want to become a citizen. in so migrants your platform for reliable information. this is d. w. news live from berlin a decades long rivalry looks set to shake sunday's general election and. security is ramping up after ahead of the vote after a campaign marred by violence and intimidation we'll look at the powerful women who have long held sway over bangladeshi politics also coming up syrian and chargeback

forces close in on a key kurdish held town in northern syria damascus says the kurdish forces were busted the regime supports the breakdown the situation. and egypt says its security forces have killed forty suspected terrorists and rates one day after a deadly attack near the giza pyramids. i'm carl kasell and welcome to the program. final campaigning has wrapped up in bangladesh as the country prepares for elections on sunday one hundred four million voters in the predominantly muslim country are eligible to cast their ballots a minister shake a scene up is seeking her third consecutive term in office and her fourth overall tensions are running high in the country the opposition says that thousands of their supporters have been arrested by authorities at least ten people have been killed and hundreds injured in election eyelets collated c.-a

a former prime minister and a leader of the main opposition of bangladesh nationalist party has been barred from running she's serving prison time for corruption a move the opposition says is politically motivated opinion polls put a scene up on course for a resoundingly win on sunday but the two women have been locked in a decades long fight for control of bangladesh. even if you can find a few posters of a kind it is hanging across dhaka she won't win this election against prime minister sheikh hasina zia the leader of the english conservative nationalist party or b.n.p. is in prison on corruption charges her supporters remain optimistic. this is so people sentiments is growing day by day in favor of the sentiment is clear. you will lose. and who support in favor of the fact that.

during the campaign b.n.p. supporters were repeatedly violently mistreated thousands of them were arrested. by supporters of the b.n.p. and other opposition groups are not safe in their homes police are arresting them this isn't an election this is a process of removing voters. the prime minister however doesn't agree with the opposition that the holidays yeah they only want to sabotage the elections. the power struggle between shake hasina and hunted as he has lasted for decades it all began with a coup against shaikh has seen his father and in seventy one shaikh became the first president of bangladesh he tried to introduce a secular democracy but many people in the country were opposed in a military coup in one thousand nine hundred five he was killed along with much of his family sheikh hasina and her sister were the only survivors. that it is

a largely benefited from the coup her husband. came to power in one thousand nine hundred seventy seven he founded the nationalist party and began a re islamisation of the country but he too was assassinated shortly after that. his widow took over leadership of the nationalist party in one thousand nine hundred one i did as he became the country's first female prime minister. but in one thousand nine hundred six she was voted out of office and replaced by sheikh hasina. since then both camps have been in a battle for supremacy one party takes office the other makes accusations of corruption or fraud or they call for an election boycott with their leader and it is even now in prison it only seems to make the nationalist more determined this time they hope to show that even without their party chairwoman they can win a majority in parliament of the six thousand polling centers in dakar and there are

at least forty thousand polling centers all over the country now let me take you through some numbers that are crucial to this election this particular center isn't easy am sent out the electronic voting machine will be use here this is the first time that in bangladesh national elections that even am is being used now why is this important that even allows for results to come out the moment polling closes and this is an exercise which i also have to explain the numbers because of how impressive it is in this country now one hundred four million people are going to go to the ward to morrow morning at eight am one thing closes down at four pm after the space of time the theme evening results are going to start rolling in e.v.a.'s and those are going to make this easier however it's also worth noting that in the three hundred seats across the country only six are trying even yet results like

spectators all in by the end of the night in bangladesh now also worth noting right now is that to make sure that this election goes off smoothly that of course concerns about the free and furniture of the election and the concerns about violence already internet services on the more bio have been shut down since three thirty pm this afternoon we do not know if there will be continued and the army has been deployed security forces have been deployed across the country however people house welcome to wasn't given me and hopeful that to morrow not only will there be a free and fair election the next government would continue taking the country on a standard of development and also support free and fair speech. that was. j's wall now to some of the other stories making news around the world a two year old yemeni boy has died just eleven days after his mother was granted permission to travel to the u.s. to see him the yemeni woman had sued the trumpet ministration for

a travel visa to see her ailing child yemen is among six countries subject to president trump's travel ban. thousands of joined demonstrations across the sudanese capital hard to him calling for president omar al bashir to step down protests broke out in sudan earlier this month first against bread and fuel prices since then demonstrators have begun directing their anger at president bashir. and yellow vest protesters are turning out in paris and elsewhere in france even as momentum for their movement appears to be waning scattered clashes broke out in western paris with riot police firing tear gas to demonstrators. is a turkish military assault on kurdish forces on the horizon a turkish t.v. station as broadcast images of what it says is a convoy of turkish military vehicles heading to the border with syria views the kurdish military in northern syria as terrorists and this thread military action kurdish forces have been left vulnerable after that shock announcement that their

