time of year of just such the unknown. and fight for the truth. time to overcome boundaries and connection. it's time for. the ws coming up ahead. minds. of the. the heart of paris went up in flames today as the entire world watched just after seven pm local time the world famous notre dame cathedral disappeared in huge plumes of smoke as flames ravaged the medieval catholic church there is massive damage the spire year has completely collapsed firefighters will stay until the morning at least tonight this symbol to the world of the city of lights it shines no more. berlin this is the day.

it. is.

also coming up tonight the unseen palestinians that's how would may have seemed in the israeli election last week tonight eyes wide open a d.-w. news report on the plight of palestinian refugees will be about and i'm a grown up a five and i can handle this one but i was worried for my children and all night i would carry them from one room to the other so that the rain would not fall on their heads. i had to put buckets all over the house i had no other solution and. slid to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with what paris and the whole world lost today a massive fire gutted notre dame cathedral this evening the catholic church this medieval monument to french gothic architecture has been a fundamental part of paris's identity of the parisian soul for almost

a millennium it took flames about an hour to turn its wooden frame and its torrent spire recognize the world over into small embers and ashes. one eyewitness who saw the blaze consumed notre dame was journalist not he upon telt she's a correspondent with the german daily site and i spoke to her earlier and i asked her what she could see. i am now spending in front of. their riches. and they did walk some of them away where people are kneeling in front of the church and praying. to commemorate what is going on just ten minutes away from here and i was spending on paul semi shen which is just off of itself not the church one it was burning. while the flames were actually still so big that you could just see them. and the back for most beautiful blue sky because it's

a beautiful spring evening here can you can you still see flames now no no no i can't. that doesn't mean that it's not burning anymore but the flames i think for like fifteen minutes really. required huge so that in a way it was like a dystopian firework where there was this mass of people the constant me reacted with my woes and oh my god. to what they were seeing and that to me the smoke was changing all kinds of colors it was dark yellow was our class like a speech feature on a smart phone were were you standing near the cathedral not when people began realizing that the church was on fire they had already realized when i was there. but were pointing doing that where they just

were they standing there with a congregating or were they trying to get away from the cathedral well no i think it was more this everybody was in shock and love reading i think all of us should have moved away from the cathedral because they were. burning pieces falling down tiny ones but still because the wind was coming our way but people were not moving because i think everyone was in shock and few could also see i mean that when you become phenomenon of of our days when you can you could see the flames like ten times because they were in all the screens around you everybody was filming what was going on but you also had. quite a few people crying that to me as i think it was partly tourists who were in shock and worried about their children but also. sprach people who were just really hurt by what they were seeing ok not yet pantelis a correspondent in france with the german newspaper the zoo deutch

a side to not and we appreciate you sharing your insights and what you're seeing right now it's very important thank you thank you. when john lawrence that is a journalist in paris who has been following events in the french capital i spoke to him earlier and he gave us this update on the blaze the. oath this cathedral has collapsed the spawn in the center of the. roof has collapsed thirty get this cathedral that took two hundred years to build is going up in flames this evening this is this cathedral which is built in eleven sixty three percent raise it was the highest building in paris towered over the other constructions of the city it was the only building the in c. as you approach paris so not as people approach paris and there are new sways in

the trains in buses in their cars what they will see flames and this great tearing . columns of white and yellow smoke rising over and from one of the coming very fast the ruins of this great cathedral have you been able to confirm john if there were people inside of there been any injuries. there have been injuries on the the head of police mr nunez a presenter they had no injuries and this i think i wanted to look at when silence of the exchange watches where he personally. and. the fine is supposed to have broken out ten to seven this evening is exactly shockley's after the cathedral door was closed the last mass took place in half past six i think sorry six o'clock and i think the the faithful will be out of

the jewels just shortly before closing time the last tour is really not it was closed shooting for closing time so if you believe anyone there when the fire broke out you know that is definitely good news in in this tragedy what about any speculation that you've heard about what could have caused this fire we know that extensive renovation work had begun. that's right the extraordinary things about. this this tragedy as you rightly cool it is that some sixty three metre high cost shoes were helicoptered off of this roof collapse a night just to three days ago when stations who don't join regional versus out west front for restoration they were there just take take away like that so they

