and has vowed to deliver aid fast. the better be almost enough is the sorry must not overwhelm us. because it is now time to fight you know it is to stand together and be brave and above all to show solidarity. of the european countries have also sent help in the form of planes and firefighters hundreds of them a still battling to control the flames the trying to stop bit more people losing their belongings all their lives. let's go then to a small holiday or resort to that's been so badly hit shell that charles in the poll is that welcome to charlotte what is it like.

well the first thing that really hits she fell as you drive into this town is the sheer scale if the tragedy absolutely everywhere you look in every direction you see burned out houses the charred shells remains of cars it's really very shocking to see the smell is while it's something that confronts you immediately as you walk around the smell of trees burning it's the smell of the metal of cars that have melted and of course as we know very sadly a lot of people were trying to use those cars to get out of this town and very many of them lost their lives a local newspaper has called it on the get in on that front page and that really is one that goes a long way to describing exactly what it feels like being here at the moment having said that the people are now starting to come into this town trying to offer their help their support driving cost as if we've been sitting here we've seen dozens of cars filled with with water with food with meals for many of the survivors who is still here who just trying to take stock of exactly what is happening and it's

really a very moving thing to say what are you hearing from rescue workers. yeah we've been speaking to policeman fire services as well they say that the fires and now largely outside their job now is to try and find survivors they're going from door to door to see if any people are still alive after this tragedy is also about excessive accessing how many people were killed it's feared that the death toll could rise dramatically people that we've spoken to say that they don't know exactly how many people are still missing everyone that we've spoken to here whether it be local residents policeman fire workers all of them have grim stories to tell about what they found in the aftermath of this tragedy we spoke to one local shop owner who said that on the night of the fires he was going from casa. cost russian windows trying to break people free and lead them to the water where

it's feared that they would it was hoped that they would find safety he said that he doesn't know what exactly happens to many of them a kid in fact the many days before we truly see the scale of this tragedy and what's being said about the cause of these fires. there have been since has been some speculation in the local press that austin may have been a factor in fact one of the local officials said that there were fifteen separate blazes. up around the same time which which makes them suspicious having said that they find is all common in this region especially around this time of year and this region has seen extremely hot temperatures over the last few days so there's a lot of speculation i think the facts there that there was such strong winds on this dreadful evening would have played a big role in the tragedy here today shot at chelsea to thank you.

let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world to team international astronomers say it's a prime time massive underground like a monster the largest body of liquid water ever found on the planet and it raises the possibility that my life if i was there when i ordered you commission presidential code you know is in washington today is due to me to you as your president donald trump who talks aimed at reducing trade tensions united states says it is time for some new steven alan when you import brussels responded by raising to three zones. emergency supplies have started to arrive for people made homeless by the collapse of a dam on monday at least nineteen people are now known to have lost their lives the death toll is likely to rise as rescue search the flooded area for hundreds of missing villagers thousands in the shelter after floodwaters swept away their homes and submerged at least seven villages the dam was still under construction when it

collapsed activists are calling for increased scrutiny of the government's plans for more hydroelectric projects. or journalist frederick's for has been monitoring events from bangkok welcome frederick people are entering their second full night without food or clean water what's being done to help them well now it's already evening here in southeast asia it's dark but the rescue efforts still need to go on that there are still thousands of people who need to be rescued there are still sitting on their roofs they are still on trees they are searched with boats and helicopters slowly international help arrives today is a type seem arrived at three and he arrived so help was coming in but the scenes are still quite graphic and there are rescuers still concentrate on finding survivors instead of death defying the death rectums. now what now

seems to be a clear sort of sequence of events talk us through what happened from sunday evening when the dam was found to be damaged to where we are now. yeah the actually that one company that was involved even says that some missed or some problems are acute on friday another company said that the damage appeared on sunday so the breach happened on monday that means that at least twenty four hours where between the first appearance of damages and the actual catastrophe so and that rates of course a lot of question why so many people aren't struck zero now and fighting for to survive or are already dead because you would expect that they would be a lot of time to recreate them the company say that they want the villagers the authorities they also say they want the villages but. as you see now so many people are in deep trouble and it's a because it can esprit so obviously something went wrong maybe they didn't want

them early enough maybe not serious enough so these are the questions that need to be answered in the next day but it will be tough to get the to get the truth out of it because. laos is the account to seek regime there is no freedom of press people cannot raise their weiss they have limited rights so it will be very difficult to find. a responsible person here and bring justice to that. and so how is this likely to affect the government's power strategy this desire to become the battery of asian. yeah well right now it doesn't seem that there would be a shift in that strategy and to be honest i mean it's that he's strategic target all of the government to make. the battery off ages so there are so many projects right now they are around christmas day i was trying to solve the one

hundred capacity is supposed to triple so all over the country right now those dams are being built and it's kind of it's kind of understandable. those projects really need to be scrutinized and even though they don't stop they need to be reviewed a good talking to front of bangkok thank you so much. today. the talk of the force is always more on the website. good. luck we were wrong when we were. eighty percent of americans at some point in our lives really experienced hardship.