ally the united states will withdraw all its troops from syria and they've requested help the syrian government has now sent troops to the flashpoint town of fun beach setting the scene for a potential shutdown. joining me now in studio is daniel galaad he's the editor in chief of zenith magazine which focuses on middle eastern affairs so if syrian forces are indeed in beach could this be a game changer in the civil war. no i don't think so i don't think it's going to be a game changer i think this has been much more of a symbolic move and we're seeing actually a repetition of the scenario of the second turkish military offensive about a year ago to the capital of free and where the kurdish forces had called for help from the syrian regime and the syrian regime symbolically moved incentives and the militias put the syrian national flag and said now we're in control of. somehow

they could also be a face saving solution for the turks because turkey now can buy time and doesn't have to move and as promised. what about the kurds so that the kurds have now asked syrian troops to move into that city what do they want why ask for those troops well. kurdish forces have paid dearly when they conquered. a couple of years ago from the so-called islamic state militias and this was about three hundred people so this was a highly symbolic victory for them and since then members has been contested area the. location because from the if you if you can you can enter both. areas that are still held by the force of forces in the east very close to the shores of the euphrates river and therefore it's a strategic place and it's very important to keep this and it's also very important for the turkish forces of course to take it if they want to defeat the wipe e.g.

the kurdish militias but if the syrian regime says we know officially in control of it then this is at least a political victory because a military offensive in this area would be very costly for them because i don't think the cause is going to. if this away easy as an add on you mentioned him he's been sending his own forces to the border what do you think i mean you mentioned this before about how likely is a turkish attack it's been announced several times not specifically among among bush we have french troops in the area we also have russian troops in the area we have the syrian regime so there's itself has not been announced by the by the by the turkish president specifically but an intervention in the eastern part the northeastern part of syria where you have a lot of oil and gas resources and a lot of turkish kurdish troops or control of this area this has been of course a strategical for turkey and what i think they're going to do is they're going to

try to provoke an uprising of arab tribes against the kurdish forces there that are very discontent with the situation there with the control of the kurds and they are trying to i think more an end in direct approach but of course they could continue cross border operations aerial operations in this area but i don't think i'm not sure if we will see a heavy my full fledged military offense in this area now really about twenty seconds where does this leave us now. i was not surprised by the withdrawal of the u.s. troops to be honest and i think let's hope that the u.s. have talked to the turks about it and to the russians about it but i think america has taken itself deliberately out of the game at the moment it could continue aerial attacks or whatever to be in the game militarily but you can say politically they have withdrawn completely and deliberately so. thank you very much for being with us thank you. meanwhile heavy rainfall in northern syria has caused widespread flooding and has hampered relief operations on the turkish border aid agencies say

tents and relief supplies in several refugee camps in the province have been swept away by the floods food stocks and drinking water have also been affected refugees fleeing the war have been waiting for days or systems. egypt authorities say security forces have killed forty suspected terrorists following a deadly attack on a tourist bus near the giza pyramids this a day after the roadside bomb killed three vietnamese tourists and their local guide so far there has been no claim of responsibility ahead of new year's celebrations and next month orthodox christmas security forces remain on high alert for further attacks. this is egypt's response forty dead suspects these pictures are from the interior ministry suspected militants killed by security forces although we have no way to verify the ministry statement it did not even explicitly link the suspects to friday's bombing but it called them terrorist

elements and said they were planning a series of attacks. the ministry said security forces killed thirty suspects in the tourism hot spot where the roadside bomb was planted another ten it said were killed in north sinai the volatile province where egypt is fighting an islamist insurgency the bombing killed three vietnamese travelers and their egyptian guide and left at least ten others injured the attack famed pyramids is another blow to egypt's tourism industry which had only just started to recover from the unrest following the country's twenty eleven uprising. the prime minister said all thora teams would try to contain the impact but admitted there would always be a risk. that. sometimes attacks such as this one can occur. it may even happen again in the future. and there isn't a country in the world we can say is one hundred percent safe.

the attack doesn't seem to have hurt these tourists self while british travel group thomas cook day trips to cairo others decided the risk was worth it. they can make a choice unlike the locals who called us home. and a reminder of the top story that we're following for you right now security has been stepped up in bangladesh ahead of sunday's general election the government's decision to block mobile internet access is adding to concerns about whether the boat will be free and fair. and turkish t.v. has broadcast footage of what's believed to be a convoy of military vehicles heading toward the border with syria turkey has threatened military action against kurdish militias which bunker views as terrorists syria's kurds of requested protection from damascus now that their u.s. allies are rolling out. you're watching news from berlin more coming at the top of

the hour and don't forget you get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site that's dot com let's watch. how about taking a few grams you could even take a chance on long. term. don't expect a happy ending. to the churches last. every journey begins with the first step and every language the first word in the.