really think things are safer there for the reason are quite miraculous fashion in fact. john if you could stay a gut my colleague david levitz here from our culture desk. you know what is going through your mind i mean this is a huge loss this is a nightmare brant this is one of those events happens a few times in your life where you just wish this was not true anyone who has ever been to paris will be watching this in total shock this is the most visited site in paris paris being one of the most visited cities in the world and no structure really says paris or france or even europe in the quite the same way that notre dame cathedral does anyone who has been to paris will remember the first time that they saw this building you know paris is it's a very it's

a pretty small city it's got a pretty low profile and you get to the salmon river and suddenly you are greeted by notre dame cathedral and this is a building that until now has taken people's breath away for seven and a half centuries. we understand that. he is at the scene right now german she is ugly american she has called nutra dame a symbol of european culture i mean absolutely this talk about its significance i mean identity yes significance is in estimable inestimable and any last year and it looks like we're looking at significant loss is going to be a huge blow to european culture the history of not saddam is totally intertwined with french history it is on this tiny island at the heart of the city this is the heart of the city that used to say the islands known as the isle of the city this

is the birthplace of the french civilization it's the birthplace of french language this tiny island and it's not a coincidence that that is where the monarchy wanted to build not to put them in the twelfth century when they started building it to position paris as the unquestionable capital of france and that is exactly what this building did so it's not just a building it has huge cultural significance now from an architectural standpoint this is one of the most distinctive and finest works of architecture in the world particularly gothic architecture and it has been for seven and a half centuries the central spire that's collapsed by the way it was part of the nineteenth century renovation of the cathedral but france has been investing in recent years into sites like no it's going to attract more tourists they know this is actually what attracts the tourists. not least of which because this building was the place that hugo wrote his novel the hunchback of notre dame about i mean

it's known to children who have seen the disney movie one of the most famous lights in the world. you know. it is it is so i dissaving restore notre dame but. i mean what we're seeing right now it looks devastated and we have reported before that the cathedral needed the mits renovations and it had not taken place so renovations have been you know going on for centuries actually if you like. you know this this statement of unesco's that they are standing by france this is obviously if there's any hope to be had at this time it's that unesco and the french government are already thinking ahead they're already thinking how are they going to rebuild. when this is over and like i said if there is any source of hope here it is that this building has seen

a lot of damage before the huguenots ransacked it centuries ago it was desecrated in the french revolution and there has always been this will to rebuild. so as christians particularly catholics have just celebrated palm sunday they're coming up on easter the celebration of redemption of rebirth perhaps there will be a glimmer of hope right now obviously we're looking at absolute devastation you know. that was david ludwig from used culture desk speaking with me earlier. or here in germany volkswagens diesel gate scandal it is a criminal investigation that has reached the very top of the karmic today german prosecutors charge former c.e.o. of intercourse with fraud he is one of five people suspected of approving software which was programmed to lie about emissions the software was deployed in eleven

million vehicles with record has denied early know each of the cheap. prosecutors are convinced the former folks modern c.e.o. knew about the exhaust emissions cheating and hid it from the public team of former chairman of the board dr venter cologne is in fact accused of a particularly serious case of fraud a violation of the law against unfair competition and breach of trust. if the charges a proven winterkorn could easily land in jail and he's the very man credited with turning folks wagner into the world's top car maker but the news the company had been employing devices to give low pollution readings during exhaust testing instantly hammered the company's share price and its reputation you can surely give me would like to make a formal apology to our customers the authorities and to the general public for this misconduct please believe me we will do everything necessary to reverse the

damage and we will do everything necessary to win back your trust step by step hoop for us would like to give in. winterkorn had to step down despite claiming he knew nothing about the scandal but prosecutors say he already knew about it in main twenty fourteen and did nothing to stop it also failing to report it to the authorities and customers when to cons of thora he was feared by staff who were under pressure to make the car make of the global leader managers and technicians were afraid to challenge him and all the while folks are going to continue to claim that it's diesel technology was especially clean and environmentally friendly. kristoff. business so what's going to happen to mr. behind bars for a long time that if the court. should go ahead with a case against him and the other four executor.