you. know this is due to reviews live from berlin a call for help saudi women in germany who say they fled abuse at home claimed they're still not safe so the receiving asylum in germany alleges they're still being threatened by their families and they claim the country's embassy in berlin is complicit also coming up a stark warning vladimir putin takes a combative tone with the west in his annual state of the nation speech but he also promises russians improve living conditions as polls show a fall in popularity for his longtime president.

well our thank you so much for your company everyone. now some of you may remember the case of the saudi teenager who barricaded herself in an airport hotel room last month to escape her family were off model car normally it was also met lee given asylum in canada but she's not the only woman who has fled a firm this deeply conservative country a number of saudi women have come to germany to seek asylum but they claim they're being threatened by their families and they allege that the saudi embassy here is helping their relatives. they fled from saudi arabia to germany here they hope for safety and freedom but these women still live under threat from their families.

the had to i thought i was safe that the psychological warfare of the violence and oppression would be over but i still feel like they could get me. the women offer to talk to us only on condition of anonymity we have changed their names and voices . l. say shortly after arriving in germany they received threatening messages from their families. before i knew my family knew i was in germany in one city all of that info so they're threatened me with my location can animate or not i am sure that through their connections with the saudi embassy and through the saudi embassies connections and it's spies that are everywhere they can get information but i do not know the kind of information and what they know exactly in my heart of no way you talk to me a ten minute mark to loose. some activist claim that the cases of murder and russia l. are part of a wider pattern. people are followed we

have people breaking into apartments and the families back home always know exactly what is happening these patterns are repeating themselves. we just ask ourselves does every family do this individual pay someone here in germany. that would take a huge effort or could someone else be behind us on the suspicion is of course that maybe the saudi embassy is the one starting all this. we spoke to several parties dealing with saudis seeking asylum abroad they suggested that the saudi embassy could be directly or indirectly involved trying to get refugees to return we reached out multiple times to the embassy in berlin efforts to contact them over the phone and via e-mail came to nothing. but still the question why would saudi authorities help families trace women who flee abroad. undecided to waive the constitution its citizens government their mana key the king their absolute

obedience in return they tell the men that they can have complete control over their women so when a saudi woman needs have found this out your coaches will go out of their way to ensure that she's returned because not doing so means that people themselves may start to question why their own beauty and to the king and why they don't have their own. say turning back is impossible they fear they might be tortured even killed. are joining me now from the jordanian capital amman is out of google a mideast researcher with human rights watch a very warm welcome mr a couple of weeks ago there was the case of the saudi teenager who were barricaded herself in the airport hotel room last month just gave her family she's now in canada and now this case of a number of saudi women who have come to germany to seek asylum i'm wondering what

has happened what has prompted these events. well look i think it's sort of a combination of a couple of factors number one is the long term systematic discrimination that saudi arabia has practiced with regards to its female population and the fact that women in saudi arabia aren't allowed to make their own decisions in many areas of life. and they also have very few places to turn to when they when they face issues regarding abuse so that combined with modern technology and the fact that women in saudi arabia can now connect with the outside world and actually get in touch with networks of people who can help them that's caused a dramatic increase in the in the number of cases we hear about of saudi women trying to flee abroad to save their countries now the saudi women who spoke to didn't use alleged that the saudi embassy in berlin is complicit with their families families incidentally from which they fled the set so credible is that in

character. certainly i can't comment on the germany cases because it's not an issue i've researched specifically however i mean it does absolutely fit a pattern something we've seen repeatedly over the years whereby families do collude with the saudi authorities the foreign ministry authorities usually or people working out of the embassy to try to get people back to to send messages or to even on some on some occasions put pressure on a third country government to return to a person forcibly without allowing them to make an asylum claim you've seen that pattern unfortunately repeat itself over a number of countries and over a number of cases now in conclusion i'm wondering if you can a lightness about what's happening in saudi because there are these dueling narratives coming from the kingdom on the one hand women are set to be experiencing more freedom the ban on women drivers has been lifted on the other hand there is a string of women scaping pleading for help from the international community so

which this true. well the truth of the matter is saudi arabia has had a narrative they've employed far far before and the s really stretching back maybe up to ten years about how it's reforming for the positive in terms of women's rights and it has tried to generate a considerable amount of p.r. value and reputation. improvement over that specific talking point however unfortunately saudi arabia has not fixed many of the areas in which women faces dramatic discrimination and guardianship system remains intact women are still required to get a male relatives approval to do many things such as leave the country get a passport get married and so on and so forth and so you know frankly they haven't touched any of the major areas discrimination so it's not it's not altogether surprising that saudi women in some cases try to flee and i think that the fact

