long long long long. long. long. respects. this is d.w.b. use live from berlin who is behind the mail bomb plot aimed at critics of u.s. president truck u.s. investigators search a postal facility near miami as they come home in on the culprit and they are warning more bombs might be out there. also coming up a breakthrough in relations between japan and china as their leaders meet to repair

ties and produce trade despite ongoing tension plus should insulting god be a crime in ireland there's no need for social role. doctor for me to. call it is no smokers. today the country votes on whether to remove a blasphemy law that even the catholic church says it's obsolete. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program a manhunt is under way in the united states as authorities search for whomever built a male and mailed a series of pipe bombs all were addressed to either prominent democratic politicians or critics of president donald trump police have so far seized ten devices and warned that there may be more out there the search is focusing on a postal centered near miami florida. canine units and

a bomb squad deployed on thursday to a postal center in florida. officials believe some of the pipe bomb packages were mailed from here to prominent targets of right wing outrage among them x. democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton former president barack obama and ex cia director john brennan the latest were former vice president joe biden and actor robert deniro all critics of president donald trump. as forensic teams race to find who's responsible thirty's fear the list of targets could keep growing. the new york police department tweeted instructions for identifying a package bomb should another be found in the mail we have to treat them as.

devices this is a protocol that our bomb squad people use and it keeps everybody safe it's unclear if the pipe bombs were wired to explode some have speculated they were just meant to sow fear among trump's critics ahead of midterm elections in less than two weeks time. several of the intended recipients have said they hope the stack could shift the tone and politics. my hope. my hope is this recent spat of. these who knows exactly what they were but these bombs being. made my way to everybody in my business. realize that we have to. you have to the end to get this country back together. trumps critics have blamed his divisive rhetoric for inspiring the attack trump has

repeatedly called his political opponents evil and often refers to the media as the enemy of the people he recently praised a republican politician foot body slamming a journalist in response to the criticism trump has pointed the finger of blame back at the media. the debate likely weren't subside before voters go to the polls on the sixth of november. meantime in other news japanese prime minister shinzo abbay is in china for the first official visit in seven years against a backdrop of trade friction with the united states the asian rivals are working to build closer ties abbay was welcomed by chinese premier the key chung in beijing the two then held talks aimed at increasing economic cooperation and signed a broad range of agreements ave held it a historic turning point in the relationship between china and japan abbay is due to meet with chinese president xi jinping later today. somewhere let's bring in

correspondent mathias ball into who is standing by in beijing is this indeed a historic store a turning point mathias. it certainly is for mr harvey just a few years ago he has been labeled unwelcome by beijing mr are behind the. creasing in nationalist politics and his reluctance to address the country's wartime past has made him not very welcome in beijing on the other side japan is wary of china's new assertiveness and its military expansion in the south china sea so both sides have been increasing nationalistic ties have deteriorated and both had to swallow quite a bit of their pride in order to make this meeting possible how much this china's relationship with the united states weigh in here. well donald trump might not be the only reason for this meeting but he says sure is

a major reason. china is of course anxious about what is going to happen to international trade so it's trying to strengthen its ties with other countries and japan might also be a bit concerned because the u.s. has been a very reliable partner to for japan in the last fifty years and this might change with donald trump. what else is on the agenda. money is on the agenda business the two countries are very important trade partners for each other so there are quite a few deals being being closed in during this meeting. in beijing thank you. thank you. let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world german chancellor angela merkel has told the king of saudi arabia that he must provide quote rapid and transparent clarification about the death of saudi journalist jamal

khashoggi in a phone call to the king condemned his killing and said that germany and international partners are ready to act and the kingdom fails to provide full details. by land by sea and by air around fifty thousand military personnel from thirty one nato allies are engaging in the largest war games exercises in decades the various maneuvers will take place over the course of nearly three weeks stretching from the baltic sea to iceland critics say the games could increase tension between russia and its nordic neighbors. at least seventeen people mostly students and teachers have been killed in flash floods that hit near jordan's dead sea the group was on a school trip when their bus was washed away police managed to rescue four than thirty people they were moved to hospitals in the area. and earthquake on the greek island of zakim those has rattled western greece and damaged buildings that quake hit overnight and carried

a force of six point eight according to the european seismological center a few people have been treated for minor injuries. in ireland blasphemy is a serious crime that carries heavy penalties but like many of the country's religious traditions that could soon be about to change irish voters are heading to the polls today to elect a new president and they're also being asked to decide whether blasphemy laws should be removed from the constitution surprisingly the issue is uniting both catholics and atheists one man has been fighting the law for years. the christian dog is an evil maniac for giving babies bone cancer jews are over for the devil. it was good enough for jehovah blasphemous statements like peace could come at a high cost literally up to twenty five thousand euros to be precise michael nugent head of atheist alent is complaining in dublin shopping zone. irish voters about

