today's tracks take the experience to a better level park a sense to him talk composer who will soon. be getting his music it's been too good. for his friends few opens doors. sounds good. oh sure that's so much more than just background music video game music starts february twenty fifth on d w. this is d w news asia coming up on the program the saudi crown prince bearing gifts in pakistan amid criticism from the west installment gets a royal welcome in islamabad is this a new pivot to asia for the kingdom. allegations of censorship at the berlin film festival chinese director john you know pulls his film and in a d.-w.

exclusive i way way says his work was blocked from selection are they being targeted by beijing censors. and a year after hosting the winter olympics chang is practically a ghost town what happens to all the empty venues in the games on. i'm melissa chan thank you for joining the program it's good to have you with us saudi arabia has pledged to invest twenty billion dollars in cash hungry pakistan it's a boost for islam a body which faces a mounting debt crisis and tensions with neighboring india and it's a p.r. boon for saudi arabia as well after international criticism over the killing of u.s. based saudi journalist jamal khashoggi last year. pakistan needs

money and saudi arabia needs friends to that end saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon began his trip to asia on sunday night touching down to a red carpet welcome from pakistan's prime minister imran khan. the saudi royal review the military before moving on to cannes residents to confirm the final details of seven separate agreements and memorandums of understanding worth twenty billion dollars. but also because. the french. needed friends. has always been a friend in need which is why so much the two day visit to pakistan comes amid high tensions in the region india and saudi arabia's arch rival iran both

bordering pakistan have accused islamabad of backing militant groups which have carried out bloody suicide attacks on their soil in recent days. mohammed bin solomons next stop is pakistan's neighbor india his visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries over the disputed region of kashmir so how fine a diplomatic line is it for the prince to walk i put that question to assad has seen a journalist based in islamabad. i think that's a particularly good question and right now it's unclear as to how this is going to play out given the timing of the visit and how it's happened right literally a day after the pull warm attack which has led to obviously an increased heightening of tensions between india and pakistan currently tensions in the middle c. are extremely high and there is discussion on the indian side of even some sort of military action against pakistan who they blame for allowing such an attack to happen now obviously the crown prince has spent the last two days or is currently still in islamabad and we have heard from pakistani authorities as well their

version of events and i'm sure that they will be pushing him to try and convey that to the indian side there is obviously very limited contact right now between pakistan and india diplomatically india has called off talks since twenty twelve and has stuck to the line that it will not allow any kind of to take place so i think pakistan will be hoping that the crown prince will act perhaps as a go between giving pakistan's version of events but as you say it's a fine line because in india as well he'll be hoping to garner a great deal of goodwill and to sign some deals there as well and as well as to to really diversify saudi arabia's in egypt in that country and so they want to be able to publicly message he can't really sell that message if he's seen as a pakistani messenger. so really it is a fine line absolutely. the berlin international film festival wrapped up this weekend but not without some controversy chinese filmmaker john you may know him from films such as hero and he also produced the opening and closing ceremonies at

the two thousand and eight beijing olympics well he withdrew his film one seconds from the event and according to reports it had to do with chinese censors the film is set during china's brutal cultural revolution period back in two thousand and seventeen beijing passed new laws regulating its film industry stating that movies must quote serve the people and socialism it also said that any film submitted to an overseas film festival would require official approval. chinese artist ai wei wei also says he's been targeted by beijing's film censors it relates to the city's of love film anthology he was invited to direct one of the episodes in the new berlin i love you but he found out that his contribution was cut this is part of his statement quote it was inferior to find our involvement had been raised the reason we were given for the episodes removal was that my political status had made it difficult for the production team to secure further funding i wait spoke to d.w.

about these allegations and in exclusive also told us about why the film was not considered for the berlin film festival he hardly needs an introduction i way way is one of china's most well known contemporary artists i want to start straight away by asking you about censorship in china for creatives has the situation gotten worse it sounds like you've got recent news. i think of the situation getting worse but there's a policy it's not always the same not proposes to censor every art or literature or feeling and make sure there's not one not. goal different from park is slowing. and in terms of your own situation berlin i love you is any film that you have been involved with it sounds like you've hit some problems there tell me more yes i recently i learned there's this film i love you

has vitro my opposite i'm the first one directory involved and i've been reminded to do this film i directed the film when i was seeing tyler. under a soft detention i did it through facebook actually first time my facebook but my son also played a role in the field so it's not a film has been using. promoting for the film bowling i love you but or recently i found out. my name is not on the list so i i asked the producer and director they give me the answer scripts of surprise and they told me this i mean this film well in film first of all then the first so tell me if i were always seen there as a film cannot be accepted also they told me because there you malva to make.