that women are fleeing and trying to go abroad really shows how far saudi arabia still has to go on on its women's rights record adam google for human rights watch in amman jordan thank you thank you. russian president vladimir putin has made a thinly veiled threat directed at the united states in a state of the nation address aimed at boosting his falling approval ratings while putin warned washington against supporting any new missiles in your following the u.s. withdrawal from the i.n.f. treaty saying moscow would consider it a quote serious threats. a sharp warning to the u.s. and its allies from russian president vladimir putin after washington announced it was withdrawing from a landmark arms control pact earlier this month. to retaliate if the u.s. places new intermediate range missiles in europe. so i'm saying this clearly and openly russia will be forced to create and deploy

a new types of weapons that could be used not only against the territories were a direct threat to us comes from but also against the territories or decision making centers directing the use of missile systems threatening us are located. making his state of the nation address putin boasted of state of the art weapon systems that he got specific about russia's deterrence capabilities. i'd like to tell you about the zircon hypersonic missile which can travel at about nine times the speed of sound and has a range of more than a thousand kilometers it's capable of engaging targets both at sea and on land it's designed to be launched from naval carriers and surface ships and submarines. fueling putin's rhetoric is the u.s. to citizen to withdraw from the i.m.f. treaty the united states says that move was prompted by russia's plans to deploy

this missile nato says its range exceeds that allowed by the pact. moscow has rejected those accusations it says washington is in violation of the agreement by deploying tomahawk cruise. in poland and romania. despite the tough warning to the u.s. putin also claim that russia still wants friendly relations with washington nato has condemned putin's threats as unacceptable and renewed its calls for moscow to comply with the i know treaty a pact now on the verge of crumbling. all right want to talk now about some of the other stories making news around the world. saudi arabia's crown prince has held talks in delhi with indian leaders following his visit to pakistan saudi officials say mom had been so mom hopes to play a diplomatic role in deescalating the situation between pakistan and india tensions have flared after last week's attack in indian administered kashmir. in morocco

police have clashed with teachers protesting for higher wages and promotion opportunities believes the teachers would be taunts when they try to walk towards the royal palace in the capital who bought and multiple injuries have been reported . in britain three lawmakers have quit the conservative party in protest of what they call the government's disastrous handling of regs that they are joining a new independent group in parliament the defections are a major blow to prime minister theresa may and may hurt her chances of securing backing from parliament for the withdrawal deal with the european union. swiss bank u.b.s. has been fined a record three point seven billion euros by a french court for helping wealthy clients evade taxes prosecutors say the bank helped clients conceal assets in switzerland from french tax authorities several of

the banks the top executives also received fines for their involvement. to the floor ozen expanse of the antartica dow where germany's southern most workplace is celebrating its tenth birthday today its part of the world where temperatures can drop to minus fifty degrees celsius and there's no sun for three months of the year but here in that research station that resembles a spaceship on stilts one cook a doctor plus several engineers and technicians live and. worked together running experiments on the continents. into the great white yonder antarctica the world's biggest expanse of ice and the seventh continent in places the ice is four kilometers thick more than two dozen countries are conducting research here at about eighty research stations. germany's noir meyer's three is

one of them the antarctic offers a unique environment the world's greatest quantity of fresh waters here frozen solid neumeier three sits atop sixteen hydraulic stilts they keep it from sinking into the snow to be crushed like some of its forerunners. gear outside the temperatures minus fifty degrees celsius that doesn't stop the researchers though they measure the sounds of the antarctic ocean and movements in the earth using seismometers. they also collect data on the atmosphere including information on gases that escape into it and contribute to climate change and they observe the weather the whole year round. but noir threes days are numbered the ice on which it sits is sliding towards the ocean but until it heads out to sea the station will keep on delving into the secrets of

the ice. to the champions league knockout stages then knew we were all hoping for a dramatic clash between two great clubs liverpool and bar and we'll make it was liverpool hosting byron in the first of a two leg match up but in the end the sense was the winner. liverpool pressured by in munich from the get go it paid off the english side we're creating them more and the better off their chances but liverpool's dominant display lacked the killer attach sat your money with perhaps the best chance of the game but he couldn't quite get his footing right by unabsorbed on the pressure adopting a more defensive approach it was effective to have a pool where unable to break down by anstey fans with both sides shouting each other down this one ended in a goal this draw but if the first leg is anything to go by it certainly sets up an

exciting return leg in munich. you're watching these arenas coming up soon and it'll be news africa soccer scouts hands for the best players in nigeria and if we lose africa meets a young footballer in lagos who is hungry for success. all right thank you so much for spending time with we have before the business news africa is up next i'll see you tomorrow. i'm secure in the volume. that's hard and in the end this is a me you're not allowed to steal and we will send you back. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers with violence of being.