a longstanding law that could soon be history if you say only thing that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by only religion. by doing so that's a criminal offense the native dubliner has been fighting the paragraph and islands constitution for years. he thinks it should have been removed a long time ago. it's a mediæval crime it's been added into our constitution in nineteen thirty seven it was a very catholic country. and it was. just ten years ago so it's a mess for any number of reasons and the sooner that we got rid of it the better. but since the law was implemented no one has ever been convicted of blasphemy even the catholic church called the law or data. an audience church in dublin sees one simple reason for that. there's no need for such

a. major god is not mocked. not everyone agrees. the islamic cultural center throwing out the blasphemy class will threaten the freedom of all people. we have a wide diversity of various communities residing in this kind of. reference in our legislation is not to defend religion but it is to defend respect among people of all face and people of no face still it looks likely that my community and his group will finally get their way recent polls show that just twenty percent of likely voters i favor of keeping island suppress free long. for more let's bring in d.-w. religious affairs analyst martin gak who joins us here in the studio good morning martin good morning auntie blasphemy laws this really sounds like

a thing of the past is this just an irish phenomenon no it's not actually it's not a thing of the past at all i mean it's something that you see across europe germany has article hundred sixty six in the constitution and in the criminal code then marcos blasphemy law italy has blasphemy laws are now the constitutional provision in debate. famously i mean over the last twenty four or forty eight hour words the european court of human rights has actually justified austria which had actually find a woman for political activists from the far right for insulting prophet muhammad under the provisions of the us really low and also to add to that we know that the british comedian stephen fry he gave and i received the interview a few years back it got him reported to police for blasphemy we actually have a clip of that interview so i'd like to play it and then get your reaction after supposes old true and you walk up to the pearly gates and you are confronted by god what with stephen fry say to him or or it was basically

that is the oldest. comes from children so it's not about who did you how do you create a world in which there is such misery that is not all filled. in the end police dropping the investigation into that statement there but martin i mean ultimately though who decides or who is to decide what is blasphemy is to actually very interesting because it's a very old philosophical argument would produce evil and this was considered to be actually an extremely offensive argument people were burned and were excommunicated for it and it took a lot of blood and a lot of political political movement structurally the possibility of saying things that religious sensibilities could find offensive the problem the moment that you actually into that to retirees what you're actually suggesting is that the state should be in the business of deciding what is religiously appropriate and religiously not or turn state authority to really just so authorities and this of

course something that most a monk receives would never find acceptable. we are in a very particular situation because the new arrival to discussions in europe which has actually very strong positions as to what gone see to have respect and lack of respect and what sort of the political force of that is so i think that these are only limits that our people are trying to balance those question in ireland is actually discussion that it's quite elated how do you think that the referendum today will end up is this now the beginning of the end for this blasphemy law it does seem you know what the polls are showing that the centrally yes removing this provision from the constitution is the one that is a head and in fact that would follow the trend of irish secularization of the last twenty years. even if that case i think the question about blasphemy in the public sphere and as to whether europe us hall will take the position that we're not allowed to say things that insult people it's really just sensibilities it's very much with us and it's very much here to state i want to talk

a little bit more about it and i think that you alluded to we mentioned it in the piece the catholic church in ireland is not a fan of the law but we have the islamic community by and large generally speaking a fan of it very many you make of that well i mean this is actually something that has been brewing for. many years actually gold states were very much involved in the made know it's two thousand and three two thousand and four and trying to convince european governments of actually boasting enforcing blasphemy laws particularly to protect muslim religious sense really does the serious stuff we cannot have a double standard structure for adjudicating the way in which we permit ourselves to talk in public you for going to be allowed to say things about the christian god then we should also be allowed to talk about other theological disposition religious affairs correspondent martin ahead of the thank you so much. and finally now before we go some workers in london were in for a bit of a surprise on thursday when they man scaling walls outside their offices one of the

tallest buildings in a london and along he climbed to the top of the two hundred thirty meter high skyscraper using just chalk and power after he reached the top of the climber known as the french spiderman was promptly arrested by police for creating a public nuisance. certainly not the first time that he has done that and with that you're up to date now on news i'm sarah kelly in berlin big you so much for watching have a great day. when we were. when do we want to know do you perceive americans. will experience hardship listen.