shanghai i love you under the producer you also sink to put my absolutely in their film want to damage their possibilities can we talk a little bit about china's impact on artists because this is happening in berlin right it's not happening domestically in china anymore i think is very important point try and i have been has become much more powerful in the globally play so a major role in politics and economics but at same time trying to start promoting its so-called soft power means china has being very effective really. using your own ideology to do. who to apply west university's scientific law lap to release under now even you can clearly see in the. entertainment. in this kind.

stream so what happens in the pop industry of festivals i think they are under trying use an inference under censorship is and i think the west call ops this time is censorship in the sense ok last question which is what is the way forward in terms of your role that was cut your film that was cut in berlin i love you and then on a grander scale what is the way forward for chinese creatives who want to be free who want to freely express themselves i think it's a very strong message under by the very. dark one because the young people were never even imagine the compasses come the hard side censorship you for you are a filmmaker it's very hard for you to get permission to film in china and you film if someone like drawing in more countries in zoos can problem or someone like me can be. in this kind of dramatic situation so some come other young artist.

so trying would not just lost their ability for free for expression but to the laws whole generations imagination courage and passion for art way way it's very good to see you after all these years thank you. d w has reviewed a document which appears to support i story in addition we reached out to the berlin film festival and the producers of berlin i love you the festival told us it has no comment on movies that do not make it selection to be do stars have confirmed eyes version of events saying they are heartbroken and had no choice. turning to south korea now and is this a surprise it seems as if it happens every time just one year after the winter olympics and kyung chang many of the venue stand empty the hope was to turn the resort into a major skiing destination instead it's become

a winter of discontent. sue who wrong in buying to be the cute mascots are still here so to the scenic mountain side in artificial snow everything's the same in pyongyang what's new are the disappointments concerns with tourism infrastructure and finance for real estate agent show business has plummeted he's lost three million europe's. who. are expectations were high there were a lot of positive developments for the olympic games but in the end best is nothing here that attracts tourism but people whom the signal for the winter olympics were a flash in the pan seoul thought the market would be booming after the event so he bought some land within no one came the result too many hotels falling prices in fire sales the property is now barren again south korea's government gambled on the

future to spending eight hundred million dollars on facilities the bobsled in lieu drugs aren't being used nor the downhill skiing slope well the high speed rail way station attracts hardly any passengers local governor choice moonstone blames the government in seoul but he also blames himself. for the olympic games you need a concrete plan about what will happen to the facilities after the games it didn't work out for us we focus too much on the implementation is beyond chang applied for the games three times so they had enough time but there's no plan for this speed skating rink or the hockey center south korea doesn't even have a pro hockey league in taxpayers are paying eighty thousand euros a month for the electricity bills. but i'm going to hope all the sports facilities will continue to operate and that many people can use them if that happens then i'd

be happy thing as the person unshod shia. but even keeping the lights on proved difficult. claims that all the apartments have been sold in pyongyang flatter to deceive there's not a single light in sight only darkness. there's more online on our website www dot com ford slash asia and don't forget to check out the daily news on facebook too that's it for now for you next time goodbye. first clinging listen to the door as grand as arrives. join your reckoning on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary during

an orangutan returns home on t w don't come to tanks. we make up over three quarters of our food that hundred sixty five we are the seven seven percent. they want to shape the continent's future to. be part of enjoying africa youngsters testing share their stories their dreams and their challenges. to the seventy seven percent. platform for africa. the. hope is fading fast for finding survivors of last week's mining disaster in zimbabwe flubbing trapped about seventy minus five only eight were rescued alive and the incident has drawn attention on the risks of illegal mining. a call for africa made in africa how can the us mobius motos wants to give the toyota's a v.w.

service world a run for their money. on reliable energy supplies a ban on many businesses and for. but even countries like germany don't have it all sorted out what can be learned from mistakes made here. this is business africa here in the. us rescue operations continue in zimbabwe where more than two dozen bodies have been recovered after a dam burst and flooded to abandon gold months last week many feared dead but eight survivors were rescued the incident which occurred west of harare throws a harsh light on the dangerous conditions workers face in the country's illegal mines. it is the fear of every family with a miner losing a loved one just because they were trying to put food on the table. that we struggled to get the bodies into the body bags and we had to do it because these

our relatives and workmates. twenty four bodies were retrieved from two disused gold mines by sunday eight men were poor.